1988 Ford Festiva LX Review - An Over-looked 80's…

"Mazda knows how to make the slow cars fun" As a Mazda 2 owner, I couldn't agree more!

I brought a 80's model of a Festiva when I was in nursing school in 1998. One of the best old cars I ever had. It was a manual transmission and extremely reliable.

Ford made a pretty big mistake when they replaced this Festiva with the Aspire in ~1994. The Aspire had more power, but the quality was much worse.

My dad's 1988 Ford Festiva LX is the car that I learned to drive on in the mid-90s. Great video. Brings back a lot of memories.

I’ve never driven one of these. On similar note, however, my sister once owned an 83 Toyota Tercel SR5. I loved driving that thing. You just floored it in every gear and had a blast while not breaking the speed limit. I just wrung that little car’s neck every time I drove it. My sister once commented that her car ran so much better after I drove it!

Grandparents had a beautiful green one in the early 90’s , 5spd loved the door chime and auto seatbelts and the rattling crank windows.. I used to only put the Lap belt on deliberately without the shoulder belt for fun and car always had a banana smell from probably old bananas at one point that were left in the back tool bag in the trunk near the spare after a grocery run😂 loved that car and remember my grandma always telling me “look how easy this is to park!”

I wish they would still make little two door hatchbacks like this

You missed one of the best feature about this car is that that rear seat folds backwards into the trunk and lays flat and then if you scoot the front seat all the way forward and then unlatch it so that also lays flat backwards... I'm 6'4 and I can sleep in this car quite comfortably. I use mine for camping.

😄👉🏼 no airbags we die like real men thats why I love the older cars I drove one of these b4

Just drove my 93 Festiva from Louisville to Cleveland and back without any issues. Drove it from LA to Louisville when I moved here. I love this car.

Years ago I worked for a NAPA auto parts they had a five speed Festiva I believe it was the 1.3 L engine. It was a fairly quick for being such a little car with such a small engine but I’m guessing it weighed under 2000 pounds. There was one tight curve on one little service Road in town that if there was one to 2 inches of fresh snow on the pavement I could four wheel drift the car flooring it in second gear it was a fun car.

I love that it still has its original 80s California plate on it which is as beaten as a the car itself ... and not in a bad way, I find it very charming that is has survived that long. Greetings from Germany!

Holy shit OG radio? Great car for its time. Thank you for sharing this with us.

Cool box. My neighbors had a Chevy Geo metro hatchback two door they loved it so much they bought a second.. they used to fill those cars past the weight limit and fit like 5 people in each of them haha

Got a 1990 festiva myself. I drive it everyday. It's a fun car that light on my gas bill.

Oh hey, you're in San Jose.

There was one of these down the street from me for a long time. I just know they were everywhere back in the day

This review is like a comedy 😎

“Just a little happy box” LOVE IT

My first car. It was a good little car and holds a place in my heart.