Hey I'm a new member with a Festiva
 

Hey,
This is my first economy vehicle. It's a '91 Festiva L, 5 speed, dealer add on A/C and it's Surf Blue. It took me months to find this car and I had to drive 7 hours to get it!! Needless to say I'm intersted in improving it's already good fuel economy. The previous owner said he got over 50mpg on the highway with the A/C on! I've been driving a '86 TBird Turbo Coupe for the last 16 years. It just rolled over 250,000 miles (original engine!!) and it's time for retirement for it. It got 27-29 mpg going to work and as good as 32 mpg highway. I received a free '95 F-150 Supercab and thought I'd drive it to work. Well that lasted about three weeks and I decided I couldn't afford to drive that thing on a daily basis. So I started to look for a 5 speed Festiva .......... and finally found one. Now I'm eager to improve it's economy (efficiency). I also own a '86 Comp Prep SVO Mustang (1 0f 83 made that year). It's been on the cover of MM&FF and in the same mag a couple more times.


Kraig

Welcome Kraig! I don't know much about the Festiva, can you tell us more about it?

Welcome to the site Kraig! You will find a lot of useful info archived here that you can search through. I have personally had six Festivas over the past few years. They are a good economy car with the 5spd transaxle. Achieved 54mpg HWY on a trip with one (kept speed down around 55mph).

My more recent interest has been with Metros (more of them around), but would like to hear/see more about your vehicle and any planned modifications. Again, welcome!

Welcome!

Hey, Welcome to GasSavers
 

Hi Kraig, welcome to GasSavers!

It's good to see a Ford vehicle here as there aren't many around. It looks to me that you have an excellent platform for a hypermiler. Keep us posted on any questions or plans :)

RH77

Ford/Kia :)

Ford/Kia? Hmm, didn't know that. It makes sense, though. I just always figured that it was a carry-over of a European or South American-Market model. What's the history of it in North America?

RH77

Not sure what the history is exactly. It was a mutt (like most econos). Had something to do with being Mazda Designed, Kia Built and Ford Sold....if memory serves me correctly. Definately say manufactured by Kia on all of them.

Festiva
 

They have a 1.3 liter, EFI (later models) Mazda 4 cylinder and tranny. They're supposed to last 300,000-400,000 miles and the 5 speed ones get great gas mileage. They're very roomy inside for their size. And as I have found out, can be quite hard to find for sale! I plan on aerodynamic and other mods and hope to see milage well in excess of 60 mpg when I'm done .......

Any power numbers on that 1.3 beast?