The VW bus is of course the iconic Eugene-mobile. But I’ve been amazed over the years how many of these little Ford Festivas there have been around, and still are. They’re obviously tough little buggers. It’s the prefect car to use as a parts runner for the vintage VW bus.
It’s a Mazda 121, but the US version was built by Kia in Korea. But that’s not the only place they were built, in addition to Japan. China, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Taiwan and Venezuela. A real globe trotter, this little Mazda was.
And a VW bus does need a parts runner. I read somewhere that there is a bell curve of success with increasing numbers of busses driving together.
One bus isn’t a great idea, because if it breaks down you don’t have a parts runner. But once you get up around nine, one of them will always have some problem and the group won’t make any progress. 🙂
Love it! Parkinson’s Law for parts cars.
One of these Festivas would be fun. Perhaps not as fun as a Miata, but fun nonetheless. I still see the occasional one running around in central Indiana, which is a little surprising at this late date with our salt use and all.
Are we heading into Korean Cars Appreciation Day here? How appropriate as I was just mulling over how much of a fan of my own Korean car I have become as I drove it into the office this morning.
They were very nice cars if you spent the money on the upper trim level version and stayed away from the stripper that the dealer always put in the Saturday newspaper ads. I think mine was fully optioned except for keeping the manual transmission.
Another Sedona lover here. Mine’s red and has steel wheels. And I’m sick that the third generation vans cannot have the second row of seats removed. I really wanted to replace mine when the time came with a newer version.
A member of the Tampa Miata club has a Fastiva, which apparently has a whole subculture thing, for autocrossing. Apparently, you can bolt Mazda go-fast parts on them and have a fun time on the cheap.
The AAA (American Automobile Association) has been running an ad recently that features a red Festiva like the one pictured. I guess it’s old enough that they can’t be accused of providing free publicity for a specific manufacturer.
The ultimate Festiva was the Shogun. Awesome car.. I think it’s now part of Jay Leno’s collection. Any CC story on it ?
Curiously, it was never sold as a Mazda in its home country, Japan, – only as a Ford Festiva.
According to Wikipedia, it’s been built in Iran since 1993 by SAIPA and approximately 40% of all cars in Iran are these. Crazy!
A friend of mine in Portland had a Ford Festiva for some years. He got it cheap from a used car lot because it had some kind of problem, which he was able to fix easily. It was indeed a tough little bugger, and it got 38mpg in town.
Still have very fond memories of my Festiva. The service it gave me had me going to buy Kias over the past decade with no qualms whatsoever.
Still remember using it for 17th century reenactment, and carrying 16′ pikes on a home-made roof rack, with my muskets in the car. Keeping the butts of the pikes even with the back bumper, the heads stuck out about 2-3 feet beyond the front bumper. Made it really interesting getting in behind some little old blue-hair in her Buick. They can drive at highway speeds, if properly motivated.
In the late ‘80s – early 90s, I had a crush on a girl that drove a newish Festiva.
That didn’t work out, but the girl I met not long after is now my wife. As Alan Jackson sang, she’s “Right on the Money!” 🙂
I used to work with a guy back in the early 90s who had a festiva…he beat that poor shitbox like a rented mule yet it took the abuse with a smile. Gotta appreciate that.
My ex’s brother had a baywindow bus…what a pile. It was WAY past the point that it should have been parted out, and broke down every week like clockwork. And yet, it was never more than a $30 fix, and never totally crippled the thing. Simplicity makes for a strong design.
The Mazda 121 came in all sorts of trim levels including the fun top, the whole roof panel folded away cabriolet style, quite good little cars, I still see the odd survivor driving around.
I bought a fully optioned Festiva LX in 1987 as an 1988 model and thought it might last a year or two. I put 245,000 on it until 2000 and after I sold it, I found it being sold in 2010.
It was a tiny car with a huge interior and at 1300 pounds and a five speed, with the expensive wide sport tires – an excellent car as well.
Still in production down here but they are all 4 doors(sedan&hatch)and pickup.reliable cars but unsafe.kia pride is what we call it here.people joke:God kills and he uses pride as a tool to do it.