1988 Ford Festiva LX review from North America

NOTHING - other than usual stuff.

In 1991, my then boyfriend / now husband and I bought "our" first car in Colorado - a 1988 Festiva. It had some 41K miles on it - it was a repo - we paid less than $2500 for it. It was/still is fire engine red.

In 1992 we moved into the panhandle of Idaho, my newly-wed (3 days) husband in a Ryder truck with all of our stuff in it, me in the Festiva with the cats. Our truck broke down twice and in the end we had to unload every thing into a new truck. The Festiva was there to get help!!

In Idaho our Festiva endure snowstorms (18+ inches on rural roads), a minor fender bender, and 30+ miles (one way) daily trips to School. It never failed us.

In 1994 we moved to western Oregon (Festiva at 82 K - I have the carfax report in front of me). Same moving procedure. In Oregon (Willamette Valley) it endured 280 rainy days a year - for 5 years, never saw the inside of a garage, was dinged and danged in "on-campus" parking lots like a ping pong ball (NOT by us, mind You!!!), my husband "wrapped" it around a fence pole (it has a BIG dent on the co-pilot side), it got egged, handled city traffic like a champ and took us to the coast (60 miles) many a Sunday.

In 1999 we moved to Western PA -- clear across the county. We had the good sense to put it on a dolly, but when the gas ran out on the moving truck (broken gas gauge), the Festiva was there.

When we got to PA it passed emissions and safety inspections (MUST do every year here) with flying colors!!! The mechs at the shop were blown away.

In Dec. of 1999 my husband and I decided to get a "more reliable" car, a used Taurus with 60K on it.

We kept the Festiva as "my" car. At that point the Festiva had 100+K miles on it.

In the spring of 2001 we bought a house, a 50+ year old fixer-upper, about 15 miles away from our rental apartment. The house needed a ton of work, so we overlapped the house and apartment for a month. I took out the back bench of the Festiva, and every morning, while my hubby was at work, drove over to the house with tons of stuff in the back (mostly fragile stuff, stereo, computers, dishes...), to be there when they put on the new roof, fixed the stairs... while I was working on the floors, refinish the kitchen... At night, I'd unload the Festiva at the house, drive back to the apartment, load up the Festiva for the next morning. The next morning, back to the house.

We moved a lot of our stuff that way, driving up and down steep hills... Festiva - no problem - it might ride a little low, but it made it. We rented a U-haul for a day to move the BIG stuff: bed, couch, shelf's, office furniture...

After we permanently moved into "OUR" house, I started getting into woodworking.

DID YOU KNOW: That you can fit a FULL sheet of 4x8 ply wood into an 88 Festiva -- I kid you not.

As a matter of fact, you can get about 2 1/2 inches (thickness) worth of sheet wood into it. {From the back, resting on the rear speaker thingies & pushed forwards towards the head rests; You'll have to put down a pillow on the sheet goods, and tie the hatch & goods down using the tow loops on the bottom and the rear windshield wiper; PLEASE do not forget to put proper RED warning flags on the outside corners & drive slowly}. I'm known at the local Lowe's (Hardware store) and around my neighborhood as the lady with the little red car.

DID YOU ALSO KNOW: If you take out the back seat (Easy - 2 bolts) you can fit a stove or dishwasher into the trunk. Again -- I kid you not. We hauled both of the home that way.

FUNNY STORY about this: When we bought our new stove (electric, standard size -- at Lowe's) we waited for the sales guy who was talking to another couple. They finally decided and the sales dude got their stove. Then it was our turn. We knew which one we wanted (a used floor model), the guy got a Lowe's cart / dolly. It took him a few minutes. After we loaded it on there, he asked us if needed any help, we said no, so we paid up, and rolled it to our car, where we quickly loaded it. We put a pillow in between the stove and the rear windshield, tied it up with rope and bunjy cords. We were good to go. At that point it started raining.

We got into our Festiva, and as we were about to start the car, we saw that couple again, a few spaces away. They had put their stove (in a cardboard box) on the back of a pickup truck (BIG truck, all shinny & new). At that point it was all tied up. But then the rain started. After some words (yelling), she un-tied it, the husband hurried back inside. Hmmm, we thought, dry, with our new stove save under cover, "this, I want to see". A few minutes later he came back with a tarp. They quickly spread it out over the boxed-up stove. Then resumed to tie it down again. At that point they where soaked.

As they were about to get into their truck they realized that had tied up the stove in a way that they could NOT open their doors to get in.

That is when we decided to leave, drive home, our stove safe and secure in our dinky, rusty, but reliable, little Festiva.

Since we bought the Taurus (Dec. 99) it needed :

new hoses, a new radiator, a new fuel pump & filter, a new fuel assembly, a new transmission ($1600), new tires (2x), it keeps over heating and they can't find out why, and all sorts of other big repairs.

We've blown hundreds if not thousands of $$$ on that car.

The Taurus left BOTH of us stranded 2 times: Once on a very busy Parkway (fuel pump), it had to be towed & costly repair. And once about 300 miles away from home (overheating - we waited an hour and it worked again).

It left my husband stranded several times locally ("Honey, can you came pick me up {WITH THE FESTIVA }, I'm at the post office and the car {TAURUS} won't start).

THE FESTIVA WAS GOOD TO GO!!!

Now: Our Taurus just blew it's transmission (AGAIN), for a second time. We had the trany rebuild 2 years & 11K miles ago. Warranty expired. So we will have to junk it (60 miles away from home).

We are going to buy a 2002 Hyundai Elantra (used - again -- but a stick shift) in a day or two. We are reading a ton of online reviews, that's how I found this site, and thought I'd share my Festiva experience.

Since we bought the Festiva (summer of 1991), it has needed some minor stuff repaired over the years:

At ~80K (1997) it needed a new muffler, Midas. And again at 110K (2004). Midas Warranty.

We had new break pats put on and spent about 300$ for new rotors a few years back.

3 new batteries (in 15 years), if I recall correctly. {Left me stranded at the post office!!! But a VERY friendly mailman gave me push start -- something you can't do with an automatic)

A new headlight (we bought from a junk yard for 25$) 'cause the old one was "sucking" water and had turned yellow.

What else? What else? Oh, yeah, regular oil changes.

"My" Festiva is due for a yearly safety & emissions inspection this month (Pennsylvania law). God, I DO pray we can get another year or two (or 10) out of it. It now has 126K on it. If it'll cost me 500 bucks to get it up to PA standards -- I will gladly do it.

Due to the fact that we've had it so long, and that it is such a small car, we only pay ~$320 per YEAR (!!!) in insurance.

Gas wise, this car will run an other 5 miles if it just SMELLS a gas station.

It hauls ply wood, 2x4's, drainage pipes, moulding, stoves, dishwashers, compost, sod, bricks, groceries, cats... You name it.

My husband calls it the " red bucket of bolds", the " Construction Junker" and the "Red Ashtray On Wheels" -- can you tell how much he loves it?

Yes, it's ugly now, banged up, uncomfortable and embarrassing to be seen with ---- BUT IT GETS THE JOB DONE.

You can fit into ANY parking space, no matter how tight. Parallel parking in the city is a breeze: I know (and can see) where my "nose" is, where my "butt" is. I call it "my little red engine that could" & "my knight in (not so) shining armour".

I LOOOOOVE THIS CAR!!! Can I have another one, PPLLEEEEAAASSEE!!!

Festiva Junky In Western PA

July 14, 2006.

PS: Guess which car we have been / are taking to go car shopping? You bet!!!