Soon to be new owner...

[vfr86]

Hi everyone. My name is Matt and I am from Winnipeg, Canada. I have a pretty serious commute to work every day and I am going to be picking up a 1988 Festiva tomorrow for the inherent fuel savings.

It has an automatic and 250xxx kms on the car and everything is original (the trans may have been rebuilt a few years ago but I am unsure, so we'll call it original.) It has rust of course, nothing structural, but the usual quarter panels, hood lip etc. I just needed a good fuel efficient vehicle.

The Festiva will be used to get me back and forth to work; I have a second vehicle for pleasure driving.

I gave it a good once over and a test drive, I'm fairly mechanical and everything looked good to me but...

I was wondering if anyone could tell me what exactly to watch out for on these cars, preventative maintenance on weak parts etc.

Happy to be on the forum, I did some looking around and there sure are some hot rods!

Looking forward to talking with everyone.

Matt

[Ogrekhan]

Welcome!

Check the rear suspension where it connects to the unibody next to the rear wheel wells as this is a common problem. I would swap the fuel filter as well its on the firewall and fairly easy to spot and swap. Other than that its the usual; wheel bearings, tie rod, ball joints etc. You're going to love this little car, now please repeat after me"Hello , my name is Matt, and I'm a festiva addict." It's the first step toward a lifetime obsession. Oh and btw this is one of the best sites you could ever find festiva or otherwise for quality, helpful , and just plain cool folks.

[MTec007]

welcome to the site! take a moment to fill out your profile or atleast put your location in http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/pr...do=editprofile

[sc72]

Hello Matt, and welcome to the site. O.K. an easy way to check the rear wheel bearings is to grab the tire at the top, push and pull if you feal a clunk, it's time to jack it up and give it a once over,and if it's tight party on.

[sipderdoc]

Welcome!!

[sc72]

Welcome!!

Hey Spiderdoc, how much is a gallon of gas down your way.

[leapin]

Welcome! There is a few Winnipeg and Manitoba festiva owners kicking around here.

[GenevaDirt]

Hi everyone. My name is Matt and I am from Winnipeg, Canada. I have a pretty serious commute to work every day and I am going to be picking up a 1988 Festiva tomorrow for the inherent fuel savings.

It has an automatic and 250xxx kms on the car and everything is original (the trans may have been rebuilt a few years ago but I am unsure, so we'll call it original.) It has rust of course, nothing structural, but the usual quarter panels, hood lip etc. I just needed a good fuel efficient vehicle.

The Festiva will be used to get me back and forth to work; I have a second vehicle for pleasure driving.

I gave it a good once over and a test drive, I'm fairly mechanical and everything looked good to me but...

I was wondering if anyone could tell me what exactly to watch out for on these cars, preventative maintenance on weak parts etc.

Happy to be on the forum, I did some looking around and there sure are some hot rods!

Looking forward to talking with everyone.

Matt

welcome Matt.....just a little heads up....not sure what you are expecting for mileage but being an automatic you are only looking at about 30-35 mpg if running perfect. The manual is a much better fuel saver.....40-45 on the average.

[sipderdoc]

Hey Spiderdoc, how much is a gallon of gas down your way.

a gallon is at $ 0.12

[sc72]

Gas

Send me about $50 worth, UPS over night.

[Safety Guy]

The best I ever got from my B6 swapped automatic was around 37 or 38 mpg highway at under 65 mph. A B3 might do a tad better, especially if you can keep it around 55 mph instead. I'd guess you could see around 40 mpg if you're really slow and smooooooooth. To break 40, you'd have to slow way down. As in under 45 mph!

In comparison, my B3 FI 5 speed got 46 mpg on a trip to Louisville last year because I managed to keep her at an average of 55 mph for the whole trip. However, my engine is not the best, and others do better than that.

All Festivas in good shape can get good mpgs, but some folks do exaggerate, especially on CL and ebay.

Karl

[SimonTuffGuy]

Welcome to the board....

What's your "other car"?

[vfr86]

Welcome to the board....

What's your "other car"?

Shes a beautiful 2005 Jeep Rubicon 6-Speed. (Ive done a few mods to it as well, lift and tires are coming in the spring) It gets 15 MPG all day long. City, highway, snow, sun, nuclear holocaust, pavement, dirt, no matter what, it gets the same mileage. My commute is upwards of 80 kms a day so the fuel was killing me.

Thanks to everyone on here for the replies! The Festiva is currently at a freinds shop getting a Manitoba Safety inspection. Heres hoping it passes with only a few minor things to be fixed. I drove it all last night and this morning and I already love it! It felt like driving a rally car!

[vfr86]

UPDATE!
Just got a call from the shop. Heres the list of things its going to need to pass for a safety.
Outer tie rod (left side)
a headlight bulb
a quarter sized rust hole that needs to be sealed up
wiper blades
the muffler needs to have a patch put on it.
total for parts and I can provide the labor: $56.35
I am PUMPED

[MTec007]

not bad at all