Ford Festiva

The Ford Festiva was a subcompact car sold by the Ford Motor Company in North America, Asia and Australasia, introduced in 1986 in Japan. The car was manufactured by Kia in South Korea, which at the time was part-owned by Ford, and was derived from the Kia Pride. It was based on the Mazda DA platform, using Mazda’s B Series engines. For 1994, the Kia Pride was redesigned, meaning Ford got a new Festiva. While it was sold in certain markets as a second generation Festiva, Ford renamed it the “Aspire” in North American markets. The Ford Aspire was the first car in its class (in North America) to have standard dual air bags and optional 4-wheel ABS. This new Festiva was slightly longer, wider, and more aerodynamic. For 1997, the Festiva/Aspire got a new front bumper with an oval grille, to keep up with the new Ford styling trend set by the Ford Contour and the redesigned Ford Taurus. The Aspire was dropped from the Ford range in the United States after 1997. The second generation Festiva continued to be sold in Australia until at 2000 when it was replaced by the Ford Ka. It is interesting to note that Australian second-generation Festivas have US side marker light cut-outs on each side of the vehicle (driver-side and passenger-side) at the front and rear. Instead of containing orange reflectors/lights at the front sides and red reflectors/lights at the rear sides, there are non-lit orange reflectors at all four locations. These redundant reflectors, coupled with the orange side indicator repeater (which is not required in the US, and was not included on the Aspire) make for a unique side profile appearance.