The Ford Festiva the history and why it’s not really a Ford
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 พ.ค. 2024
- The Ford Festiva is a Ford product that isn’t actually a Ford. Many believe this car was the successor to the early Fiesta. Both cars have a name with Spanish origin, both were small city style cars, Two doors and a hatch, both were cheap to buy and use however that’s where the similarities end. The Fiesta was designed and built by Ford of Europe for sale in Europe and later exported to America. The Ford Festiva is a car that was designed by Mazda and built by Kia for Ford. There are no actual Ford parts on the car anywhere excluding the Ford badges. Today we look at this car and how it became more important to Kia than it was to Ford.
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This was a great entry level car. It had room and although not very powerful, gas mileage was good. Back in these days Ford was firing on all cylinders. From entry level to premium cars and sport coupes to trucks and vans - GM was ok … but Ford was dialed in.
Exactly. Back in the day when ‘enthusiasts’ actually had a variety of vehicles to choose from-rather than just repetitive SUVs.
I owned several of these when I was younger. I absolutely love these cars. It's 12" wheels and all! It was comfortable, had lots of storage, and I drove all over the country in these cars. 10 gallon gas tank and I'd get 400 to 450 miles out of the tank. Awesome cheap little cars!
Thanks for sharing!
I had a 93 Festiva it was a great little car. I put 150,000 on it I gave it to a friend and he put another 165,000 on it and it's still going.
That is awesome! Thanks for sharing!
I had a Festiva for years. I’m 6’ tall and just under 400lbs. It was the easiest car to enter and exit I’ve ever owned. I used it for delivering for 5 years. This was an amazing car, despite its size. Kind of miss it.
That's awesome! Thanks for sharing!
That's amazing! I was a payroll courier for almost a yr, and used 3 different cars while at that job: an '02 Camry Le, a '95 Accord Ex with a fully modified suspension(incl. brakes, tires, 5lug conversion, coilovers, traction bar, etc), and an '05 Sentra 1.8S. The sentra made my job so much easier not only b/c it was the smallest, & most narrow of the 3 I owned at the time, and since my delivery route had a lot of city(stop & go) driving, the sentra was actually the best suited for that kind of driving b/c the max torque came in so low in the rev range: 2500RPM. And what made it even better was after each gear change, the needle on the tacho would always land on 2500revs. I never had to push the car, it always had such a linear torque curve from 0-50. Every time I drove it, it rarely ever revved above 3k. The only time it lagged was on the freeway going to & from my route. It hated going above 75mph, so I always left for my route early, and set the cruise control to 65mph when I was on the freeway. But once it was on the city streets, it was was a blast! After seeing this video, I wish I could run my old route for a week in a fuel injected festiva with a 5spd M/T. It would've been a blast!!😆😆😆😆
Still loving all the great videos every Saturday. One of the few things I look forward to throughout the week. So much hidden history and facts I never knew about. Keep em coming!
Thank you sir it is appreciated!
Tony completes the Saturday morning trifecta, along with Gears & Gasoline, and Legit Street Cars.
@@genericsomething Thank you very much!
Thanks for this Tony, brings back being young and having one.
Thank you for watching!
Did not know this Tony! Thanks again for some more Ford info. I would have never guessed that one. Hve a good week brother.👍
Thank you Daryl!
I still have dreams 😊😊 about my mom's 1989. I learned to drive in 89...even though I was12. I drove that sucker until 1996 at when the clock went off the clock twice
I had a blue 5 speed and it was a good little car , and it was amazing on gas , they need to make cars like that again
Yes I agree they do!
I still remember those tiny little hatchbacks. I never knew it was a rebadged Kia! And yes, I also remember the Festiva's replacement called the Aspire.
The Festiva was so small by today's standards. They were like the Smart Fortwo of their time vs a Nissan Versa or Chevy Spark.
Had one of these festivas years ago was a great little car. I called it my go kart with windows. $17 to fill it and it would go for weeks.
I don't know where you find the original TV ads, but dang it I like them.
Thank you sir! I will keep them coming!
My grandpa had a 1990 Festiva in Pop Yellow, my grandma had 1994 Aspire in metallic pink. Both 5-speeds, and both purchased to travel the country with delivering motor homes.
I didn't realize that Kia built the Festiva for Ford. Kia has come a long way since the early 90s and now turns out excellent vehicles. My 2017 Kia Soul! is the best car I have ever owned. Thanks, Ford!
Great clip, thanks for sharing it! Yes, because of Fords interest in Mazda at the time, Ford and Mazda came up with a new compact small car for the Japanese market. In Japan it was only ever sold as the Ford Festiva, there was no Mazda badged version for the Japanese market, even though the car was built in Japan, however, it was exported to most other global markets as the Mazda 121. Kia in Korea soon also started production of the vehicle, with Fords help and this is where the Festiva 5dr hatch came about. The Japanese built Festiva was only sold as a 3dr hatch and Ford then started exporting the Festiva 5dr hatch to Japan. Soon other export markets were added, like the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It was also exported to Europe, but as the Kia Pride, they already had the Ford Fiesta for Europe.
Here in Australia, we saw the car sold as the Mazda 121 first, then Mazda Australia stopped selling it and Ford Australia began selling it as the Ford Festiva, first as a 5dr hatch and then a 3dr hatch was added. In Japan, they also saw the Ford Festiva sedan! In Europe, there was also a 5dr wagon, under the Kia Pride name. 👍
I owned a Festiva. Bought it brand new. Mine was a 1990. It ws the L Plus. It was roomy, fun and easy to drive. The engine was peppy too. Nice materials inside. Did not lok or feel cheap. It was a great little car. I drove it for several years and gave it to a relative who was going to college.
Thanks for sharing your experience!
One of my family members bought one second had from a small town dealer who neglected to mention it had been wrecked. When looking under the hood, I noted a lot of nonfactory welding seams and bondo and pointed it out. Regardless the thing apparently ran pretty reliably for as long as they had it. It had an automatic and was pretty slow. I don’t remember what happened to it, but nothing spectacular.
I like that paint job on the Mazda version
I had a 1989 Festiva. One of the best car I ever owned. I was in the military and I drove it all over the country!
Thank you for your service and for sharing your story.
In Europe the Mazda 121 had more standard equipment and came with 5 speed manual as standard and the base modle had a 1.1 litre engine, top of the range had a full length electric fabric sun roof.
Ironic how ford was using Mazda powertrain, as the later model (2010s) era Mazda speed series cars used some ford ecoboost powertrains. Really came around full circle
Really, the EcoBoost powertrain was derived from the Mazda L engine, often referred to as ford duratec 4 cyl
@@nothanksguy I think I had heard that briefly before, never the story behind the duratec however 👍🏻
@@ManuaLiberty its a great motor, all aluminum dohc 4 cyl. Used in mazda& ford smaller cars from 05-14. I held onto my highschool car and use it as a winter beater. 07 2.0 focus zx3 w/manual 5 spd. Abused hard every day of its life from 60k miles to its current 175k.
@@nothanksguy that’s awesome man! I’ve heard mainly good tales about them
Ford had an ownership stake in Mazda. At times it was as high as 35%. That cash helped Mazda stay afloat at the time.
Cool 😎
This was my first new car It was passed down to 3 other family members and went for over 250,000 miles.
Sounds like it did a great job for your family!
Hi my name is kathy. I had a 91 Iwhen I was19❤😂 I loved it!!
The Escort is still my favorite small car from Ford. That was a car that punched above its weight, in my opinion.
In 1992, I delivered pizza for a place that had three Festivas for delivery cars. All three were 5 speeds. We were required to fill the tank after we used one. I could drive for 100 miles during a shift and fill it up for about $5. They were actually rather peppy.
Thanks for sharing your experience!
It confounds me how they could replace this great little car with the Aspire, which totally stunk!
Hang in there for a week and you will out exactly how that happened. :) Thanks for watching!
It had aome hot versions in japan, i believe using a fuel injected twincam 16 valve 1.3 making 90ps JIS (
Awesome thanks for sharing!
When I was 19 years old, my parents had a 91 Festiva and I had an 89 Grand Marquis LS. The girl I was pursuing at the laundromat thought the Festiva was mine and the Merc belonged to my folks. When she was corrected on the matter, she was surprised but still didn't put out. Fuck.
Sad story. Thanks for sharing.
I have a 92. It's still reliable as stone. Unfortunately being a tiny econobox at 32 years old, it's really starting to show its age. Rust is becoming an issue after so many winters regardless of preventative measures. Everything else on the road is twice its size, and it accelerates half as slow as them. You need to take caution against road rage because of it. Parts are still cheap and easy to get, but the tires are becoming a problem. Those tiny tires simply aren't made anymore except for trailers which aren't the same. Still really good on gas, has the crash safety of a Pepsi can.
Thanks for sharing and i'm glad to hear it's still on the road!
I am repairing the 93' festiva that belonged to my grandfather, for some reason he imported it used from the United States in 1995, when he gave it to me a year ago the car was not in its best shape mechanically, but now the only thing it is missing is a distributor and The car would be ready to go for another 30 years hopefully.
That should not that difficult to track down. Best of luck and thanks for watching!
@@TonysFordsandMustangs I've been hunting for distributors in some wrecked kia prides in my city but no luck, the only distributor i found is one in aliexpress, im praying that hopefully runs fine for enough time for me to find a original one, i live in a small town tho not really conected to the rest of the country so maybe ill rely on chinese distributors
@@bigvicho19 I am not endorsing these guys but I would think you would be better served looking at a local rebuilder of distributors such as these folks. www.advanceddistributors.com/
@@TonysFordsandMustangs thats the thing, i am not from the usa, im from South america, i with i could get parts from america but the transport fee is too mutch for me :(
@@bigvicho19 take a look locally. There are many people who rebuild distributors. Best of luck
I think mine was an 88. 4 speed no overdrive with side graphics, upgraded wheels, and stereo.
There is just something very appealing about thesd basic no frills behicles. So simple conpared to todays overly complex "cars"
They were cute cars !
I thought the KIA badge was shaped like the Ford Oval for this reason
Didn't know it was a Kia with a Mazda mill. I knew a girl who had one; 50 MPG on the highway which is about as good as it gets. Hers was an early base model and gave no trouble of any kind for the ~5 years till I lost touch.
Kia had a relationship with Mazda going back to the 1970s and built Mazda Bongo vans for the Korean home market through the 1980s (the dictator that ordered them out of passenger cars akso gave them a monopoly on light trucks).
We also got them in Australia.
I think most of the world got these in one version or another. Thanks for watching!
5500 for a brand new car thats crazy
I got to ride in a Cortina. Not exactly on a friendly day. Gunny Servantes was the escort as well as a chaser. I got barracks restriction in lieu of correctional custody. Article 15 is not a joke. The Cortina was a good car. Did not stay a long time. Gunny left the earth a few years back.
Pride is all that's left now....
In Australia we got the Ford Festiva up until the late 1990s we owned one and it was a good car didn't have any problems with it until it was stolen but to get into it the bent the top of the front door and we got the other things repaired but they never repaired the door properly and it leaked in the rain so we got rid of it had no real problems with it and it was built by Kia with a Mazda engine under the bonnet infact there is a Ford Festiva not far from were l live that still running and is used later we bought a Ford Fiesta brand new and it was the biggest pile of junk brand new percivered with it for 10 years but got rid of it because if an oil leak because l couldn't find it now bought four years ago a 1997 Toyota Hilux with 420000 kilometres on it it and it is so much better than the Ford Fiesta could ever be although l have had to to a few repairs on it and despite spending money on it and the original purchase price it is worth much more than what l paid for it 4 years ago and l am still in front if l was to sell it in Australia they are rare but not extinct and they sell quickly when ever one comes up for sale
Why was festiva not produced in America?
And why the sale of festiva was stopped in America
It's basically the same reason so many thing are made in China today. At that time South Korean labor was cheap so Ford took advantage of that. They also owned 35% of Mazda at the time so using Mazda Engines made sense.
"Festiva" is an anagram of "Fiesta" with the letter "V" thrown in...
"Festiva" is missing the letter "I" which is the 2nd letter of "Fiesta". Also, "Festiva" has added the letter "I" after the letter "T' which "Fiesta" does not have...
@@gregoryleo4640 Fiesta: "I" before "T."
Festiva: "T" before "I"
Both use the same exact letters, but a "V" was added to "Festiva."
We need these small two door hatch backs with 3 cylinder engines back in production. The big SUV obsession is bad for the environment and for limited space in cities.
It was a 4 cylinder but I agree. A cheap to buy and own car that gets great gas mileage should be a product people can buy.
Power steering optional, then unavailable altogether in this era. Wow.
The car had tiny wheels and you didn't need it to steer the car with ease.
Well, I can only imagine frustration of a typical Ford buyer when the Festiva entered US market. Late 80's and early 90's KIA cars were ... as "good" as Yugo, maybe a little better. Never seen the Festiva here in my country, but used JDM 121 seemed to be a decent car being just too small for long journeys through "wild nature".
This car was MUCH better than any Yugo. Yes it was cheap but it was reliable and easy to service.
@@TonysFordsandMustangs easy to service - yes, but not very reliable, because rust issues (a) and constant small breakdowns/ electric gremlins (b). They got much better in mid-00's IMO.
Thanks to that Mazda drivetrain it was the best cheap Kia that was probably ever made.
That might be true.
No wonder it was so much better than an Escort!
The Ford that saved Kia .... well that's unfortunate! 😂
Ford needed a cheap car and Kia needed to get back in the car building business.
This car was terrible. My dad rented one and I drove it. Never ever felt more like a dork than when I drove this car once.