Festiva should have been the VW bug of the 90's, and beyond

[harpon]

I've been saying this for years-

When I was a kid in the '60's the VW bug was EVERYWHERE

Small, cheap and compact, even while offering no payload, being noisy and with an air cooled motor that ran notoriously tied to the external weather conditions of the moment.

The VW Rabbit was introduced in 1975 as a replacement- but never caught on. It seemed the idea for a generic car with the same parts year after year time had passed. Bad oil seals, and the company which then seemed more geared toward expensive Porsches and more power and higher end price tags didn't help the resurrection of this "people's car" unfortunately credited to Hitler originally.

I owned several Rabbits through the years and liked the car, but they did tend to leak oil early and need repair too often

But the Festiva finally got it right! A better idea indeed.

Quiet, liquid cooled economical, more reliable quiet power than the bug ever had, it can carry SO MUCH MORE, and quicker too, especially uphill.
And lighter and more nimble than a Rabbit (shorter, lighter), and for me it eventually proved much more reliable too.

Too bad it wasn't embraced like the old bugs were in their day. It fit the bill in every other way.
I can only imagine the impact a Festiva could make if it was transported back to 1962 somehow....

Festiva Ad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7dLoMSxR-Y

VW ad 1964

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABcckOTVqao

I once drove a bug across the country to California and back about 1980,
and had one of the worst driving nightmares of my life, getting blown all over the road in Oklahoma in the winter,
with the REALLY BAD little heater they had.

[runner406]

Haha atleast it wasnt a yugo lol

Sent from my LG-LS970 using Tapatalk

[Axlander9289]

The Festiva is very much the epitome of a people's car. From what I've heard, it was as ubiquitous as the Beetle in South Korea as the Kia Pride in the '90s. They were sold there until 2000, I believe. It's very much the car that put South Korea on wheels, similar to the Volkswagen in Germany, Citroen 2CV in France, and Ford Model T in the US. Also, the same basic Mazda 121/Kia Pride/Ford Festiva design is still in production in Iran as the Saipa.

[bhazard]

To say the rabbit never caught on is pretty funny since it (the Golf) went on to be VW's highest selling model ever and the 2nd highest selling car in the world.

[bravekozak]

I am willing to bet the current Saipa dash will bolt directly into our Festivas.

[Axlander9289]

I am willing to bet the current Saipa dash will bolt directly into our Festivas.

I bet you're right, and it's not a bad looking dash, though sourcing one from Iran may be tricky. I wonder if the HVAC controls and instrument cluster are plug and play with a Festiva.

[TominMO]

I bet you're right, and it's not a bad looking dash, though sourcing one from Iran may be tricky. I wonder if the HVAC controls and instrument cluster are plug and play with a Festiva.

Not likely. They move circularly, not linearly, and might even be rheostated vs. purely mechanical.

[Axlander9289]

Not likely. They move circularly, not linearly, and might even be rheostated vs. purely mechanical.

True, but if you're sourcing a dash from Iran, it couldn't be much more trouble to source an HVAC plenum as well. It looks like the Festiva cluster may fit in the Saipa opening as well.

[Movin]

Vw bugs rock, I owned several bajas, dune buggies, a super beetle and a bus. VW flooded the market with rabbits and dashers but few loved them like the air cooled following did. The air cooled when running right were "happy" cars, fun! Festivas are the same. Rabbits?? to me its like a taxi, a way to get from here to there and without the grin I always have in the festi.

[harpon]

To say the rabbit never caught on is pretty funny since it (the Golf) went on to be VW's highest selling model ever and the 2nd highest selling car in the world.

I was talking of my own view of things from here in the U.S. I guess. While the Rabbit saw a few years of good sales- the first couple had a lot of backorders I think, because initial demand was great- by the time the Rabbit became the Golf, it had become a rare bird. And the Rabbits that were sold disappeared off the road quickly in the states because of the bad oil seals I suppose, but also because at that time- mid-80's or so- a small foreign car was not considered to be a "classic car" in any sense as it grew old, and there was little interest in rebuilding them. The Rabbit pick-up was the exception, as well as the "Official Valley Girl Car" Rabbit and Cabriolet convertibles.

Looking back it seems ironic to me that the small foreign hatchback of the field chosen to be vilified by Consumer Reports- the Dodge Omni and Plymouth Horizon, who were said to have "handling problems'- then seemed to be the models most then later still on the roadways after Rabbits and Fiestas and Chevettes had disappeared.

I in fact had I think four Rabbits in the late 70's and through the 80's, and in fact found them very responsive handling for the cars of the day, and I think the handling issue was just a dodge issue- the real problem being cars that could even then get 35 mpg on the highway, with a 1.8 liter motor and only four gears.

[AlaskaFestivaGuy]

The VW Type 2 "Kombi," specifically the "split windshield" variety offered through the 1967 model year (even in "basic" configuration, as opposed to, say, Westfalia camper, rare double-cab pickup, rarer ambulance, whatever), has become quite valuable, as in six figures:

http://money.cnn.com/2014/12/05/autos/vw-bus-auction/index.html?iid=TL_Popular

I used to have a candy-apple-red 1961 double-cab VW pickup with 100+ horsepower which could almost do wheelies.

I doubt we'll ever see a Festy selling for 100 grand!

[ThisVelologist]

Tricky? More like treasonous!

[harpon]

The beetle was great in its day.

No argument there. A great little economical car they purposely didn't change a lot of parts on from year to year, and as I said EVERYWHERE in the 1960's, as the muscle cars grew in size and power around it. In that slice of time- despite being actually a product of the 40's, it fulfilled it's role- just a bit noisily, and with little interior room for passengers or cargo

speaking of fulfill, I was illegally working at my father's car wash at 15 in the late 60's and we had a policy of giving a free car wash with a fill=up of 8 gallons or more.
And I heard a lot of complaints from VW owners, whose tank only held about 8 galllons EXACTLY, and so they couldn't really get a free wash without rolling in BONE DRY.

If the aspire had been there in it's place, it probably would have even been more prolific.

But by the 70s and 80s I think another spirit had come on the Motor Trend crowd- and the interstates were finished and rolling faster than even now, and it's still there.