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Howdy all!
I'm 0z0ne (tyler)! Some of you may have answered my question on answers.yahoo.com as I can see the thread here....but anyway.
I'm a huge lover of small cars, especially old ones, though I've never owned one of my own.
I learned stick on my dad's 06 mini cooper s a few years ago, and have since fallen in love with manual transmission. My German teacher, despite her having lived in the U.S. for 30 years now, still doesn't understand why automatic cars exist (I now feel the same way!)
But more to the point.. I finally bought my first car to commute to and from work, and after much research, decided on a lil Festy!
Presently I'm in Chicago, so though I'd been checking CL every bloody day, a Festiva would only show up every couple weeks or so (within a couple hundred miles).
So after roughly a month of calling people and searching, i finally found a guy in southern Wisconsin who seemed learned in Festiva lore and was selling one of his own.
He broke to me (like many of you so gladly confessed on yahoo) that you either hate the car, or love it! And if the latter is true, then the fever sets in and you won't ever end up owning just one
. Additionally, he confirmed too, that these little devils refuse to die and will last a good many 100K miles!
After a long chat with him (and a test drive of course) I had to figure out a way to buy it! At the moment, I only had 550$ on me and his ad on CL said 800$. He told me if I gave him what was in my pocket now, he'd take it because he really needed money I guess.
All that said, I (think) I ended up with a pretty sweet deal, and a lovely first car!
It is a 1991 blue Festiva L with 176XXX miles. It did have the "usual" Festy rust, which I am a little worried about (and will post about soon), but other than that was in great condition.
The gentleman I purchased it from was also mechanically savvy, and worked building utility trucks, so he obviously took care of the car.
Some of his touch ups and modifications include:
-a small, but very loud air horn (like those on semi's)
-new brakes and rotors
-new headlight housings and bulbs
-an aftermarket radio with some stereo speakers (openly) wired to the trunk
-an unnecessarily good battery (i'll have to check again what it is)
-some new engine odds and ends which I cannot begin to name or remember
-oh yes, and 13 inch wheels! woohoo!
There is something else too, that neither he (the guy I bought it from) or I could figure out. There's some kind of switch the owner before him put in to the left of the steering wheel that has an unknown purpose. I'll have to snap a picture of that too...
As you all might guess, I am not too familiar with car mechanics.
Another reason I bought this lovely vehicle aside from the obvious, is that i'd hoped to learn from it/fix it up myself. From all that i've heard, this quaint little car seems to be the perfect mini-tank to work on too (for novices and experienced people alike). *correct me if I am wrong please*
One of my co-workers was a car mechanic/engineer with Ford for....30 some odd years, and i'm hoping he can help me out/ teach me. I guess there were little possys of such people there, because he told me the Festiva crew was not liked very much....I tried to stick up for them, but you know, it's kind of hard to sway someone who favors Bronco's and designed Mustangs throughout the 70's, 80's and 90's. hah.
At any rate,
you can all see now that I am quite verbose..
But I just wanted to introduce myself AND my "new" (unnamed) Festiva to the crew!
I'm going to have quite a few questions, and post a good many pictures in the coming weeks, so bear with me!
Please accept my sincerest thanks for adopting us into your family!
Warmest, "Festivioustest" regards!
-0z0ne
p.s.- For >63 horses, this puppy has got quite a kick!
I'm 0z0ne (tyler)! Some of you may have answered my question on answers.yahoo.com as I can see the thread here....but anyway.
I'm a huge lover of small cars, especially old ones, though I've never owned one of my own.
I learned stick on my dad's 06 mini cooper s a few years ago, and have since fallen in love with manual transmission. My German teacher, despite her having lived in the U.S. for 30 years now, still doesn't understand why automatic cars exist (I now feel the same way!)
But more to the point.. I finally bought my first car to commute to and from work, and after much research, decided on a lil Festy!
Presently I'm in Chicago, so though I'd been checking CL every bloody day, a Festiva would only show up every couple weeks or so (within a couple hundred miles).
So after roughly a month of calling people and searching, i finally found a guy in southern Wisconsin who seemed learned in Festiva lore and was selling one of his own.
He broke to me (like many of you so gladly confessed on yahoo) that you either hate the car, or love it! And if the latter is true, then the fever sets in and you won't ever end up owning just one
. Additionally, he confirmed too, that these little devils refuse to die and will last a good many 100K miles!After a long chat with him (and a test drive of course) I had to figure out a way to buy it! At the moment, I only had 550$ on me and his ad on CL said 800$. He told me if I gave him what was in my pocket now, he'd take it because he really needed money I guess.
All that said, I (think) I ended up with a pretty sweet deal, and a lovely first car!
It is a 1991 blue Festiva L with 176XXX miles. It did have the "usual" Festy rust, which I am a little worried about (and will post about soon), but other than that was in great condition.
The gentleman I purchased it from was also mechanically savvy, and worked building utility trucks, so he obviously took care of the car.
Some of his touch ups and modifications include:
-a small, but very loud air horn (like those on semi's)
-new brakes and rotors
-new headlight housings and bulbs
-an aftermarket radio with some stereo speakers (openly) wired to the trunk
-an unnecessarily good battery (i'll have to check again what it is)
-some new engine odds and ends which I cannot begin to name or remember
-oh yes, and 13 inch wheels! woohoo!
There is something else too, that neither he (the guy I bought it from) or I could figure out. There's some kind of switch the owner before him put in to the left of the steering wheel that has an unknown purpose. I'll have to snap a picture of that too...
As you all might guess, I am not too familiar with car mechanics.
Another reason I bought this lovely vehicle aside from the obvious, is that i'd hoped to learn from it/fix it up myself. From all that i've heard, this quaint little car seems to be the perfect mini-tank to work on too (for novices and experienced people alike). *correct me if I am wrong please*
One of my co-workers was a car mechanic/engineer with Ford for....30 some odd years, and i'm hoping he can help me out/ teach me. I guess there were little possys of such people there, because he told me the Festiva crew was not liked very much....I tried to stick up for them, but you know, it's kind of hard to sway someone who favors Bronco's and designed Mustangs throughout the 70's, 80's and 90's. hah.
At any rate,
you can all see now that I am quite verbose..
But I just wanted to introduce myself AND my "new" (unnamed) Festiva to the crew!
I'm going to have quite a few questions, and post a good many pictures in the coming weeks, so bear with me!
Please accept my sincerest thanks for adopting us into your family!
Warmest, "Festivioustest" regards!
-0z0ne
p.s.- For >63 horses, this puppy has got quite a kick!
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