The "What Do you drive?" thread....

[Tim R.]

Thanks!

The Northwest is a virtual museum of old cars. Stuff you'd never see anywhere else still roams the roads. Classic Minis (sold new here in the 60s), WWII-era farm trucks, DeLoreans, Yugos, Checker Marathons, Honda CVCCs, Daihatsu Rockys...you name it, it's probably out there.

I liked the Festiva because it was a very simple car. Not much to go wrong and very easy to fix. Which is probably what made it popular with mechanics. And virtually every part interchanged with Kias and Mazdas. To this day Festivas have quite a cult following.

Those Couriers didn't survive the years well, unfortunately. They were built with thin sheet metal and the tiny engine wasn't powerful enough. Despite all that, they could handle a real pounding and never complained. Mine had a pretty rough life, and was cobbled together with the best of a half dozen trucks.

You ever seen a Mazda REPU? It was a variant of a Courier with a rotary engine. Incredibly rare and probably the only rotary-powered truck ever made.


-Tim

Originally Posted by bgadow

Tim, great to see that Courier! My father had one in the late 70s, it was his "gas crunch" vehicle. Man, that thing was tough. I remember him stacking firewood until it was above the cab roof, constantly
abusing that thing. People told him it would be worn out at 50k. Sure enough, as soon as the odometer rolled over it started burning oil like crazy.

Festivas always seemed to popular with mechanics...when they were new there were several guys at the local Ford dealer shop who used them as daily drivers. My wife had one before we met, totalled when somebody rear ended her at a stoplight.