Why did you buy your Festiva?

[marinepolice03]

well my first festiva was given to me as my 16th christmas present. that is beacuse back in 88 my dad bought a Red 1988 Festiva L New and i fell in love with it then. well after driving my first festiva i got hooked and just couldnt belive that 1 car can be so much fun to drive and have the MPG that it does.Then when i met my wife i got her hooked on these awesome little cars And now she loves driving them.

[MJD]

We got this '88 LX about 15 months ago, because I knew of it in a junk yard from hitting a deer in front. Now being retired, I had a bit more time ? ..to do a few fun things !
This '88 LX has such a mint interior, and in the tan, I wanted to save it, could not sleep until I did. I took grill and inner front supports off parts Festivas we have, and a hood, and got her running and looking soooo much better.
The body is not perfect, but other than the add-on graphics, Oxford white paint is original. I touched up the grill and bumpers too.
Really glad I got her roadworthy again. 214,000 plus miles on engine, 5 speed with the LX options. It is so clean inside too. Has the rare pink underseat tray ? HA !
Priviledged to have the photo in our new FF.com 2010 calendar for February. Thank you gentlemen !







The very first Festiva we got was from my Dad who bought in new, a 1990 L Plus, wife drives...what a great car, and I recall Dad asking me for my opinion of the car when he was considering it....so glad he did get it. Even still has working factory air now...what an easy starting car it still is...about 100,000 miles now, that is how I got the bug about them and also finding this site.
Thanks to all for your info and help in my questions. Yes ...they are addictive little jewels of a car -- ccasion7:




Wife still not appreciative, when I want to chase down these little cars....

:jerk:

mjd

[Charlie1717]

I bought my festiva in October of 2009. So I'm still new to the festiva world but I love my festiva. My first car was a 97 mercury mountaineer I loved it except the horrible mpg and it had alot of problems. I sold it because my family needed the funds so I got a beater plymouth neon. It sucked but it got me from point a to point b I fixed it up so and sold it for a decent profit which was enough to get my festiva! after some intense negotiation.

I always wanted a festiva I don't know why I've just always wanted one! Reliable, great mpg, easy/cheap to fix.

[Zanzer]

I bought mine a little over a year or so ago when gas prices went through the roof and there were shortages in this area. It got me to thinking; most of my driving is just local point A to point B stuff and my 96 F150 has a pretty modified 351W that only gets about 15mpg. My 98 Mustang isn't much better because I've done alot of work to it as well, plus I wanted to keep the miles low. I have a 94 Suzuki Katana that I ride in the warm months that gets awesome mileage but you can't really haul anything and needed something for the winter months.

I bleed Ford blue so I got to thinking about what Ford I could buy that got awesome mileage. I first thought about getting a Focus, but the prices were stupid due to the recent gas crisis. Then I remembered; "Ford used to make a Festiva! I wonder of any of those are still around?" (little did I know at the time LOL). So I got on Craigslist and found one about 2 hours from here, When I first saw it I was like; "No way, that thing is thrashed" but the guy said we should go for a ride so I was like "ok, what the hell, I've driven 2 hours to see it, I can at least go for a ride". I weigh in at 250 and the guy who owned the car had at least 75 pounds on me. When we took off my GF said later that: "I've never seen 2 guys so big in a car so small get gone so fast". It looked like crap but it ran like a Swiss watch. I was totally amazed at how good this thing ran! I brought it home and fixed a few of the major things it need and just drove it for a month or so.

The funny thing is that the fuel shortage was still going on and luckily when I bought it the thing had a full tank of gas. The whole time people were waiting in line for gas I was just driving past the station and smiling. My friends couldn't go anywhere due to the gas shortage and I could drive around as if it was business as usual. It was GREAT! When it finally did run out of gas I siphoned 5 gallons out of my lawn mower and it gave me half a tank! That 5 gallons was enough to get me through till shipments started coming to the gas stations again. I've been in love with this car ever since. Another thing I've found that fueled the addiction was just how easy it was to work on the car and how cheap the parts were.

After the fuel shortage I had some time to focus on fixing some more stuff on the car and once I started it was so easy to work on I just couldn't stop! I'd fix something and would be like "Wow, that was cheap and easy, wonder what I can do to it next?" So far I've replaced all the brakes, master cylinder, struts, ball joints, CV axles, control arms (made some poly bushings out of Mustang end links LOL), valve cover gasket, and did a full tune up. The only thing I have left is the body stuff that needs repairing.

I'm am totally in love with these cars now, and it's really nice to have something that gets the same fuel mileage as my Katana AND has a heater!

[MONSOON]

^^LOL! I love that story!^^

[TONYCASH]

Bought mine because my truck was impounded(got it back 1yr & 7 mths later).I bought it for $1000 at the time.Since then I purchased over 35 complete Festivas.Love'em.

[heavyhauler_joe]

I bought my first one because they were so cheap and good on gas. 12 of them latter they are still my daily driver.

[shewy71]

had one a few years ago and wanted another one so i bought the one i have now for 150.00.needed a work car

[ericsmith32]

-Got my first Festiva 90 L-Plus Sunsport from dad as a first car. Paid $1500 and the other $1500 was considered a gift. Totaled that poor thing twice.. part of the reason I kept buying them tough little cars. Had alot of fun in it!

-The second I owned the grandparents found it for me for $250. 88L with 150k had a tweeked front end but with some chains put her back in shape. I think I sold because of the weak clutch but did so for $750.. I kick myself.

-The 91 with 80k I bought because I was driving 20 miles to work and the F150 5.4L was killing my wallet. Put about 50k on and sold it to my dad. Has over 200k now.

-The 94 Aspire bought for $600 needed a new motor but the ac was ice-cold.. reason I got it. Put a new motor in and put 30k on it. Sold for $1200 because we were getting married. Should of never sold it.

-The 95 Aspire bought for $400. Needed front wheel bearings. Missed the AC sold it for $800.

-The 91 Festiva I bought because it's a automatic! And he only wanted $450 for it. Probably the closest to my first car I'll get. Needs a new oil pan gasket and that's it. And I sold the Ranger so no more payments... I guess you can say alot of reasons. I'll be dead before it leaves my ownership.

Other reasons.. its a "world" car. Alot of parts are interchangeable and their cheap. Not to mention the $20 fillups, ease of parking, cheap insurance, cheap registration, don't have to worry about thieves for the most part....

[BEASTS'TIVA]

88 festiva l

bought ours for my wife. i test drove it and she loved it. got it home and she told me, she didnt know how to drive standard. taught her to drive standard. she passed her driving test, then she promptly drove it into a fence. she took my car and we (festiva and i) have not been seperated since. now i wont even let her touch it. guys at work, particularly one guy made fun of it. they didnt make fun of it, when gas went up to 4$ a gallon. that particular guy used to call it a pos. ever since i had it painted/carbon fiber hood/new tires and rims/fender rolled/new front and rear bumpers/quick release steering wheel etc. etc. i make sure i park next to his, and the other guys call his a pos. tiger.

[eurotiva]

^ wanna sell one of those?

[Festiva_Fred]

I bought my first one because I remembered that my parents had one, a Blue GL and at that time I was interested in buying my first car for a project, and wanted a small hatchback. I looked up festivas in google and came across this site, joined, and after seeing all the cool stuff you could do to them I started looking for one. After a while I bought my first one from a friends dad, it was a Red 90' L 5-spd. I worked on that car for a while, then my parents decided they wanted one again and bought a 89' L ATX and that was the first festiva I ever drove out on the hwy, I loved it. A little later on I traded "Red" for some parts with festivaWES, and then bought 3 Festivas at the same time, a 89' L, 90 L+, and a 93 L. I worked on the L+ for a while, then quit work on that after my parents gave me the 89' L. Then I let my parents keep the 89' and I fixed up the 93' (the one in my sig pic) with help from festivaWES, the other 89' was a parts car, and now the 89' ATX is mine also, and that is my next project. The 90 L+ is going to be the parts car to help fix that car up. So for now, at this point in my life I will just have 2 festivas after all is said and done, but I'm sure I'll buy more later on in life

Dang I typed alot.. lol

[aglatfe1]

Last summer my 1987 Dodge Aries died and i needed a cheap car. I went for a month or so without a car. My dad's friend had a festiva and i guess he felt bad for me so he gave it to my dad. My dad fixed it up for me and taught me how to drive stick! now i'm happy!

[spiko]

Because the guy I bought it from is awesome

[stevewl1164]

I bought my first Festiva...a 1993 FL five speed in 1995 because it was $6000 with 29K because it was nearly new and under warranty. It was pretty. It needed new wheel bearings the first day! Then the transmission went out because whoever adjusted the clutch did not tighten the bolt on top of the transmission and it ate itself up! Then I ran out of gas and ruined something causing it to spark knock. Then a friend got out of the passenger door and it did not shut all the way after he locked the door. He bumped it with his hip and it caved in...a HUGE warp! Then I sideswiped someone with it. I got the insurrance money and sold it for $4400...all in six months. My first experience sucked!