Faults:

Only dings in parking lot...

This car NEVER NEVER breaks!

General Comments:

This is my second Festiva. I bought a Kia Sportage because Kia makes the Festiva for Ford, but I have NEVER seen anything like the Festiva for reliability. I now have 5 for my company as transport cars. Excellent gas mileage; Never break; Small and maneuverable; and you can put incredible amounts of stuff in one! I put a 6' step ladder in mine - can you believe that!

Faults:

Right rear brake shoe starting dragging last year - disconnected the parking brake cable from that hub assembly - now I just park it in gear.

Because of a hole allowing moisture into the right headlight assembly, I've had to replace the bulb three times.

Replaced the timing belt/water pump within a month of buying the car last September (2002). (Preventive maintenance)

Replaced exhaust from header pipe back - was very noisy/rusty.

General Comments:

This is my 5th Festiva - the first I've had with fuel injection/5spd/Air conditioning.

It is by far the best of the five due to its drive train and A/C!

I commute to/from Kentucky and Maryland every week, averaging about 3k miles per month - I've put 29k miles on the car in the last year (drove my 4x4 Ranger on a few trips when I had stuff to haul that wouldn't fit in the Festiva).

My goal for the Festiva is to reach 300k miles - at the rate I'm going that should take about 5 more years.

The seats are not the most comfortable, but for a 9.5 hour drive, they're certainly not bad, as long as I stop every couple hours to get out and stretch my legs - I'm 6'1".

Faults:

So far, the only difficulties I have had with this Festiva are a squealing fan belt, and a brake master cylinder.

General Comments:

This is my second Festiva. The first, I bought new, and it now has 167,000 miles. This one I bought as a second car, and have had no major problems to date. I spent two hundred and fifty dollars for new brake shoes, and a master cylinder. Then I had the fan (V-belt) replaced because it was squealing so badly. I average over forty miles to the gallon, and it doesn't burn a drop of oil between changes.

Faults:

Rear brake lights went out a month after I bought it: 100 CAN$ to fix.

Belt wore out pretty bad and the car wouldn't start: 300 CAN$ to fix.

General Comments:

It's surprisingly quick for a 1.3 L & 64 HP car, mainly because it's light.

Fill it up and forget about it for a good week and a half.

It's fuel efficient only until you take it out on the highway though (which I usually don't), at which point it just drinks up gas.

Seats are totally uncomfortable.

The car itself is just plain ugly from the side. I can't imagine what the guy who designed this car at Ford was thinking. The car is absolutely ugly.

If all you want is a car to take you from A to B, buy it and you'll love it.

Faults:

Fuel pump (ran it to empty).

Odometer gear on distributor at 122,000.

Brakes.

Interior is cheap and wears, brakes, etc.

General Comments:

The car is spartan, definitely not a luxury car. But, I love this car, it always starts, gets great mileage, and is pretty zippy for a small engine.

Parts are way too expensive (ie ca $125 US for a fuel filter) but the mileage and low maintenance make up for it.