Look at that car in the photo above. It’s tiny, it would probably crush like an aluminum can if it got into a crash, and it’s being sold for an asking price very close to its original MSRP back in 1988. “What a ripoff!” the average person might think. But actually, this machine — if it’s in as good a shape as it appears — is a smoking hot deal, and I’ll tell you why.
The Ford Festiva is one of the most lovable machines ever made, not just because of its diminutive size, but because it accomplishes its intended function almost perfectly. And anytime an automaker says ‘This car is going to be the very best at XYZ,” and the car actually is the best — well, that’s something to celebrate given the hyperbole in automotive marketing.
“Festiva is dedicated to the proposition that all small cars aren’t created equal,” begins the 1988 Festiva’s brochure. (Yes, Ford quoted the Gettysburg Address in an ad). The brochure goes on to talk about “unmistakable Ford styling,” and a “solid, wide stance” that gives it stability. But above all, the car’s hallmark is: “interior space efficiency.” And actually, if you ask Festiva owners, they’ll tell you they agree. The car is tiny on the outside, not that small on the inside. It’s a little front-wheel drive machine designed by Mazda and built by Kia, who exported it to the U.S., where it was sold for only $5,490. That’s about $15,000 in today’s weaker dollars. That’s legitimately cheap!
“Comfort is very much part of the formula. So is fun. Festiva’s power front disc brakes, agile suspension, 1.3-liter overhead-cam 4-cylinder engine and manual overdrive transaxle make it a lot of fun to drive.,” the brochure continues. “Festiva also provides the small-car benefits that are expected. EPA estimated fuel economy for the LX model is an impressive 39 mpg City for around-town efficiency. 43 mpg highway,” it reads, before discussing just how maneuverable this little one-box Ford is.
All of this is true. The Festiva is elite in the areas of maneuverability, fuel economy, and space utilization. The entire drivetrain is under the short front hood. Everything aft of the front axle is interior space, and there’s plenty of it, even if that seems impossible given that the car is 16.5 inches shorter than my little BMW i3.
What’s more, it’s fun. Festivas have for years been icons of the low-budget racing scene.
So it’s maneuverable, space-efficient, fuel efficient, and fun. But if that’s not enough to convince you to drive this tiny classic deathtrap, consider this: These cars do not die. Just look around the internet, and you’ll see posts like this one from Reddit’s “r/Justrolledintotheshop”:
Seriously, the number of “I’ve put 200,000 miles on this car and it’s needed pretty much nothing” stories about the Festiva is shocking. It probably helped that the Mazda-sourced 1.3-liter four-cylinder only made 58 horsepower, but the vehicle weighs under 1,800 pounds! So no matter how hard you drive it, the stresses on the components really aren’t that high. So to find one with only 61,000 (allegedly) original miles is just absurd:
What’s more, the interior looks simply incredible:
It’s yet another example of how California’s Craigslist/Facebook Marketplace is the best on earth. You’d think this machine would be exorbitantly expensive, but $5,000 isn’t bad for what looks like a minty example of one of America’s greatest city cars of all time.
It’s not that uncommon to see old cars with low mileage and in excellent shape, but it is uncommon when those vehicles aren’t sports cars or otherwise collector cars. Daily drivers like this Ford Festiva are rarely ever maintained in this nice of shape for this long; these cheap vehicles were not waxed every week and stored away in a climate controlled garage — they were workhorses. They were beat on during the week, and put away wet under maybe a carport, if anything.
So to see such an inexpensive, normal car all these years later in such nice shape is just awesome. And the fact that it’s available for just $5,000? I mean, that’s tempting to me, and I’m actively trying to reduce my fleet.
Anyway, I’ll leave you with these Festiva ads, because they’re fun:
Images: Photos of this car: Joana Gallarzo/Facebook Marketplace; brochure photos: Ford
But it has a timing belt! Not reliable! Seriously though, a friend bought a brand new, base-model Fiesta L in 1988 when he was not long graduated from high school. (How many recent high school grads could buy a new car today?) He drove that car hard but it never gave up. He fitted a powerful stereo with two Bazooka Tube subwoofers. You could hear him coming from a couple of streets away! Some of my hearing loss can be attributed to that car.
The Festiva was decent little car if you needed a domestic badge on the front. Unless you bought a bottom of the line, no options whatsoever stripper, others cars were a much better deal.
By the time you stepped up to the 5 speed manual trim level instead of the standard 4 speed manual on base cars, you were deep in competition with much better cars.
I’d much rather have a Mitsubishi Mirage/Dodge Colt, a Toyota Tercel, a Nissan Sentra or a Honda Civic for the same money. Having driven both, I’d even take a Geo Metro over a base model Festiva.
As little race cars, the fact that Festivas were stamped thin and had barely more than vinyl covered cardboard sheets for door cards turns out to be a plus.
I do love the console free, truck-style shifter on the floor, though.
Metro or Festiva was easy; the Metro was vaguely sporty looking and definitely much more fun to drive.
You forgot the Subaru Justy; my sister had one (with the ECVT replaced with a five-speed) and it was really nice – reliable and handy.
I didn’t forget the Justy, I left it out. I’d take any Justy over a Festiva automatic. But even the 4 speed Festiva manual was better than the Justy with the CVT.
I’ve driven all the cars I’ve mentioned, many times. Can’t comment on a Justy 5 speed. I never drove one.
Ford always could do small cars well when they put they’re mind (or they’re corporate partners) too it. Shame they threw in the towel.
This ear worm still haunts me today.
It’s a Fooord! It’s a Festiva!
https://youtu.be/9RTBz2QvWiI?feature=shared
Came here for this, thank you!
This is way back and is hazy, I remember an on (Detroit maybe?) TV road test, where they said the car should come with a wreath for the occupants in an accident.
Lusting after an ’88 Festiva as a viable daily driver is the equivalent of “eat cereal for dinner” in today’s inflationary climate.
I tried the cereal for dinner thing years ago for the family out of laziness. They were all hungry again an hour later and I had to make real dinner. Never made that mistake again.
Cereal for dinner makes no sense. They are breakfast food because the starch/fibre gives you energy to start the day. Not what you want for an evening meal.
That’s how far we’ve fallen. The used car market is especially bleak if you’re poor. A running, driving $5k Fiesta, repairable with basic tools, good on fuel economy, composed of basic standardized parts shared with many other inexpensive vehicles, assures that as long as you know how to work on it and have the basic tools required to do so, it won’t leave you “Found On Road Dead”. It will remain cheap to operate. And if you’re Joe or Jane Normie that will never work on anything and run it into the ground, it will probably provide you at least 1-2 years of service life without maintenance/repairs until it does. Consider that the average used car transaction approaches $30,000.
I bought many years ago with 25K on it for $1200. It had motorized seatbelts, which like the rest of the car, never caused any problem. It had a nice shifter, got good mpg, fun to drive, and I cut a hole in the roof to put in one of those DIY sunroofs, which never leaked. Great car.
Agreed for all the reasons mentioned. $5k is fair price for a reliable cheap and easy to service 40 mpg car.
I can attest to this generation of Japanese designed, domestically branded cars being fun to drive and unbreakable, as long as you didn’t hit something (or got hit in one). I had the equivalent GM, an ’86 Chevy Sprint Plus – the 4 door twin of the Suzuki Swift. One-liter, 50hp 3 cylinder w/5 speed. About the same base price, 1684 lbs, top speed, about 93mph, got over 40mpg pushing it hard, over 50 babying it on the highway. Never a real issue with it except the front disc brakes, which seized up at 88k miles from LACK of use, only 25% wear on pads, and covered by GM’s very generous warranty. I gave mine to my brother with 143k on it and the original clutch still going strong.
Very space efficient -with the hatches and fold down seats – almost an optimized 1st gen Civic. Lack of airbags, A/C, and any side safety structure kept the weight down. Thin 12in tires were great in the snow, with no momentum to land you in the ditch. And if you got stuck, 2 people could pick up the front end and move you out!
The next gen of these (Metro, Aspire) maximized fuel efficiency but lost some durability and space for aero advantages.
Quite the inflation (almost 42%) between the 1988 price and the one in the commercial for the 1991 model.
Given that the Festiva in the 1991 commercial is available “at Ford and Mercury dealers” and the fine print states that the quoted cost excludes GST, I’m guessing that’s the price in Canadian “dollars” rather than the actual hard currency of freedom’s favored domain.
I used to say the Festiva was a pile of plastic junk w/ bowling balls for wheels and was one of the worst cars ever made…well, I still do
Agree. It was a bad deal in 88 and is an infinitely worse one now.
I feel like I have to add that this article really does feel like an April Fool’s Day gag, ha ha (well, to me at least) because seriously, a Festiva? My brother and I used to rag on this and certain cars so much that we used to come up w/ jokes for each one…Geo Metro, Plymouth Reliant/Dodge Aries, etc. At the same time though, due to this site…I’m gaining more perspective on cars and am glad that people can enjoy these cars because they are their cars and I have no place at all to say otherwise.
“But if that’s not enough to convince you to drive this tiny classic deathtrap”
Nope, not even close…maybe to drive it off a cliff?
Weird Festiva memories.
The Follow-on, Ford Aspire, was a better deal than the Festiva, tin the very least way by looking like a generic Jelly-Bean car of the era, than screaming out
‘I’m a boxy Festiva, and not a Yugo’
Is this an americanized version of the OG Ford Fiesta then? In principle great city cars and yes time and again one gets tempted by what is close to one year old example in terms of condition, but decades after the fact.
I got to enjoy a W123 Mercedes with only 11000 miles (20 years old), a 24000 miles 2009 Crown Vic Police Interceptor, all worthwhile to enjoy and real time machines. In particular you could now do the preventive maintenance (rust prevention for the W123) with tons of got advice all over the forums. I eventually sold them, so others could enjoy, there is nothing as a low mileage well preserved example of it’s kind. As for this one, talk yourself into the actual “cheapness” compared to a one or two year old city car, the simplicity of it’s systems and how long you could probably keep it on the road without electrical or computer problems.
I have mixed memories of these, rented one in 1994 from “Rent a wreck” (are they still around, worthwhile?) and it was seriously hindered by it’s automatic and A/C. The drive up to Griffith Observatory (probably to commemorate some movie shot there) tested the few HP that had remained and it came to an asthmatic stop, only one way to move….downhill.
No. While we did get the MkI Fiesta in the late 70’s/early 80’s, the Festiva was a captive import. These were basically a Mazda 121 with a different badge.
And built by KIA for the US market.
I spent an inordinate amount of time on figuring out what the main design was; I have come to the conclusion that although it was mostly designed by Mazda and built by Kia, it was primarily a Ford Festiva. The Mazda 121 badge was only used in Australia and Europe.
In Japan, it was only ever sold with Ford Festiva badging and never as a Mazda. Once the second-gen 121 (Autozam Revue) arrived, Kia was finally free to sell the car with their own badging as the Kia Pride. I do have a hankering for a Pride Wagon; that would confuse people at the Cars and Coffees.
The Volkswagen Up is basically the modern day equivalent. Almost identical length, width, and power, and pretty fun to drive too. Coincidentally, also costs about 5k for one with 50k miles.
Can I have the UP! instead? Preferably in GTI?
I rented one and loved it. Would import, but I’m not sure how they will hold Up once they reach 25 years.
Had a Fiesta for a few years back in the 80s. Great city car and wasn’t half bad on the highway. The thing got great fuel economy.
Dad had a mid 80s Fiesta back in the day, I still long for that little pop can sometimes.
This would make for a great daily driver. I’d want to do a Coyote swap on it though…
I’m gonna do a (shameful?) confession. I don’t always know what’s meant by one/two/n-box.
My F-150 has a single cab. Is one-box? Z4 has a nice long hood, with glorious longitudal I6 – is also one-box? 04 sentra was a one-box? Two box? I can imagine a frame that encloses a Festiva and is ultimately one-box, one load(crash)-bearing cell around the passenger compartment. Is this right? What makes it one-box v two v three?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_body_configurations
Funnily enough, I actually intuited this was the case, but still don’t quite grok how a monospace vs. two-box occurs. I think the answer is “it depends”, but it’s not as if there’s some clear delineator that the firewall is fore/aft of the A-pillar, etc. You can look, apparently, identical to two-box from the outside but maybe you’re one-box because reasons.
Think of it as Lego’s, or low pixel representation. If it has a protrusion best defined as an additional box, it is not one box.
Most cars are pretty clearly two box or one box, and a lot of the delineation comes from where the engine is: in front of the drivers feet or somewhere under the passenger/cargo space. But plenty of vans and minivans blur the line.
To me, this Festiva looks like a two-box design.
The best thing about this is that easily accessible engine servicing points is such a selling point that it’s in the brochure. It seems like cars today are purposefully going the opposite direction.
Yeah, back in the day, it certainly was a much bigger consumer concern than it is now, right? People actually factored this into their buying decision. Along with parts availability…I knew plenty of people who bought domestics not b/c being hidebound stuck-in-the-past, but b/c they were also weighing the ease/speed of repair in their purchase decision.
I remember these lined up at the dealer when they were new. They had a bunch of different sticker and stripe packages, the “Festivasaurus” was the most memorable. My wife bought one; with the back seat folded there was a lot of room in the back. I remember picking up a dishwasher (in the box) with it. It was a bit comical to back up to a loading dock, and the guy didn’t believe it would fit until we shoved the dishwasher into the back.
Get a 92 or newer, enjoy the switch to fuel injection. Bought one new for $4999 that year. Great city/commuter vehicle, would do again. Like driving a go-kart on the road, but legally.
Agreed, fuel injection makes the later cars a much better proposition. Actually believe it was standard on North American specification cars in 1990, so there are potentially more out there with it. Our 1991 GL was fuel injected and a five speed as well, so better on the highway. Made it to 219,000 miles before donating it in 2005.
Not a “one box” till after the first accident.
$5k can get something that is not a death trap.
“First”?
No, if this gets into an accident, it’s zero-box!
They’ll give you one.
i’d rather walk
I think that 85 mph speedometer might be a bit optimistic. One of those neat little cars you used to see everywhere (usually in 90s teal) but never see anymore.
Or maybe not. I had an older 1 litre Fiesta that did 80, just took a while to get there. The Festiva is bigger but almost 50% more powerful!
I had one of these and it would do 80 just fine. If I was doing that for long distances I would have to crack a window for vent air to exit the cabin otherwise the door frames started to pull away from the body…
Drove one as a rental back in the 90s, was actually surprised at how zippy it was in the mountains.