1986-1993 Ford Festiva: Oddly Charming

For much of my adult life, I romanticized the ideal of the subcompact car – even when I could afford to move up to a larger compact. I think my rosy eyed view got a wake up call when encountered the Ford Festiva. In the winter of 1993, my parked Eagle Talon was hit by a car sliding into it. The opposing insurance company spent as little as possible on my rental car while repairs were being made – hence the Ford Festiva, the cheapest rental from Hertz at the time.

The Ford Festiva is odd in that it’s one of those American branded cars made in Korea. I don’t recall dealers mentioning that fact in a time when Korean made was associated with cheap. GM was guilty of similar sins and even went so far as to stain one of it’s storied names with a Daewoo built hatchback.

Although somewhat new at the time, it’s life as a rental had already taken it’s toll on the interior. The red ’93 two door hatch was stubby looking, yet had a kind of nerdy charm about it. Mazda designed and Kia built the Festiva on Mazda’s DA platform, just one of a few cars Mazda built cars that were badged as Fords in Asian markets. Kia even sold a variant called the Pride. While all this small car re-badging was going on, Ford was building other small cars like the similarly named (but superior) Fiesta in Europe.

For the American market, the Festiva was Ford’s least expensive car. The boxy shape utilized space well and gave the 1,700 lbs. (dry weight) car the illusion of being substantial. The little 1.3 liter four cylinder engine was simple. With around 63 hp, the Festiva struggled to carry anything more than one passenger. Things might be better with the standard 5 speed manual, but the automatic equipped rental I drove was a penalty. At least the decals added by many dealers made them look cute and trendy, especially on cars with monochromatic color schemes.

Power steering was not needed on such a small car, yet the steering was heavy in low speed maneuvers. My most vivid memory was the lack of power and the general fear of merging onto the highway. Each on ramp required considerable planning to reach highway speeds. At 12 seconds to reach 60 mph, stomping the accelerator did nothing much more than commit the loud buzzy engine to reach merging speed. Handling was disappointing, but with a solid rear axle, it was not surprising. The ride was busy and often noisy at speed as the insulation was thin in an effort to cut corners. Except for the occasional neon decals on the doors, this car made no pretense to being fun or sporty.

Interestingly, tuners Chuck Beck and Rick Titus, offered a rare high performance version of the Festiva called the Shogun. The hopped super mini had a Ford SHO DOHC V6 behind the front seats good for 220 hp. It could shame any Mustang from the era. With only 7 made, the Shogun became a aspiration for the few Festiva tuners out there and a nice to know for everyone else saddled with the regular Festiva’s little SOHC engine.

I had the Festiva for about one week in the middle of winter. The only thing hot about it was the heater which responded quickly. The car had surprisingly good traction on slushy roads. As for comfort, the seats felt like they were made of one piece foam, but were reasonably comfortable. Fortunately, I never had to be in the car for more than 30 minutes at a time. For all it’s faults, it could be fun to drive in parking lots and small urban spaces. It was also nice to be in a car small enough that you could roll up both the driver and passenger windows from the driver’s seat, like being in a child’s go cart.

When my car was ready, I was happy to depart with the Festiva. That joy was short lived as the body shop fitted my Talon with an Eclipse front end, prompting me to call the insurance company and extend my stay with the Festiva. It’s main claim to fame, good gas mileage in the 40s on the highway, would fall once you realized that you had to drive it aggressively just to get up to a safe speed in most traffic. Had I drove it at leisurely speeds, I might have easily reached Ford’s claimed 35 mpg in city driving. Instead it was closer to 28 and was frustrating slow. That’s the tale of how a 1994 Ford Festiva killed my love affair with small cars – or at least brought me back to earth with the realization that the small car had changed a lot since the time I peddled around in a 1980 Honda Civic 1300.

That old Honda I had was noticeably different, in build quality and driving dynamics. Modern cars like the Festiva are all but gone which makes its simplicity charming in retrospect. The very ideal of a cheap light weight car still has appeal to some tuners, even if it looks like a styrophone burger box.