Nellie --- Polish, Wax then Road Trip

[1990new]

Just got back yesterday from my road trip to Louisville KY in Nellie. Total miles on the trip was 1540.
I averaged 43.27 MPG on the trip, mostly road miles but a few in town. (I did coast down a few steep hills in the mountains.)
Highest gas prices were in Louisville where I paid 2.339, but then I paid 2.029 yesterday on I75 in Richomnd KY.
Lowest was 1.999 on I26 near Inman, SC. State gas tax are 16.75 cents in SC, 21.4 in TN and 26 in KY.
That's the reason why SC roads are in worse shape than those in NC, TN and KY. We keep bouncing around
because we have a bunch of career state legislators who cant muster up the courage to raise our gas tax a little so we can improve the roads.

I had just finished polishing and waxing Nellie before I left and gave her a wash job after the trip this afternoon.
She now has 104,893 miles on her and she performed flawlessly on the trip and she still looks great.
[IMG] [/IMG]

[Eaglefreek]

I'm not a fan of yellow cars, but that thing is sharp.

[1990new]

I'm not a fan of yellow cars, but that thing is sharp.

Thanks... A big yellow car.. not so much me either, but in a little car on the highway, I like to be seen as much a possible.

She has lots of power and pulls the mountains in 5th amazingly well. Her engine temp shows just a little above center and stays
there once she gets heated up on the highway. Pulling hills with the AC on the temp goes up just a little beyond that.
I didn't have the AC on at all on the way home.. in fact it was so much cooler that I had the heat on until I crossed I95

The timing seem to be set perfectly for both power and fuel economy. I did a comple ignition tuneup on her last year.
And maybe that wax job help her slip through the air with slightly less drag.

[ryanprins13]

Looks great! Other than the auto seatbelts... but the paint looks good and its nice to have an enjoyable, trouble free road trip like that after you have worked on it a bunch

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[fastivaca]

Looks great! Other than the auto seatbelts... but the paint looks good and its nice to have an enjoyable, trouble free road trip like that after you have worked on it a bunch

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Could agree more, I know exactly what you're talking about... here

[1990new]

Could agree more, I know exactly what you're talking about... here

Enjoyed your story about your not so trouble free road trip Ian. Great that you had AAA in addition to the Festiva network help. I've had it for 32 years and it has been worth every penny...used it twice in one day to get Trixie home once last year and I was only 16 miles from home the first time and 6 the next time. For several years before that I hadn't used it at all though.
I've been really lucky with my Festivas since I bought the first one in 1990. Only calls to AAA for my Festivas have been for running out of gas, dead battery, melted fusible link, locking my key in the car (which I now realize was really dumb of me since I learned how easy it is to unlock a Festiva without a key). On other cars I remember that my son had to use it once for a locked up water pump about 70 miles north of Charleston.. AAA towed him all the way home for that one and I fixed the water pump in in his driveway the next weekend.

Oh... wait, I almost forgot about Nellie's big disaster when the engine locked up after it ingested water on a flooded street in Charleston (I believer that was when Nellie had 52,000 on her.. AAA did tow her home (about 10 miles) and a brand new engine (which my comprehensive insurance paid for) cured that problem.

When I first bought Nellie back in 2005, her left front bearing was making noise so I had it rebuilt then. That was at 44,000 miles. Now that's 60,000 miles ago and it's still doing great. I have extra left and right hubs and I even though about taking a couple with me on this trip but didn't.

[1990new]

Looks great! Other than the auto seatbelts... but the paint looks good and its nice to have an enjoyable, trouble free road trip like that after you have worked on it a bunch

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I do like the manual seat belts in Trixie better but the automatic ones have really not given me much of a problem in the other Festivas that I have owned. They also are great entertainment for the kids and young people who have never seen them before.

[radi8u]

Nellie looks great!!!! I bet she gets a lot of attention. Yellow cars always have caught my eye ever since my sister had a bright yellow Celica GT in the late '70s.

[jawja jim]

Great looking car, Jess. I can't believe you didn't get a nice yellow lettered Epco knob for her.

[1990new]

Great looking car, Jess. I can't believe you didn't get a nice yellow lettered Epco knob for her.

I had put a white one with black lettering on her last December but then took it off to give to someone for Christmas.
I probably will get a yellow one for her before too long.

[1990new]

Nellie looks great!!!! I bet she gets a lot of attention. Yellow cars always have caught my eye ever since my sister had a bright yellow Celica GT in the late '70s.

The yellow color for cars seem to be use on small or sporty models and sometimes on performance models quite a bit.
Yes she does get the attention, I often return to parking spots to find people looking at her, especially younger people who have never seen a Festiva before.
Didn't see a single Festiva or Aspire on my trip last week.