Ford Festiva
The Ford Festiva is a four passenger front-drive subcompact car manufactured in South Korea by Kia, under license from Mazda and marketed by Ford for model years 1986–2002 over three generations in Japan, the Americas, and Australasia as the Festiva and as the Aspire in North America during its second generation.
Designed by Mazda using the DA platform and B series straight-four engines, the Festiva was manufactured in South Korea by Kia, under license.
Kia began marketing the first generation in South Korea under license — as the Kia Pride. Australasia and Europe received the first version between 1987 and 1991 as the "Mazda 121". After 1991, Australasian sales began under the "Ford Festiva" name, while European sales continued as the "Kia Pride". Kia ended production of the Pride in 2000.
Ongoing production of the first generation overlapped its second generation, introduced in 1993 and marketed as the Ford Aspire in North America and as the Kia Avella in South Korea and other markets. The second generation was marketed for model years 1993–2000, and a third generation was sold between 1996 and 2002 in Japan as a badge-engineered version of the Mazda Demio.
The "Festiva" nameplate derived from the Spanish word for "festive".
First generation (WA; 1986)
The first generation Ford Festiva was designed by Mazda in Japan at the request of parent company Ford. The Mazda-designed and built three-door hatchback was launched in Japan in February 1986 under the name "Ford Festiva", with the 1.1 and 1.3-litre engines.The Festiva used a front-wheel drive layout with rack and pinion steering, independent front suspension with struts, coil springs and sway bar, and a torsion beam rear suspension. The Festiva was facelifted in 1989, receiving a redesigned grille insert and tail lamp lenses. In Japan at launch, the Festiva three-door was offered in L, L Special, S, Ghia, and Canvas Top specification levels. Ford retailed the Japanese market Festiva via the Autorama dealership network. At the 1986 Tokyo Motor Show, the sporty GT and GT-X models were shown, with a unique twin-cam 1.3-litre engine. These were fitted with a special body kit and a prominent bonnet bulge, and went on sale on 1 December 1986. By then, the Festiva Cargo L had also been added to the lineup, in either a two- or a five-seat version.
Beginning in 1989, Autorama also began selling left-hand drive, Korean-assembled five-door hatchbacks. The Hatchback was sold as the Ford Festiva 5, while the four-door sedan was called the Festiva β. Neither version sold particularly well in Japan. 973 cars were brought in during 1989, with the aim of selling 2,000 the following year. Production of the Japanese market Ford Festiva ended in December 1992, with sales from stock continuing for another month.
Markets
North America
In mid-1986, another Ford partner, Kia Motors in South Korea began production of the Festiva under license as the "Kia Pride". Starting from late 1987 for the 1988 model year, Kia began exports to the United States under the "Ford Festiva" name. Canadian sales began in January 1989, marketed at Ford and Mercury dealerships. Ford offered a single 1.3-litre B3 four-cylinder engine and three trim levels: L, L Plus, and LX. The two base models featured a four-speed manual overdrive transmission, with the LX upgraded to a five-speed unit. A tachometer and tilt steering wheel also featured on the LX trim, as did alloy wheels, remote mirrors, cloth interior seating, and an AM/FM cassette radio.Ford released a minor facelift in North America for the 1990 model year, shifting from carburetor to fuel injection with five-speed manual or optional three-speed automatic transmissions. Ford also replaced the manual front seat belts with motorized versions, and fitted manual rear seat belts as standard. For the 1991 model year, the L Plus and LX models were combined into a single GL trim. Optional power steering was deleted for 1992, and the GL gained alloy wheels and an available sport package. The final 1993 model year brought no changes.
Over its life, Ford marketed roughly 350,000 Kia-manufactured Festiva models in the United States. The agreement with Ford materialized in accordance with Kia's strategy implemented in the mid-1980s to progressively fill the void at the low-cost end of the market slowly being abdicated by the Japanese brands pursuing more expensive models with higher profit margins. Compared to rival automakers in Japan, and also Europe and North America, Kia's main competitive advantage was its lower-paid South Korean workforce—which translated into lower-priced cars.
The 2008 edition of Monash University's Used Car Safety Ratings, found that the first generation Festiva provides a "worse than average" level of safety in the event of an accident, in a comparison to other "light cars". The safety rating was not calculated solely on the basis of the protection of the vehicle's occupants, with protection for "cyclists, pedestrians and drivers of other vehicles" included to give a "better guide to the total community impact of vehicle safety."
Australia
Mazda began producing the Festiva as the "Mazda 121" for Australia in 1987, but this model was never retailed in Japan. The 121 ended production in 1990, and was officially discontinued by Mazda Australia in February 1991. From October 1991, Ford Australia began importing the car as the "Ford Festiva" from Kia's South Korean production facility. Where the Mazda was sold as a three-door hatchback, the Ford was sold initially as a five-door only. From January 1993, a Festiva three-door, badged "Festiva Trio" was launched in Australia. Both versions were powered by the overhead camshaft carbureted 1.3-litre B3 engine with the five-speed manual transmission; a three-speed automatic was optional for the five-door. Standard equipment in Australia included an AM/FM radio, tachometer, intermittent windscreen wipers, remote releases for the rear door and fuel tank filler door, with air-conditioning available as an option. Ford discontinued the WA Festiva in the Australian market in March 1994 in way for the WB Festiva.Ford Australia's action was paralleled in Europe where Kia started exporting three- and five-door hatchback, four-door sedan, and five-door wagon variants of the Kia Pride in 1991 under their own name. These additional sedan and five-door hatchback body variants were also imported from South Korea to Japan in left-hand drive form as the "Ford Festiva 5" and "Festiva β", respectively.
Taiwan
In Taiwan, it was assembled using complete knock-down kits from 1989 via the local joint venture Ford Lio Ho.Ford Festiva Shogun
In 1990, racer/journalist Rick Titus and engineer Chuck Beck built the Festiva Shogun. Inspired by the Australian Giocattolo project, they started a company called Special Editions, Inc., to produce a limited run of 250 cars. These cars were powered by a mid-mounted Yamaha V6 sourced from the first generation Ford Taurus SHO, producing. The Festiva Shogun was displayed in the Ford tent at the 1990 Monterey Historics and Ford was considering providing SHO engines directly; the deal fell through after executives test drove the car and deemed it a little too raucous for the company to put their imprimatur on. With the car not being an official Ford product, Special Editions had to buy SHOs from dealers and remove the engines, increasing the price by over ten percent. The price increase, the cancellation of a Japanese order, and the economy slowing down because of the first Gulf War, conspired against the project taking off and only seven cars were built.Mazda 121 (DA)
began selling the 121 as a single three-door hatchback body variant in 1987 to sit below the larger 323 model. Despite being manufactured there, the 121 was not sold in Japan under the "Mazda" brand. Australian specification 121s were fitted with the 1.3-litre B3 engine, mated to a five-speed manual transmission. European markets also received the 1.1-litre B1 engine with a four-speed manual transmission.The 121 was sold in Australia from March 1987. It featured a sliding rear bench seat, which increased cargo space by as much as. Levels of trim in Australia comprised the base-line "deluxe", the "super deluxe", and the "fun top", featuring a large electric sliding canvas sunroof. From October 1988, the super deluxe was discontinued and replaced by the "shades" trim. The European premiere for the 121 was at the Geneva Auto Salon in March 1988. The 1.1-litre version was added in July 1989. Trim levels were L and LX, with an SR version also available in the UK. In Europe, the car's ventilation system, developed with American consumers in mind, was notable for its refinement for the class. An interesting design feature was that the rear seat back could be reclined somewhat, and the seat could be moved longitudinally, adding up to of space to the otherwise very small luggage compartment.
Mazda issued an update for the 121 with a new grille insert, body-hued exterior trim, redesigned instrumentation and interior seats and trim. The Mazda variant was discontinued in 1991, being replaced by a new generation Mazda 121, based on the Japanese market Autozam Revue.
Kia Pride (Y)
The Kia Pride badged version of the Festiva was manufactured in South Korea by Kia Motors from March 1987 to January 2000. Prior to its South Korean market release, exports as the Festiva had begun in December 1986 to Japan and the United States. The Pride was sold in four-door sedan form, as well as three- and five-door hatchback forms and five-door wagon body styles. The original Pride was only available as a three-door hatchback, while the five-door was added in June 1988. The four-door sedan model, the Pride Beta, arrived in November 1990, and the range was completed by the three-door van and five-door wagon in February 1992. In November 1993 the Pride received a minor facelift and production was also moved to Kia's Asia Motors subsidiary's Gwangju plant as Kia focused on the new Avella. Until the Mazda 121 was replaced in late 1990, Kia-badged cars were only exported to certain tertiary markets. The Pride was replaced by the Rio beginning in 1999.In October 2024, to celebrate Kia's 80th Anniversary, a first-generation Pride was restomodded into an electric vehicle, featuring a manual gearbox and a fresh coat of White Pearl paint. This was a one-off vehicle, not meant for sale to the public.
The Pride launched in the United Kingdom in June 1991, fitted with either the 1.1- B1 or 1.3-litre B3 engines. The 1.1 was only available as a three-door in the basic L trim. There was also a panel van two-seater version in the UK and some other markets. Fuel injection appeared on the 1.3-litre-engined models in November 1994, referred to as the "1.3i". At this time, the 1.1-litre version was deleted. December 1995 saw the Start 1.3i three-door replace the L, and the Pride was then briefly discontinued in the UK in January 1999. In June 1999, it was relaunched in an entry-level three-door now called S with the higher-level three- and five-doors known as the SX. Sales of the relaunched model ended in June 2000.
The Pride was also sold in Pakistan, where it was assembled from 1996 to 2005 in a joint venture with Dewan Motors in two variations: first as the five-door version with the 1.1-litre engine and then in a four-door sedan variation from 1999 to 2005, named Kia Classic.