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How Reliable are used Ford Festiva/Aspire?
These cars are built by Kia Motors in Korea with a Mazda engine for Ford. As confusing as they are, it seems they are all but bulletproof. I know Festivas with 200K plus needing clutches and exhaust and nothing else. I know Aspires already with over 100K still going strong. Of course some Festivas are beat up and burning oil and smoking but they have been abused. You can buy a good Festiva for $1500 or so. You can get a good Aspire 94-95 for about $3000, a 1997 should be close to $5000. A good buy if you can put up with a poor driving position (hurts my calf to use a clutch in these since the pedal is so high off the floor), no power (try going up a hill with 4 people and the AC on...) and nonexistent resale value. If I was a dealer I could buy 1994-1995 Aspires all day for $1000-$1500 apiece. (Metros too). I would choose the Metro 5-speed 3-cylinder for the so much better gas mileage that it gets. It also has the bad ride and the serious lack of power, but it is just as reliable and just as cheap to maintain.
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I like the new Focus ZX3, with all the options it gets a little pricy though.
ON IT NO PROBLEM,1993 WITH AUTO
153,000 STILL RUNNING
STRONG.1994 ASPIRE 125,000 STILL
GREAT.WISH I COULD STILL GET A NEW ONE THE MOST RELIABLE EVER
MADE.I HOPE KIA RELEASES THEM
THROUGH THEIR DEALERS
I bought a used '96 Aspire to replace it. Okay so far but the engine light is on and it is running rough. I'm glad to see others having good luck with theirs.
-Scott
carlady/host
speedometer is
broken.....It's
vibrating like cazy,
and almost all the
numbers on the odometer have rubbed off...It's
driving me CRAZY!!! :-(
But I'm getting it
fixed :-) Then next
year I'm gonna get me
another KIA. Maybe a Spectra...or a Rio, yeah.....
If not too bad, buy the car.. I've had two of them. With the back seat folded up, the cargo space is incredible. I have put a mid size washer in the back and closed the hatch back to boot.
-keith-
I have a 94 5-speed, and it sounds like the differential is messed up.
The shop says it will be at least $400 in labor, plus parts to fix it.
Does anyone know where the drain and fill plugs for the transmission are? The lube place I went to can't find them.
I've got 125,000 miles on it, with the same fluid probably.
Has anyone traded one in recently? How much did you get for it? I might just have to bite the bullet and get a new car. This one might no longer be cost effective.
Thanks for any help and insight!
Looking in PA
Need Help!!! would appreciate any opinions...
Take care popping out the cable. I broke the ear off levering it out and have had to use the original bolt and a large washer to hold down the assembly - which works fine.
I would imagine there is a regular drain plug to get the fluid out as with any transmission, but I haven't looked for it.
3000 miles and serviced the transmission at 30,000 and 60,000 miles (which I did myself)
It is a automatic and I realy like the reliability and low maintenance of this car.I would by one again if this one would ever give up on me.
right before I had the valve gaskets replaced, and I believe they did a poor job with that.
The mechanic said that the compression is down to about 50psi on the central cylinders and that I should trade it in. I was thinking of replacing the whole engine.
Please help with suggestions.
I am an international student in LA. I need to buy a car asap and it has to be both cheap and reliable. I go to school in the evenings and I am a female, so I don't want to end up with a broken car on the road. I am planning to buy a 1995 Ford Aspire.. Are they reliable?????
(automatic,ac,42K miles)
Runs great,no problems with it.
FYI friends, to find used car pricing, choose Used Cars on the homepage, select Ford, select 1993, select Festiva.
Using this pricing and looking at the want ads in your region can help you evaluate pricing on the car you want to buy or sell.
carlady/host
she's living in Clearwater FL,
she just wanted to know how much can she get for it?
Basically, they're junk. They're poorly built entry-level cars sold to those who think that getting a "new" car is a great idea and their only alternative.
Now that they're used, they're very, very cheap. Because they're just not good cars. If you want cheap & reliable transportation that is also comfortable, fun to drive, etc. look into used Civics, Sentras and Protoges.
But don't you even try to compare it to any other car.The price is wrong!
Festiva is the best description of the econo-car
type of vehicle.
If you travel to work and home from work(13 miles)
or going shopping( 5 miles).Short distances up to 50 miles and that is it.
It's very ,very inexpensive to buy (new one use to cost $7K),used one with 50K miles can cost $2K.
You can fold the back seat and have a huge cargo space to use(surprisingly big),hatchback rules!
You can get 38 miles per gallon driving in the city with A/C on!
Insurance is as low as it can be.
Don't count on it to be a rocket or kind of a car with a living room's sofa in place of the back seat either.
It is a cheap car that will move you from place to place and will save you from city buses/trains.
If you are on the tight budget, but you still don't want to be dependent on buses or subways, festiva is the best way to go.
Also if you live in the big city and you are having problems finding the parking spots, this little car will fit where nothing else will fit.
Now if you thing that it's a shame to drive something that looks like festiva, because... it's so small and wired looking and when your "friends" will see you in it they will have less respect for you and they will make fun of it, then there is something wrong with you and your friends, nothing is wrong with the car though! It's a car that will make you independent for just a few bucks.
Sorry for being too offensive with my arguments but I can't stand when someone compares cars that can't be compared from the most important reasons:
-completely different price range of the cars
-different types of cars(hatchbacks and sedans)
just my two cents.
My 1990 Festiva L Plus, with only 27,000 miles got nerfed while parked in front of my house. I am so upset. The insurance folks want to total the car for $2200. (Keep in mind we are talking San Francisco Dollars, which do not go as far as other US currency,) I have tried to locate another Festiva with an automatic transmission but with no luck. There are none to be found, even tried 14 different used car searches on the web and could only track one down in Ohio with a standard transmission.
Can anyone offer up a possible solution? I really do not think the price being offered is fair, since I am unable to replace it with the same vehicle. I know fellow Festiva owners know exactly what I am talking about when it comes to loving our "toy cars". Hey, I enjoyed the fact that the tires were really just Hostess Donuts....
Any suggestions?
carlady/host