Crapbox 12 of 12: 1991 Ford Festiva L
A vintage Car and Driver article from July 1992 came across my desk the other day that made my smile ear-to-ear. It is this comparison article on 12 compact economy cars that pitted twelve sub $10k crapboxes against each other with an assortment of college kids deciding which car they would be caught dead in. All of the cars were offered for new in 1992 for less than $10k and had air conditioning, a rear defroster, and an AM/FM radio. We’ll start from the back of the pack with this 1991 Ford Festiva L offered for $5,995 in Des Plaines, IL via cars.com
This Festiva is very very basic, but at least it has a passenger side mirror. The C&D editors mentioned they enjoyed the go-kart like driving experience, but with pizza cutter tires and a 63 horsepower 1.3 liter engine, this thing can hardly get out of its own way.
Who doesn’t enjoy the experience of those neck chopping “automatic” seat belts.
See a better way to buy something junky from 1992? tips@dailyturismo.com
Love the ‘coffee can’ exhaust tip. Vroooooom, I guess?
$5995?! $6905 was the MSRP according to Google for the 91 Festiva L.
I drove one of these as a rental, back in ’94. Boston to NYC. Talk about a turd. BUT, it reminds me of that trip when dating a japanese college girl at the time. That always puts a smile on my face. I think it was the first car I ever rented. That (and my girlfriend) made me feels all grownz up. Haahaaa….
This was far and away the number one pizza delivery chariot of choice in Texas, upstate New York and Iowa as far as I remember or if you were the night manager of the theater or had a job at the mall. If you were lucky enough to work at Radio Shack, you had a sweet Realistic sound system pumping 15 watts per channel out of your SoundDesign speakers. If your parents were rich, you got the hand-me-down Olds Delta cruiser- wagon or sedan with the Delco-Bose. Third and fourth were Colt Vistas. Dodge Omnis were way more plentiful in the Upper Midwest and Subaru GL in Upstate, not so popular down south where Datsun/Nissan had dealers aplenty but way fewer Honda/Toyota.
Built by Kia with a Mazda B3 engine.