Experiences with automatic Festivas reliability

[GaslightMike]

I get attached easily to childhood cars to, haha I love my grandmas Grand Marquis but I wouldn't get one due to the gas prices these days haha. How much did they sell that Festy for?

They gave it to a friend, bought the car from a friend for a dollar, sold it for the same price, haha. I still see the car driving around when I'm in my old town, still running strong : )

[festey]

Combination of those minus the company car part, haha. Also, my parents had a white one when I was a kid and I was pretty attached to the car, still bummed they sold it haha.

I get attached easily to childhood cars to, haha I love my grandmas Grand Marquis but I wouldn't get one due to the gas prices these days haha. How much did they sell that Festy for?

[GaslightMike]

Just curious, why white? So the paint wont fade? Company car? To paint over more easily? Or do you just really like white?

Combination of those minus the company car part, haha. Also, my parents had a white one when I was a kid and I was pretty attached to the car, still bummed they sold it haha.

[TorqueEffect]

I like my Upullandpay.

They keep Festivas around for a few months, and since I bought my Festy a year ago, they have got in like 5 or 6 different ones.

[Bert]

Don't wish to come across as a cynic but regulators/insurers/repair shops are quick to tell you 20 year old cars are worthless (a liability even) in their eyes, despite being fuel efficient and economical. There is a bit of counterculture and non-conformism involved (for you) if and when you choose to be seen driving a Festiva. "Hopped up" (not a huge undertaking if you're a backyard mechanic and DIYer) these cars can "get up and go", and "stop", with the best of modern rolling stock. Next generation Aspires and early Rios are perfect donors for better brakes, suspension and current-size wheels and almost any Mazda car engine made from 85 to 97 will readily graft into a Festy. These little cars are 'seat of the pants' addictive and make the ultimate curb hoppers (even as is) and lucky for you to live in an area where they don't erode away from corrosion. Kia Industries of Korea was tasked with building these cars and the care and attention they took with engineering, attaching, isolating, routing wires and lines etc etc sure beat the pants off the careless and nonchalant way FoMoCo assembled my 86 F150. These cars were not 'put together' as typical disposable items and, aside from availability of parts and reliability of electronics, are well worth devoting some time to.
My hat is off to FordFestiva.com for allowing owners of these obscure cars (n. Americans only bought 350,000 of them) to correspond and to collectively help keep these cars alive. I personally would long ago have given up on the first one I got had it not been for the advice and encouragement of this forum. I live in Ottawa Ontario Canada where salt and depreciation relegates the average car to the boneyard in 10 years. When I say 'average' that means the local U-Pull mostly features 8 to 12 year old cars that have been jettisoned or abandoned and all others are automatically "hydraulic pressed" only because there are very few seekers of parts for those anymore. There are 1000s of interchangeable parts on Festivas, from Escorts, Capris, 323s, Aspires and Kia Rios, that jobbers are, or seem to be, unaware of.

[festey]

I"ve seen the one you're looking at but didn't pay much attention to it because I was was looking for a white one, also was looking at surbaru's so thats another reason I didn't look into to it to much.

Just curious, why white? So the paint wont fade? Company car? To paint over more easily? Or do you just really like white?

[festey]

I still stand by my thoughts on Automatics firmly.

Automatics should only driven by the following.

1. People with a medical condition that doesn't allow them to drive a manual, or drive one comfortably.
2. People who live in places with allot of starts and stops on hills. (example San Fransicso, and Pittsburgh. These cities will kill a clutch very fast.)
3. Lazy bums :p

Hahaha, well I think I have 3 decent reasons for wanting an auto right now
1. As you mentioned, I'm near a hilly area SF
2. I'm left handed, which I know doesn't mean I can't drive stick but It will be harder and take longer to learn for me. I do plan to learn stick but for the time being I want an auto
3. This will be my first car, take into consideration the above: new driver+ manual trans killing hills+ added inconvenience of being a lefty=

[TorqueEffect]

I still stand by my thoughts on Automatics firmly.

Automatics should only driven by the following.

1. People with a medical condition that doesn't allow them to drive a manual, or drive one comfortably.
2. People who live in places with allot of starts and stops on hills. (example San Fransicso, and Pittsburgh. These cities will kill a clutch very fast.)
3. Lazy bums :p

[GaslightMike]

I"ve seen the one you're looking at but didn't pay much attention to it because I was was looking for a white one, also was looking at surbaru's so thats another reason I didn't look into to it to much.

[Tommychu]

Wow I didn't know it had a 323 trans, thats awesome! What other counterparts are shared with the 323? I know at least the steering wheel, lol my buddy has one.

Honestly not much else. I mean the entire car used the 323 as a starting point for the design but as for specific parts it's mostly little electrical widgets. The dash clocks and mirrors can be made to work, the switches on the column are more or less a direct swap. And any Mazda front seats will work if you attatch the butt upholstery to the Festy base and bolt the back onto the base (I have FC RX7 seats though and they're the best ).

edit: oh, and the engines too, but that goes for any car with a B-motor.

[festey]

I did! Picked it up for 1200, I've been driving it to the bay for work but its still got around 160k on it. Its pretty clean all around.

Did you also run by this particular Festiva on craigslist? Its been on there 3 weeks, so i don't know if that good or bad. Did you contact the guy selling this one?

[festey]

Did you also run by this particular Festiva on craigslist? Its been on there 3 weeks, so i don't know if that good or bad. Did you contact the guy selling this one?

[festey]

The auto in the Festiva is very beefy and overbuilt for the car (it was designed for the 323, they didn't bother downsizing it to the E series like they did with the manual trans). It's more reliable than the manual if you take care of it. Just don't expect any exhilaration out of it if you try to go all Ricky Bobby, they feel... kinda slow.

Wow I didn't know it had a 323 trans, thats awesome! What other counterparts are shared with the 323? I know at least the steering wheel, lol my buddy has one.

[Tommychu]

The auto in the Festiva is very beefy and overbuilt for the car (it was designed for the 323, they didn't bother downsizing it to the E series like they did with the manual trans). It's more reliable than the manual if you take care of it. Just don't expect any exhilaration out of it if you try to go all Ricky Bobby, they feel... kinda slow.

[GaslightMike]

I did! Picked it up for 1200, I've been driving it to the bay for work but its still got around 160k on it. Its pretty clean all around.