Tweet
Hello,
I just wanted to introduce myself here. I bought an 88 Festiva a few months back but ill get to that in a minute, first a little background about me.
I have always been into cars since I was in high school. At heart, I'm really a Jeep guy and have been involved in Jeep forums for quite some time. I'm currently on my 6th Jeep and it will be a full off-road build. Since my first car, an 85 S-10 blazer, I have made it a point to learn to fix it myself when it needed something. Since then I have worked on everything from heavy trucks to airplanes and have learned a ton along the way. My wife thinks I'm crazy because I refuse to buy a new car and much rather have several older cars, truthfully I like them much better!:thumbs_up: I currently own a 1980 280ZX 10th anniversary, 1988 Festiva L, 1988 Jeep Wrangler, 1998 Grand Cherokee 5.9, and a 2007 Town and Country(wife's car). All of these cars do a fine job of keeping me busy trying to keep them running, but that's the fun part!
I bought the Festiva because I needed a car that got good gas mileage to get me to and from a new job that was quite a drive. I really didn't know what I was looking for but I knew it had to be cheap and small. My DD at the time was the that 5.9L V8 Cherokee that got a whopping 12mpg, it was going to cost me literally about $40 a day to drive. Its fast and a lot of fun, but not that fun! So anyway, I found this 88 Festiva on CL and was able to pick it up for $500. It didn't run but, the PO said all it needed was a distributor and a rear wheel bearing. That sounded like a deal to me but as usual with CL, the PO only disclosed the minor problems since he knew I couldn't test drive it while it wasn't running. Turns out it didn't need a distributor, only a ignition module ($90 part). It definitely needed a wheel bearing since the wheel was actually about to fall off (bearing was completely destroyed) but that was only a few bucks. Now the fun part, once I got it running i came to realize that the transmission was also crap. Fourth gear was in not working and the pieces were floating around in there making all kinds of noise. Luckily I was able to find another low mileage transmission locally for $150. This was actually my first attempt at pulling a transmission at home and my first front wheel drive car ever. I was pleasantly surprised at just how easy it was, and of course I did the clutch while i was in there. To my complete amazement everything went back together and worked flawlessly. I went ahead and spent about $200 more on "consumable type" parts like belts, hoses, plugs, wires, filters, water pump, and timing belt. Pretty much everything I could think of because I needed this car to be reliable. Since then it has ran like a champ and I drive it almost 100 miles a day to and from work. So for about $950 I have a reliable little car that gets almost 42mpg. Cosmetically the car is actually pretty clean, a few dings here and there but, doesn't really need anything. I absolutely love the little car and I am surprised, and excited, to find such a strong following for them on this forum. I really look forward to learning form you guys and hopefully being able to contribute some valuable stuff as well!
I just wanted to introduce myself here. I bought an 88 Festiva a few months back but ill get to that in a minute, first a little background about me.
I have always been into cars since I was in high school. At heart, I'm really a Jeep guy and have been involved in Jeep forums for quite some time. I'm currently on my 6th Jeep and it will be a full off-road build. Since my first car, an 85 S-10 blazer, I have made it a point to learn to fix it myself when it needed something. Since then I have worked on everything from heavy trucks to airplanes and have learned a ton along the way. My wife thinks I'm crazy because I refuse to buy a new car and much rather have several older cars, truthfully I like them much better!:thumbs_up: I currently own a 1980 280ZX 10th anniversary, 1988 Festiva L, 1988 Jeep Wrangler, 1998 Grand Cherokee 5.9, and a 2007 Town and Country(wife's car). All of these cars do a fine job of keeping me busy trying to keep them running, but that's the fun part!
I bought the Festiva because I needed a car that got good gas mileage to get me to and from a new job that was quite a drive. I really didn't know what I was looking for but I knew it had to be cheap and small. My DD at the time was the that 5.9L V8 Cherokee that got a whopping 12mpg, it was going to cost me literally about $40 a day to drive. Its fast and a lot of fun, but not that fun! So anyway, I found this 88 Festiva on CL and was able to pick it up for $500. It didn't run but, the PO said all it needed was a distributor and a rear wheel bearing. That sounded like a deal to me but as usual with CL, the PO only disclosed the minor problems since he knew I couldn't test drive it while it wasn't running. Turns out it didn't need a distributor, only a ignition module ($90 part). It definitely needed a wheel bearing since the wheel was actually about to fall off (bearing was completely destroyed) but that was only a few bucks. Now the fun part, once I got it running i came to realize that the transmission was also crap. Fourth gear was in not working and the pieces were floating around in there making all kinds of noise. Luckily I was able to find another low mileage transmission locally for $150. This was actually my first attempt at pulling a transmission at home and my first front wheel drive car ever. I was pleasantly surprised at just how easy it was, and of course I did the clutch while i was in there. To my complete amazement everything went back together and worked flawlessly. I went ahead and spent about $200 more on "consumable type" parts like belts, hoses, plugs, wires, filters, water pump, and timing belt. Pretty much everything I could think of because I needed this car to be reliable. Since then it has ran like a champ and I drive it almost 100 miles a day to and from work. So for about $950 I have a reliable little car that gets almost 42mpg. Cosmetically the car is actually pretty clean, a few dings here and there but, doesn't really need anything. I absolutely love the little car and I am surprised, and excited, to find such a strong following for them on this forum. I really look forward to learning form you guys and hopefully being able to contribute some valuable stuff as well!
Comment