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The Ford Festiva Is an Icon of Performance and Perseverance
I vividly remember one of the first moments in my journey to becoming the mildly condescending yet somewhat entertaining automotive journalist you see today. It started with an answer that shut down a question about the need for car dealerships in the U.S.A., and it went a little something like this:
“Dealers exist because you only want to buy one Explorer Eddie Bauer for your family, but if gas prices are low, Ford might just demand you buy two Festiva compliance cars before you get it. Play that game and you too can buy directly from the manufacturer.”
That nugget of wisdom wasn’t an insult to this South Korean import of Japanese origin, as the Ford Festiva’s multifaceted legacy has cemented its stateside raison d’etre. My answer came from witnessing how 1993 Festivas cured like a foundation as they sat at one Houston-area Ford dealership. The store was named after a man who met a tragic fate with dangerous repercussions for his famiy, but it was showing signs of stress years before that tragedy unfolded: months passed with Festivas stacked up like firewood by the Southwest Freeway, with only two of the desirable Ford Explorers in inventory, staring them down and sizing them up.
But both the Explorers at this dealership were two-door Sport models with zero options and manual transmissions, so they spent plenty of time conversing with their Korean brethren. (Shoppers fled to other Ford dealers with proper allocations of the coveted SUV.) And the stories those Festivas musta told those glorified Rangers desirable SUVs about the merits of globalism, durability, practicality, and longevity had to be priceless.
While the Explorer was a smashing success in North America, the less-loved Festiva put the world on wheels like a modern-day Model T, with names like the Mazda 121, Kia Pride, and Saipa 111. The question isn’t where the Festiva was sold, rather where didn’t it have an impact. To this day, the 1986 Mazda/Kia/Ford Festiva is sold in Tunisia as the Wallys 619, and they highlight the Festiva connection in their marketing material as a source of pride in its durability and affordability.
What the folks at Wallys (rightly) glossed over is how such a global platform can be foundation for a whole lotta fun. And those Festivas I saw for months at the Ford store couldn’t possibily imagine a future where they turned heads like their Fox Body Mustang relatives.
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But that’s precisely what happened, as the 1,700 lb Festiva went from an impressive fuel sipper with a small group of loyal fans, to an affordable pocket rocket with suspension and steering subsystems sporting Mazda-worthy dynamics.
We all know about the mid-engine Festiva Shogun from the likes of Jay Leno, but the grassroots motorsport enthusiast leveraged powertrains from Mazda to do the Festiva a solid, creating a micro-sized monster out of the modest Ford.
Making it happen is easy, as the most common conversion is the Mazda BP swap. This 16-valve, 1.8-liter engine shares its blueprint with the Festiva’s 1.3-liter, eight-valve, B3-series engine. Horsepower jumps from 58 to 127, with a strong powerband and a 7,000 rpm redline. The BP’s internals are also friendly to turbocharging, which has its upsides in straight-line performance.
In my years as a judge at The 24 Hours of Lemons, I’ve seen modified Festivas go from competitive challengers to outright class winners in this somewhat-famous endurance series. I was even given one of these vehicles as a weekend cruiser when I judged a Lemons race. It was BP-swapped and had a power-to-weight ratio I never experienced, making it a bit of a personal revelation.
My limited time with a BP-swapped Festiva also included a mild lift kit using off the shelf bits, and off-road tires. Be it on or off road, that little ‘stiva was treat: clearly, the DNA in this platform is a dynamic delight, likely for the same reasons its Mazda Miata relative is one of the best sports cars ever made.
So it’s no surprise that the folks at Motorweek came away from their experience with the new Ford Festiva in posh (posh?) LX trim with good overall vibes. The chassis dynamics were hampered by the puny 12-inch wheels, even with the extra 20 mm tire width (now at 165 mm), an extra half an inch of wheel width (up to a robust 4.5 inches), and shorter 70-series sidewall on the LX trim level. But the rest of the platform impressed relative to its asking price, from the bold fender flares to its precise transmission.
But what really impressed me was how Motorweek’s John Davis set the Festiva up for success by recognizing its ability to be a finely designed Japanese car, made cheaply in South Korea, and sold/serviced/warrantied by one of the largest dealer networks in the North America. This was not possible with the Festiva’s competition, especially if you lived outside of a major metropolitan area. The 1980s were a time when Toyota had yet to dominate all corners of America, Honda was a bit corrupt in its retailing, and even GM was muddying the waters with an Isuzu-based Chevrolet Spectrum and a Suzuki-based Geo Metro.
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So the Festiva with its muscular little fenders and a heart of engineering gold occupies a unique spot in automotive history. It’s no “small wonder” (sorry) that the platform survived in markets around the world well after the American Festiva disappeared in 1993. Perhaps the Tunisian derivative that’s still for sale today is also a hoot to drive at full tilt, as it’s always more fun to drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow. It has gotta be a giddly little thrill, because the legacy of ‘stiva life cannot be wrong.
Cemented and cured like a foundation. MI will have to remember these metaphors.
The real trouble here was and still is we are not a small car country. We travel long distances, we like more room and utility from our vehicles. Also we have many larger models that can do much damage to these small cars.
This week for example I took a hit head on to the center of my grille in my Canyon. It totaled the Rav 4 that hit me. I broke a grill and bent the bumper bar and no sheet metal damage. I drove home while her car went on a hook.
The fact is the average size Americans want for a car is roughly the size of a 1948 Ford Sedan. If they can’t get it in a car they will buy a CUV, SUV or truck to get it.
All these little cars just never connect and never will.
I’m not sure what the point of your comment is. Are you trying to say these cars will never be mainstream? They sold over 350,000 of them from 1988 to 1993. That was also a time when everything was smaller.
They came out of the woodwork when gas prices started shooting up in the mid-late 2000’s. But they were also treated as throwaway cars with little to no maintenance done. As hardy as they are (near indestructible)…you can’t avoid things like wheel bearings and suspension bits wearing out. People will junk a cheap car over things like that. And then there’s the rust. Once the rear axle mounts start to rust out, it’s a death sentence.
But yeah of course it’s not gonna hold up in a wreck compared to modern/huge vehicles. For what they are they do surprisingly well in front/rear collisions but that’s about it.
I’ve driven mine from Ohio to Arizona and back, and also to Key West and back. Didn’t die.
The Shogun that Jay Leno had was the best Festiva version.
At the time they were built yes. We have far exceeded their performance capabilities since then while maintaining the original drivetrain layout and doing it much more cheaply since then.
Still sweet cars. Sadly one of the six was lost in the Colorado wild fires a couple years back.
An absolute soup can of a car. The cheapest airport rental you could possibly get. Mine was from Rent- A- Wreck in L.A. I loved it. Small easy to park in tight spaces and sipped so little gas that I stopped bothering to look at the gas gauge on my meandering sightseeing tours.It felt like it weighed nothing because as you mention they do. So much so that ‘spirited driving’ with a less than 60 horse was a blast outside of Pasadena. I wonder how much fun it would have been with just a simple upgrade to somewhat better tires from the all season economies it was riding on. I felt like driving it back to New York instead of returning it. Even if I’d stayed at flea bag motels ( the cheap clean Mom and Pops ) it probably would have cost about the same as my airfare.
I’ve always liked these little Festivas. I never really knew anyone in the 90s who drove one because they wanted to. Most everyone I knew who had one was because that was all they could afford. However, I think these were slightly better than the Geo Metros, at least from an interior quality standpoint. I would like to have one, though!
We’ve had Festiva’s for almost 25 years! However, our current one is far from stock. I’ve taken advantage of the Mazda family connection and transplanted a 1.6l, 16 valve DOHC turbocharged engine from an ’88 Mazda 323 GT into the Festivas engine bay. We’ve travelled far and wide with our Festivas having been in 36 of the lower 48 states in one. Not bad for a family from Calgary AB. One of our more epic trips was one of 10,000km/6,000 miles in 15 days with our three youngest children in the back seat!
I fondly remember meeting you all on that trip and hope you get to do it again soon.
Heyyyy Hagerty can I get some royalties from the traffic generated by using my video?
I know it’s a public YouTube video from 11 years ago, but I’m still ballin on a budget here automotively. Thanks 😁
Only if we get a ride in that sweet machine! #stivalife
Unfortunately that one is no longer with us. I only have a “stock ish” one with minor enhancements that’s rolling up on 350,000 miles at this point.
That’s understandable, as going that fast is gonna take its toll on a subcompact like the Festiva. Unfortunate, but understandable. This is why I want a mostly stock BP swapped model, running just a little hotter than an Escort GT would back in the day.
An eccentric friend bought one in about 1991 and commuted in it for 8 or 9 years- it was a durable little thing. I only drove it once- very tossable and peppy due to the light weight. As I recall it was a 4-speed(?) but it was indeed a sardine can. The only car I could compare it to was the 3-cyl. Subaru Justy.
The truly odd thing was that in the 2000s I had two co-workers who each weighed close to 300lb.- and they both had 30+ mile commutes in their Festivas. In upstate NY winters!
There are one or two I still see around in Tucson; so I guess they qualify as good cars, just too small for me.
About the only good thing to be said for the Festiva, is that it was probably better than what followed: the Aspire.
great. just great. sajeev, i’ve been looking for one of these for about a year, and now you had to tell the world (or, at least, north america) about this car. you’ve probably doubled the asking price! $.5k was my ceiling price. but now… lol! (i mean, sigh)
I will not rest until ‘stivas trade for Air Cooled Porsche prices MUHAHAHAHAHA!
#stivalife
meanie!
#stivalife
I seriously considered buying a Festiva in 1991, but, speaking much to hyperv6’s comment, I chose something bigger. Not much bigger-a left-over 1990 Dodge Omni-but more interior and cargo space, plus more relaxed on the highway. The Omni served me well, but I always wondered if I would have enjoyed the “tossable” Festiva more.
I lived 30 miles from work for many years and drove Ford Pintos into the ground commuting (8 total), switched to Festivas bought at public car auctions until I retired. I had 3 Festivas, red, white, and blue, and all went over 100k with proper maintenance. Of course, head on with a dog, you lose, but that’s the chance you take.
I worked on a GAZILLION of these at Predelivery Service in Dundalk Maryland which was a prep center for Ford that processed these coming if through the Port of Baltimore. We installed ragtops, sunroofs and tape stripe. Many a roof were cut incorrectly and we covered up our mess with the adhesive tape that bordered the ragtop versions. These were peppy little cars that were actually fun to drive. What good memories. I remember a ship came over where a compartment came open during the overseas voyage where 50+ cars were contaminated with salty air. The took out the gas tanks and then crushed them at Seagirt Marine Terminal since all of the copper wiring would have been contaminated. They always came to us all muddy and dirty but we heard that they were stored near rice fields in Korea that emitted a lot of dirt and such while sitting there.
You might enjoy this video from 11 years ago. (Go to YouTube – Ice racing in Michigan. The passion of ice)
One of the cars competing was a Festiva upgraded to a Escort GT engine. We ran in a group named MIRA (Micigan Ice Racing Association). Unfortunately, it was disbanded about 3 yrs later. The video was done by Autoweek.
I had an 89 Festiva L (we called it The Festival), and it rescued me from my 82 Peugeot 505 (505 reasons why never to buy another Peugeot). That plucky car got me around for years until I moved on to a 92 Ford Probe LX because I was doing a lot of long distance driving and needed something with longer gears. It sat around until my son got old enough to drive and then it got resurrected for him. Even though it was tinny, it was tough too. I thrashed the crap out of it.
At the time they were popular, I guess I didn’t realize the Mazda connection. While Ford owned…was it 20% or 30% of Mazda at the time, there was a lot of tech and parts swapping going on. The 2007 Mazdaspeed 3 that I owned…what brutally quick and good handling vehicle that was…had many Ford labeled parts on it. So it make sense that with a little modification, these little scooters could be quite fun!