What could be considered the Ford Festiva's Rival?

[FB71]

^^^ I do, Colt Vista wagon, 4wd.

[jglutz]

^^I have one...bought a left over '89 brand new, under 10K.

5 door....7 seater....no comfort features...loud engine and road noise since day one...not alot of ground clearance.

Just turned 100K....other than the rad fan motor and normal tune up....I never put any other parts or $'s into it

The 4WD is Hydraulic (viscous) Couplings...pretty decent system.

[chrisofna]

I was talking more along the lines of the Mitsubishi Colt hatchback, not the Minivan-looking thing. I believe both came in an AWD variant too.

[Futurefesty90]

pontiac 1000
chevy chevette (the doody years)
daihatsu charade
plymouth horizon
daewoo lanos

thats about all i can think of

[CharlieZ]

Good photo of 79 Plymouth Champ a.k.a. Dodge Colt a.k.a. Mitsubishi Colt at:

http://jalopnik.com/cars/mitsubishi/super-shift-1979-plymouth-champ-on-ebay-232571.php

[Sparky]

That photo they have there is a 1983 model, I think....the earlier ones had an egg-crate grill. That one looks exactly like my 83 Colt...what an awesome lookin' pic, though!

Here's an earlier Champ....this dude seems awfully hard on the old girl.

http://www.carlustblog.com/2008/02/incp--plymouth.html

[Sparky]

Actually, the more I looked around online, maybe my memory is failing me....I think the original caption may be right after all. My bad.

[litesong]

I actually had one of those neat 'twin stick' Colts...an '83 model. You could say that it had 8 forward speeds, but using them that way was very impractical. Basically, I used it like a 5th gear...the stick looked just like any other 4-speed, but right next to the boot, there was a 2 position lever....forward, and you would have a bit better power...pull it back made the gears a bit taller. The Colt was a great little car and the only car I've owned that was even close to the kind of fun driving you get in a Festy.

I had an 81 Plymouth Champ which was the Dodge Colt renamed. I had the 4 speed. Think the 4 speed was made to work with the twin stick, because the gear ratios were a bit weird as a 4 speed. But I loved my Champ, tho it was not good looking...Festiva is much better looking. Took my Champ up many logging roads to trailheads in the Cascade mountains. After 22 years & 150,000 miles I sold it. Saw it running around town 2 years after that.

The Champ's engine had two valves per cylinder...plus an extra tiny intake valve that activated at low rpms. The tiny intake valve swirled the incoming air-fuel mixture to mix the fuel even finer for more complete combustion. It was all pretty theoretical, but I averaged 42MPG & hit 50 MPG on the road which made me pleased for decades.

I would have loved the 8 forward speeds(the mountains, ya know).

Only my 88 Festiva(yes, I had both cars at the same time) got better MPG(45MPG average & 53 MPG highway high).

[todd00]

dont know if anyone mentioned the plymouth arrow. wasnt boxy, but kinda fun to drive. my friend had a arrow, i had a sapporo. both mitshu imports

[JPT]

Two more...

Renault Alliance
Renault Encore