It's not a Mazda

[codex]

It seems that the consensus of these little cars (Festiva and Aspire) are not of Mazda design, or at least cannot be considered a Mazda. But from all that I have learned about them, they are made up of all that is Mazda. Sure Kia assembles them and Ford sells them, but isnt the engineering and design all Mazda? Even a quick look on the internet shows that these cars are built on the Mazda DA platform. Just like the NA is the first gen Miata and FB the first gen RX-7.

What do you guys think, are these cars Ford's, Kia's or Mazda's?

Personally, when I drive mine I feel the Mazda inside.

[warlocke]

mazda drivetrain, kia body, and ford badge

[Dave G]

Mazda

[stefan]

id say mostly mazda. more than the drive train is mazda. i was just working on my steering rack and it says mazda on it. last week i had my fuel pump out... mazda again

[monkeyracing]

It's kind of an odd conglomeration. The original design and engineering is Mazda, which is partly owned by Ford. At the time, Ford's share in Mazda was around 45%.

Kia got their start as an exporting auto manufacturer by taking 1 generation old Mazda designs, building them, and badging them as Kias. EG: Kia's first car in N. America was an obsolete version of the Mazda 323. Kia accomplished this by buying the tooling from Mazda, and by purchasing their engineering expertise to get things rolling.

Now, because of all this help they were getting, Kia, a struggling new automaker, was indebted to Mazda, and in turn, Ford. To help pay the bills and retain the strategic partnerships they'd developed, they agreed to build cars for Ford at a time when Ford was looking for a small, economical car for their line-up. This also helped Ford meet the CAFE regulations for fleet based fuel economy, and gave Mazda a cheap source of production for their smallest cars.

All this dealing didn't help Kia in the long run, however, as they floundered and were purchased by Hyundai in the mid-90s. You just had to know that the Ford/Mazda/Kia partnership wouldn't last under the umbrella of an aggressively expanding Hyundai, especially considering Hyundai was in bed with Mitsubishi, who were, in turn, in bed with Chrysler, who were in turn.....it's all very incestuous.

There you go. Clear as mud!

Jim

[Pocket_Rocket]

My first car was a 323 GT Turbo; and after driving a Festiva and seeing how fun it is, I must say it's a Mazda :love10:

[neanderpaul]

Mazda design, mostly mazda parts, the festiva is a mazda.

[geezerstiva]

mazda. no way its a ford, as reliable as it is (FORD-found on road dead) and it cant be a kia, it doesn't feel cheap enough.

[FB71]

hey, I have Fords that have gone 15yrs+ and 300k miles+ with no issues. But sometimes I do agree, "Forgive Our Research and Development"...

I say Mazda, but built by Kia (when Kia was still operated by the Korean government), and private labeled for Ford (to help with fleet CAFE)

[geezerstiva]

yeah, but the only fords i've ever seen with high mileage were built in asia. 80 ford courier with 206K, 90 ford ranger with almost 200K...and the courier was built in japan, ranger was a mazda. oh and the festivas of course.
btw, both trucks still run at those mileages. the courier after sitting for 5 yrs. all we did was pour some gas in the carb and put a battery on it and it cranked right up. antifreeze was still green... :lol:
but i've only seen the track record of a ford windstar. thats a piece of crap. there were probably better fords built somewhere.

[hamburglar]

My family and myself have owned nothing but fords. No problems (nothing major) other than a blown escort tranny (which I was in HS and used to burn out in it alot). BUt I got it to gimp itself home. So it didn't even leave me stranded
Nothing but positive things to say about fords from this end. Well, in my SHO my transmission blew a hole in the case of the tranny. I cannot blame ford for that, it is a Mazda transmission

[FB71]

yeah, but the only fords i've ever seen with high mileage were built in asia. 80 ford courier with 206K, 90 ford ranger with almost 200K...and the courier was built in japan, ranger was a mazda. oh and the festivas of course.
btw, both trucks still run at those mileages. the courier after sitting for 5 yrs. all we did was pour some gas in the carb and put a battery on it and it cranked right up. antifreeze was still green... :lol:
but i've only seen the track record of a ford windstar. thats a piece of crap. there were probably better fords built somewhere.

I don't want this to turn into a flame thread, but I have a correction to your statement. Rangers are not built by Mazda, never have been. One of my territories when I worked for Ford encompassed the Edison Assembly Plant, where we built Rangers and Mazda B-Series trucks. Mazda stopped building trucks in the early 90's and allowed Ford to build Mazda-branded Rangers. Also, the only powertrain currently designed and built by Mazda is the RX8 Rensis rotary. All Mazda piston engines are Fords. I have the documentation to back that claim, as well.

I agree about the WindBag, flaming piece of crap. But, I have yet to have a Taurus give me less than 200k miles of flawless performance, and have had both Taurus and F150 go over 300k with no faults. Not all Fords are as well built, I agree.

[anomoly40]

What carmaker hasn't built a Lemon at one point?

I think our car is unique because of the way it got here. I enjoy driving my car. There is no other car like it. Nothing more, nothing less.

[FB71]

^^^ bingo! and that's why we're all here!!!

[neanderpaul]

yeah, but the only fords i've ever seen with high mileage were built in asia. 80 ford courier with 206K, 90 ford ranger with almost 200K...and the courier was built in japan, ranger was a mazda. oh and the festivas of course.
btw, both trucks still run at those mileages. the courier after sitting for 5 yrs. all we did was pour some gas in the carb and put a battery on it and it cranked right up. antifreeze was still green... :lol:
but i've only seen the track record of a ford windstar. thats a piece of crap. there were probably better fords built somewhere.

It seems like the consensus here is that ford makes good and bad vehichles... like all auto manufacturers. I agree with fb71 the ranger and the later mazda pickups are both fords. I know a guy with a mid 90's ranger with the 2.3 ford standby 4 cyl. He has about 300,000 miles on the original spark plugs even :shock: He has only replaced the differential. Another beast of a motor is the 300 straight six put in fullsize trucks and vans. Like a festiva they average 300,000 miles. A guy who came to Ohiostiva last year (sorry I can't remember who) told a story about an f-150 that had 1,000,000 miles on it. He said ford bought it back from the original owner. He had new main bearing put in the engine at 300,000 and 700,000 miles. Of course there is always the highest mileage car in the Guiness book of world records. Up until maybe the 60's or 70's it was a salesman's 40 or 50 something ford sedan. I think it was like a million miles. And yes my sister's 2000 windstar lost it's tranny at 50,000 miles :shock: :evil:. Another friend of mine lost the tranny at 60,000 on his 2003 HONDA ODYSSEY!!!! :shock: :shock: :shock: With all of the 80's accords, 80's 4x2 toyotas, ford 300 6 cyls, jeep cherokee 4.0 6 cyls, gm 3.8 v6s, chevy 4.3 v6s, etc etc etc reaching 300,000 + miles I don't consider 200,000 miles high or impressive. I consider that number to be the beginning of decent.