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How Reliable are used Ford Festiva/Aspire?
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Comments
http://www.egroups.com/group/festiva
Aspiring
Woody
See the car at http://people.montana.com/~wwjd/sparky
wwjd@montana.com
See Norm 1 at:
http://people.montana.com/~wwjd/sparky
Is there an accessories aftermarket for Festivas?
FESTIVA FOR EVER !!!!
www.egroups.com/groups/festiva
The archives are a year and a half deep and are chock full of technical stuff. I learned that an Aspire or Festiva can be upgraded to Mazda 1.6/1.8 engines from the Miata/Protege/323, etc. And many different intakes are usable. All these 1.3/1.6/1.8 engines share the same B block. So after a couple hundred thousand miles you can swap out with a nice low mileage Miata or Protege engine and gain power and still get tens of thousands more miles out of a Festiva/Aspire. Nice...
Also visit
www.fordfestiva.com
because much of this engine/transmission info is available there, too.
So I am still irritated about not being able to find soft parts. But I did install a Sony cassette player (bought open box at Best Buy for $80) and window tint ($125) and the car is working comfortably as a courier vehicle. I also removed the entire back seat. It is nice that even this most basic Aspire is carpeted under the seat, saves me from buying a remnant to match.
I also learned that the factory rear speakers cannot handle 35 watts of power. I shall be replacing those. The ones in the front doors sound good. Maybe the previous owner replaced them at one point.
Have 76K on it now. We'll see how long this previously flooded and wrecked car holds up!
Revka
Host
Hatchbacks / Station Wagons / Women's Auto Center Boards
(and no, I'm not calling my Elantra crude)
Revka
Host
Hatchbacks & Station Wagons Boards
Please sendme your comments to rgarro@chiquita.com
Thanks for your help !
Please sendme your comments to rgarro@chiquita.com
Thanks for your help !
I'm hoping my new hyundai will give me as many trouble free miles. It sure is night and day to drive!
I noticed in Central America that things like airbags are an option. That's really not a bad idea. I found Toyota Echoes being sold as the Toyota "Yaris" with a/c and manual transmission for only $ 7,500. This is well below the price of the U.S. version.
A previous poster (Costa Rica?) wanted to know if the Aspire and the Avella are the same car. Since the Aspire was discontinued in 1997 I would imagine that the Avella has some cosmetic differences that would make the two vehicles not identical in parts. But it never hurts to compare.
The Aspire has airbag's, but not much else.
Of course no one wants to be in an accident, but they happen. If you drive one of these cars (or most any sub-compact) you learn to drive a little more defensivly (maybe a lot more)!
Strangely enough, I bought my 1993 new in February of 1994 on a promotion to clear the way for the Aspire which I also bought a year later. It was bright green with A/C, manual, standard radio, painted bumpers and moulding, and the alloy wheels--the price was only $ 7,600 before negotiations began. What a deal! The earlier models were more expensive in many cases.
I cringed when I heard that Ford would be producing the new engines in the 2001 and above Mazda Proteges. I guess that I am a purist and feel lucky to have a near 100% pure Japanese 2000 Protege with the 1.6 engine. The Mazda truck (Ford Ranger) has been a disappointment from the start--they did so much better when they where built in Japan before 1993.
I'm not crazy about the style, and from my own experience they are crap! The newspaper I worked for used Festiva's and Aspires for 10 years. Those cars were beat on bad, and ran well into 100k miles! The three focus's they bought have been in the shop for more recalls/repairs to count!!
Now I've blown a head gasget....OH JOY.