What do people think of Festivas ?

[Gman_86_xr6]

Please people, don't be confusing the Fiesta with the Festiva, One is a quality european small car with impeccable standards, the other is a cheap micro car built on a budget for people who buy on a budget.

[phillyc]

Originally Posted by phillyc

We had an earlier manual 1.3L Festy from new. It was the squarer shape. Terrific little car for what it was. Quite capable of taking a beating too. So low kms are not a necessity.

What you are now looking at is something that didn't evolve much from a design from the mid 80s. The price is high too.

History / lineage
Mazda 121 > Festiva > Festiva > Kia Rio

ie very first square 121 from Mazda, then Kia got the tooling and made the Festiva. Same time Mazda introduced the 'rice bubble'.

The next Festiva was based on the previous model. Eventually Kia and Ford parted ways and the Kia Rio was spawned from the 2nd gen Ford Festiva.
I'd be going a Ford Ka (manual only - not sure if auto came out later), otherwise similar coin could get you into a older Euro Fiesta but with more kms.

Good luck with your search!

My bad. I'm usually the one correcting that mixup!!!

Fixed.

[Yellow_Festiva]

Originally Posted by Gman_86_xr6

Please people, don't be confusing the Fiesta with the Festiva, One is a quality european small car with impeccable standards, the other is a cheap micro car built on a budget for people who buy on a budget.

The size of both cars means they share the same class. The Festiva is slighty longer than a Fiesta, the Fiesta is slightly wider than the Festiva. They are within 4mm of each other in height.

Cheers.

[ZA-289]

Good cheap runaround, weak gearboxes tho.

Very reliable otherwise.

[uranium_death]

My brother's partner has one.
By their words, it's a good, cheap runaround but not to be used on considerable trip.
It is a very practical car given its size.
The panels are not strong however. A light hit from my brother's skyline put a massive dent in the front quarter-panel. In a heavy hit, it would not do well.

It has not had any major problems though.

I personally would not touch a small car made before the late 90s...the safety and build quality wasn't really included in most small cars until then...

[4.0i OHC]

I don't think much of Festivas. They're unsafe and don't drive well (no power to speak of). I guess they're cheap to run, but wouldn't you rather spend a little more for a far superior car?

I'd be having a look at Lasers from the same time period, or even an AU falcon on LPG.