Car Spotlight- Nissan Axxess (1990)

A 1990 Nissan Axxess van featured in two-tone paint
and a hint of rust!
source-onlytruecars.com

The way I describe Nissan's response to the minivan boom of the 1980s is like that dumb nerd you knew in science class.  He would show up fashionably late, give all the wrong answers to the teacher, and whenever he tries to converse with you, you just want to turn around and walk away.  Nissan's first response to the growing demand was the 1987-1990 "Van" (with disastrous results).  Their "other van" (although I personally consider it a tall wagon)  was the Stanza Wagon, which was offered between 1985 and 1988.  As awkward as it looked, the Stanza wagon was noted for being the first minivan to feature two sliding rear doors, as opposed to the the single passenger side sliding door found on many of it's competitors.  Another unique feature was the lack of a b-pillar (that pole thing that separates the front and rear door), which made it ideal for wheelchair-bound individuals.

A Nissan Stanza wagon, which according to some, looks like
a happy meal box.
source-productioncars.com

After a slow, yet respectable three year run, Nissan updated the Stanza wagon by shaving off the right angles (as if they knew the 1990s consumers would have none of that) adding a b-pillar and giving it a new name-Axxess.

The Axxess hit American showrooms in 1990....and then went away by the end of the year.


...see how I was so brief about the Axxess's production run?  That's pretty much all there is to it.  It came and went within 12 months.  But why?  The design was modern, seating was comfortable, inside visibility was large, the price was reasonable, and had dual-sliding rear doors (which competitors STILL have not grown to accept yet).  And how about that NEW NAME!  I mean...yeah, they spelled the name "access" wrong, but by spelling it "axxess" that just makes the van sound more cool!   And not only that, but it was an appropriate name....because you know...it has not one but TWO sliding doors...so the Axxess was very "axxessible"....get it?....get it?  Wait, why are you walking away?

I was a bit confused myself as to why this van wasn't given much of a chance.  Upon looking into this car, the Axxess wasn't even that bad of a car.  Heck, even this guy, who wrote this interesting article about the Stanza wagon bought a fleet of them for use as news vans for a TV station, with huge success (link here).  Like myself, he was unsure as to why the Axxess didn't last in the U.S.  The only negative aspect that I could dig up about it was that the ride was bumpy and the engine was said to be on the loud side.

I figured you were bored, so here's another picture!
source-wikimedia...or wikipedia

I narrowed down 5 reasons for the Axxess's early demise.

1. Competition in the minivan market was VERY STIFF by 1990.  It seemed that every car maker at the time had some sort of minivan to offer (some manufacturers even had more than one van in their lineup).    
2. The Axxess didn't come equipped with a third row back seat (the Stanza wagon had one, but several former owners claimed it could only fit "amputated midgets.")
3.  the Nissan Van disaster made several consumers skeptical of the Axxess's safety.
4. Nobody thinks the name "Axxess" is cool.

The final nail on the coffin for the Axxess actually happened even BEFORE the Axxess debuted.  In the late 1980s, Nissan and Ford entered an agreement to co-develop an all new minivan.  I don't exactly know how the agreement came to be, but my guess is Ford was too lazy to make a new van all by themselves and Nissan was too scared of making another fire-prone van.  So for all of you with ADD or ADHD (or both), I made a montage of the Nissan-Ford partnership!

THE QUEST FOR MERCURY'S VILLAGER

(fade up from black, enter Nissan and Ford from each end of the stage, the year is 1989)

("Girl, you know it's true" by Milli Vanilli is playing in the background)

Ford- Hey Nissan! How goes it?

Nissan- Oh, it sucks!  People are yelling at us because our Nissan Van keeps frying people!  And we're being made fun of because our Stanza van looks like a happy meal box!

Ford- Really?  Did you do anything to fix it?  Like, recalls and stuff?

Nissan- Yeah, we threw a lot of shit at it to stop doing what it's doing....but none of it's working!

Ford- I hear you on that.  People have been bitching at us because our minivan, the Aerostar is"underpowered" and are "blowing head gaskets" pfft...if this is such a problem for them than why do people keep buying them?  After all, we just overtook GM and their dumb Astro van in sales.  If we keep this up, we'll finally catch up to Chrysler and beat them at their own game!

Nissan- Chrysler? Screw those guys!

Ford- You know what we should do? We should join forces and build the best fuckin' van ever. Think about it...you need a minivan that won't suck, and we could always use another vehicle in our lineup.  I'm sure our Mercury division would be happy to have a van of their own!  With your expertise in engineering reliable cars and our expertise in knowing what the American public wants in a van, we could take old man Iacocca and his Caravan to the cleaners!

Nissan- Okay!

(both hi-five)

Nissan- OH SHIT! I forgot, we already have a van in the works!

Ford- Wait...what?

Nissan- Yeah, a while back, someone mentioned that the Stanza van is getting redesigned, but I haven't heard much about it...except it's going to be called the "access" and it's going to be spelled a-x-x-e-s-s.

Ford (with a puzzled look)- ...why?

Nissan- Apparently, the name is supposed to sound edgy and cool and shit...

Ford-  Well, if we're gonna make this new van epic, we'll have to spend a lot of time researching and developing, which could take a few years.  You can use your "Axxess" as a placeholder until the final product is ready!

Nissan- Sounds like a plan!  So what should we do first?

Ford- I don't know...burn stuff?

Nissan- Sounds like fun!  I have just the van for that!

(both exit stage hand in hand)

(fade to black)

THREE YEARS LATER...

(fade up, living room of Nissan's living room, where he is on the couch in the fetal position, phone in hand.  Milli Vanilli music still playing in the background)

Nissan- Uh...hey Ford.

Ford- What do you need Nissan?

Nissan- Well...let me ask you this, we've been working on this new van for quite a while...when did you say we should have this van done?

Ford (annoyed) I told you already, we'll have something ready for the '92 Detroit Auto Show....so two years!  Still got some shit to iron out.  After all, this van has to be epic...remember?

Nissan- I know, I know...It's just that the Axxess is not doing as well as we thought...they're collecting dust on the lots and we're losing money on the ones we HAVE sold.

Ford- Hmm...Okay, how about this, since this van is supposed to be epic, we should give it an epic introduction!  Ditch the Axxess and use this time to build up media hype for the new van!

Nissan (stands up)- Once again, you have solved all my problems!  I will pull the plug on that pile tomorrow!

Ford- And just one more thing before I go..

Nissan- What's that?

Ford- Why the HELL are you still listening to Milli Vanilli?

Nissan (slams phone down)

(fade to black)


Holy crap...did I just write a play?  Wow...  Anyways, I'm almost certain that 99% of that story isn't true (but did you find it entertaining?)  So here's what came out of the Ford-Nissan partnership:

1993 Nissan Quest
credit-wikipedia

                       

...And of course, Ford had to have their own version

1993 Mercury Villager
credit-wikipedia

Was the Nissan Quest a good van? Yes.  Did it put a sustainable dent in Caravan and Voyager sales?  Not quite.  But nevertheless, many can attest that the Quest was a big improvement over the Axxess, with it's standard third-row backseat, additional options, and surplus of parts from both Nissan AND Ford dealers.

Anyways, let me stop myself right there before this post becomes more about the Nissan Quest than the Axxess.  

So to pretty much sum it up, the Axxess was more or less a footnote in Nissan's history book.  I will point out however, that this "one-year-wonder" only happened in the United States.  Thats right, everything I said up until this point was about the American-bound Axxess only.  Citizens of the Great White North got to enjoy the Axxess for five more years, mostly because it was ideal for shipping maple syrup and hockey pucks (okay, that's also a lie, Canadians are great people).

What's my personal take on the Nissan Axxess, you say?  Well, believe it or not, I am proud to say that I own one myself!  Thats right, I am the proud owner of a silver 1990 Nissan Axxess.  From firsthand experience, it is definitely a quirky car.  I bought it at a swap-meet in 2006 for the ridiculously low price of 50 cents!  It's silver and even came with some cheesy 90s graphics on the side (although some of it is starting to chip away due to wear and tear).  The ride is smooth, yet the seats are LITERALLY made of plastic.  The steering wheel is on the right side of the dashboard for some reason, so going through the drive through is out of the question.  The best part?  I don't even need to put gas in it!  To this day, I cannot fathom why nobody cared for this car.  I mean...who wouldn't want a car that didn't need gas to run?


Here's a picture of it...

Whoever at Matchbox that came up with the idea of making a die-cast Axxess
deserves a cookie...

Car Spotlight- Volkswagen Fox (1987-1993)

Look at that Foxy car!
photo credit- germancarforum.com

The year was 1999, I was six year old at the time.  I just finished playing a T-Ball game.  I can't remember if my team won or lost (nor did I care, since I just played with the infield sand most of the time anyway).  My dad and I were walking through the parking lot when I saw what I thought was a VW Jetta.  I asked my dad what he thought of "that Jetta over there."  He took one look at it and said that it wasn't a Jetta, but "one of those crappy VW Foxes."  Right as he said that, this really tall guy walking toward it stopped and gave us this really nasty look.  We then jumped into our '91 Camry and took off.

Sixteen years later, I looked back at what happened that day and thought to myself "What was so bad about the Volkswagen Fox that gave my dad that conclusion?"  If it was so bad that my non-car guy father would even have a negative opinion about it, then there MUST be something interesting about this thing...

Well...I'm nowhere near my dad as I'm writing this, so I can't really ask his opinion, so you could say I'm not going anywhere with this....


ANYWAYS...

The Fox was imported to the States from Brazil (where it was known as the Gol), and it sat at the bottom of the VW totem pole.  Some might argue that it was the spiritual successor to the original Beetle, because like the Beetle, the Fox was a very basic car.  There was no automatic transmission, power steering, and in the early days, no glovebox (although a lot of these things were options on other cars as well).

There were three versions of the Fox available during it's six year run, a 4-door sedan, a 2-door coupe, and a 2-door wagon (why there was no 4-door wagon is beyond me).  Maybe there was a door shortage at the factory?  While I thought a 2-door wagon was a pretty neat concept, not many people felt the same way, as the wagon was axed after 1990.

A VW Fox "shooting brake"
photo credit-germancarsforsaleblog.com

*side note, two door wagons are actually common in Europe, and called "shooting brakes" (because they were ideal for hunting)

One of several internet memes that poke
fun at VW's engine problems
source- quick memes

Now, going back to whether or not the Fox was a lousy car...yes it was...but then again, neither was any other VW from the late 80s to the early 2000s.  This is because car manufacturing got very expensive in Germany, so VW outsourced a large portion of it's North American production to Mexico and Brazil, where it was cheaper to not only build and ship the cars, but also cheaper to pay the workers.  A consequence of this was the build quality also became "cheap,"  as several VW cars were plagued with peeling paint, body panels that would fall off, and engine issues that were difficult to diagnose.  In fact, the engine issues were so common that there were several internet memes that would go along the lines of  "if your VW's engine light is off, then there's something wrong with it."

In the case of the Fox, it was just the sheer fact that it was the "bottom of the line car".  The reason why it lacked so many options and was made of cheap materials was to keep the sticker price down.

The ownership experience of the Fox is relatively mixed.  There were some who praised it for it's simplicity, good milage, and overall "being fun to drive." Others lamented it for it's build quality, poor fit and finish, and underpowered engine (although my argument for that is why would you buy it if it was too slow?)

During the Fox's "run", VW sold about 174,000 sedans and wagons (source) .  By 1992, Foxes began to collect dust on the VW lots, and was eventually erased from the lineup in 1993. (perhaps due to the fact it looked too similar to the Jetta)

Aside from that one time at the baseball field, I haven't really seen any VW Foxes around (or maybe I have, but kept confusing them for a Jetta.)  Considering the fact that I haven't seen any in recent memory pretty much tells me how reliable they were.

Car Spotlight- Buick Somerset (1985-1987)

A 1985 Buick Somerset, in all it's 80s glory.
photo credit- wikiwand

The Buick Skylark, a nameplate that has been a staple at Buick since 1953.  The Skylark was a common choice for the white collar working man and his family.  Like any other Buick, it also appealed to the average granny than needed it to get to and from church and the laxative store.  The Skylark sold well for Buick for several years.

...then came the 1980s...

In 1980, Buick applied the Skylark nameplate to an upscale version of Chevy's infamous Citation (more on that here).  To make a long story short, the Citation based Skylark left a bitter taste on many loyal Buick customer's tongue.  So when it came time to redesign the Skylark for 1985, someone at Buick felt it was time to phase out the Skylark nameplate with the outgoing model in a typical GM move to seem "fresh."

The name of the Skylark's replacement was called the Somerset Regal...okay, for those of you who aren't Buick historians, there is nothing "fresh" about that name, as Buick had another car called the Regal.  In fact just a few years prior to the Somerset Regal's debut, there was a trim package for the Regal called the "Somerset"...

Anyway, the Somerset Regal debuted for the 1985 model year and came in a two-door configuration only as well as a choice of two engines. The Somerset Regal shared it's platform with Oldsmobile's Calais and Pontiac's Grand Am (collectively called the GM N-cars)

The only thing that made the Somerset Regal stand out from it's Pontiac and Oldsmobile in-laws was the placement of the radio, which was mounted in a separate pod that sat on top of the AC/heater controls.  It looked as if Buick forgot all about it when they were designing the dashboard, and some engineer was all like "Aw crap! we forgot the radio! Uhh... lets throw it in right here!"

This is a factory-installed radio in a 1986 Buick Somerset.
Have fun trying to figure out how to swap in an aftermarket one!
Source-curbside classics.com

After the Somerset Regal's first year on the market, GM added four-door models to it's N-car lineup.  This may seem like a good idea, as the 1985 sales figures for the Somerset Regal were less than what GM was expecting.  So one would think that a 4-door Somerset Regal would help give the nameplate some more recognition...right?  Here's the thing...when the 4-door debuted in 1986, Buick didn't call it the Somerset Regal....they called it the Skylark!  That's right, Buick not only gave a 4-door version of a car that already exists a completely different name, but they named it after a car that Buick phased out two years before.  In a half-assed attempt to prevent confusion among buyers, Buick changed the name of the two door model from the Somerset Regal....to just simply "Somerset."

From here, Buick's game plan for marketing the Skylark and Somerset was that the Skylark would be marketed toward old people who tend to carpool to bingo night.  The Somerset was marketed as a more upscale "personal coupe," being marketed toward wealthy old people wanting to drive to the pharmacy to pick up their laxatives in style.  

Here's why this didn't work (for the Somerset, at least).

1. The 2.5L 4-banger engine (aka the "Iron Duke") was considered too underpowered and noisy for an "upscale car." A 3.0L V6 could be had as an option, but nobody bothered to look into that.
2. The digital instrument cluster that was stuffed into the Somerset was notorious for draining alternators (probably another thing Buick forgot about when developing the car.)
3. Rich old people typically don't spend their money on small GM cars, regardless of how "fancy" it may be. 
4. The Skylark was cheaper, since it didn't have all that luxury crap that made the Somerset more expensive.
5. It's a GM car from the 1980s...so don't anticipate any high expectations from the fit and finish department.

There may have been more reasons, but the point is that Buick dropped the Somerset name after the 1987 model year and renamed the car the "Skylark coupe"...which is what GM should have done in the first place.  

A 1988 Buick Skylark coupe...see the difference compared
to the Somerset?  I don't either
source: Orlandod87 on CarDomain

To basically sum it up, Buick may have wanted to replace the Skylark, but were hesitant to do so.  So they brought out the Somerset in two door form only as a way to "test the waters" if buyers would warm up to the new nameplate...which they didn't, so Buick phased-in the Skylark nameplate and brushed "Somerset" under the rug only three years after being introduced.  I'm sure the car would have done just fine if GM would've just kept the Skylark name to begin with, and I think GM probably knew that, too.  

...Oh, one last thing.  I found this Buick Somerset commercial on YouTube...I can name several cars that I would rather have than a Somerset. 

A Brief history of the 1996-1999 Ford Taurus...was the design really ahead of it's time?

"Taurus.  It's the North American Car with the looks and the feel you've never seen before...It's a personal car that's exactly what we've been looking for!" (link)

That was the jingle Ford used to describe it's revolutionary Taurus mid-sized sedan and wagon when it was introduced in 1986.  And revolutionary it was, as it's design was unlike all the other cars being sold at the time.  It was all a very risky design for Ford as the total cost for the car's development was well over $1 billion.   Had the Taurus been a failure, Ford would have REALLY been in deep trouble.  Luckily it wasn't as in it's first year of production, Ford sold 200,000 Tauruses...yep it was definitely a game changer!  Eventually, it became the best-selling passenger car in America.  The Taurus continued it's winning ways throughout the early 1990s.  A re-design of the Taurus in 1992 further solidified the car's dominance on the American car market.

In an attempt to repeat the original Taurus's success by being like no other car out there, Ford once again thought outside of the bun (sorry, I'm eating Taco Bell as I'm writing this) when designing an all-new Taurus.  The new car was much more rounder than it's predecessor, and by that, I mean it was WAY MUCH MORE ROUNDER than the previous Taurus. Take a look at the two cars below.  Both are Ford Taurus's and they're only one model year apart.  Not a single line was shared between the two cars.

1995 Ford Taurus
image credit-GTcarLot.com

1996 Ford Taurus
image credit-jordanmotors.com

Can you count the number of circles on the dashboard?

Now this one is for you Chevy and Dodge fanboys.  Have any of you ever heard of the Ford joke regarding the emblem and the phrase "well...at least they circled the problem" Well, the 1996 Taurus was literally FULL of circles.  Everything about the car was round.  The windows were round, the lights were round, the shifter was round, the trim pieces were round. EVERYTHING WAS ROUND!  One would think that the inspiration for the design was the Ford emblem itself.  I'm willing to bet that there isn't a single right angle on the car.

The 3rd generation Taurus debuted in late 1995 as a 1996 model to generally positive reviews from the press.  The public however, was more lukewarm to the new Taurus, as after only one year on the market, the Taurus lost it's best-selling car status to the Toyota Camry.  Some would later dub this itineration of the Taurus "the goldfish car" or "the submarine." It wasn't long before the majority of Taurus sales went to fleets and rental companies.  I bet if you were standing in line at the local Enterprise or Hertz desk in the late 90s and early 2000s, you would most likely hear other mutter "Please don't give me a Taurus, Please don't give me a Taurus..."

Ford realized their mistake and quickly restyled the Taurus in 2000 to make it more "conservative."  But nevertheless, the damage was done.  The Taurus was no longer a "competitive car."  Several car people even go so far to say that the 3rd gen Taurus was what led to the downfall (and immediate revival) of the Taurus nameplate.

Now most car people dismiss the 1996-'99 Taurus as a "game changer" done wrong.  The way I see it is that Ford wanted to be revolutionary just like the original Taurus was, but the end result just simply didn't sit well with the public.  What people don't realize is that the Taurus really was ahead of the times...at least from a design standpoint.

So let's fast forward to today and look at some mainstream family cars. (Although by today's standards, they're quite normal), and compare them to the design of the 1996-'99 Taurus. (all photos courtesy of Wikipedia under public domain)

#1-Hyundai Sonata

#2-Kia Optima

#3 Ford Fusion

#4-Toyota Prius

Now, many of you would argue that the cars I listed would be "10 times better than the fishbowl Taurus in for x amount of reasons..." And I would probably agree with you.  However consider this,  say the Taurus debuted 15 years later than it did, and had all the modern amenities that a typical 2011 car would have, yet still retained it's ovid shape.  Do you think it would fit right in with the competition better than it would have in 1996? 

Car Spotlight-Dodge Dynasty (1988-1993)

The entire car industry (specifically the design departments) was flipped upside down when they got their first look at the 1986 Ford Taurus.  While the average 1980s car looked like a moving box with edges so sharp they can give you cuts, the Taurus was very aerodynamic and futuristic, with rounded edges, a comfortable interior, and even a digital dashboard to further give owners the impression they were driving "the car of the future."

Meanwhile, across town over at Chrysler, top executives and engineers were scoffing at the Taurus, claiming the car was "too radical" for the public to chew and swallow.  They assumed that consumers would continue to prefer traditional boxy cars that has been a standard for American cars since the late 70s.

To "compete" with the new Taurus, Chrysler took their "fail safe" K-platform, enlarged it to appear mid-sized, and slapped all these boxy panels on it. (perhaps as a middle finger to Ford)  The end result was the Dynasty sedan.


So what was the verdict?

Why don't you take a look at these two pictures...one is the Dynasty and the other is the Ford Taurus.  Both are the same model year and priced about the same.  






...Yeah, it seems that at arrival, the Dynasty already looked like a twenty year old car.  Despite it's inferiority design wise, the Dynasty still found it's group of buyers.  These people include:

• families who haven't exactly warmed up to the Taurus's aerodynamic design
• people who refuse to buy anything that isn't a Chrysler product
• OLD PEOPLE!

Now with that being said, the Dynasty wasn't really that bad of a car (although it does like to eat automatic transmissions for breakfast).  One thing I hear that owners like about the Dynasty is it's smooth ride, thanks to it's innovative front struts that reduced ride harshness, as well as seats that felt like the couch in your grandma's living room.  To be honest, I would consider the Dynasty as one of the last "land yachts" to be sold to the public.  

In the long run, Chrysler was dead wrong about aeronautical cars being a fad, as the Dynasty (as well as most of Chrysler's boxy cars) was phased out in 1993 and replaced by the super sleek Intrepid.  

Link to a bunch of old people explaining why they like their Dynasty 

Link to an incredibly hot chick selling Dodge Dynasty hubcaps

Link to a bunch of teenagers making a Dynasty fly!

Car Spotlight- Kia Borrego (2009)

I have seen three Borrego's in my lifetime and all of them were
in this copper-orange color.
(photo credit-car and driver)

Okay so picture this, it's 2009.  The housing market was collapsing, banks were failing, businesses were closing, the war in the Middle East was dragging on, and gas prices were sharply increasing despite starting the year at under $2.00 a gallon.

At this time, the auto industry was facing record-low sales as consumers were wary of making such a huge investment in a car that may or may not even be made anymore.  Those who did get a car (most likely on risky credit) were buying gas-sipping compacts, under-powered minivans or those DARN HYBRID cars.

So how did Kia Motors of South Korea respond to this new desire for a fuel-efficient family hauler? With a body-on-frame full size SUV that gets around 16 miles to the gallon...

When the truck first came out, I didn't understand why Kia chose to sell this car.  They already had similar sized crossover SUV called the Sorento that had more or less the same features and capacities...but at a smaller sticker price.  I was not alone, as I remember reading an article by Motor Trend where the staff was given one as a long term test vehicle, and they came to a similar conclusion.

Despite being the wrong vehicle at the wrong time, the Borrego wasn't bad for what it was.  It seats up to seven people, can tow up to 7000 lbs, and the maneuverability was pretty good for it's size.  It would have made a decent vehicle for road trips up to the cabin, towing the pontoon boat, or (realistically) ideal for rich housewives who like to take up more than one parking space at the Sam's Club.

But again...it was a vehicle that was fifteen years behind the times.  It was a truck that no one really asked for, especially in this economy.  The Borrego was pulled from the U.S Kia lineup after barely a year on the market.  Production of the Borrego continued however, as the truck is still being sold in middle-eastern nations where gas and oil are about as common as urine.    

  

Car spotlight- Ford Festiva (1988-1993)

The Festiva was so basic, that having a passenger-side mirror
was considered an option...

The car I'm talking about today should not be confused with the 1978-1980 and 2011-present Ford Fiesta.  No, this is the Ford Festiva (fes-teev-ah), a completely different small car.  Imagine the word "festive" and replace the "e" with an "a" (just like when Oldsmobile replaced the  last "e" in Achieve with an "a" to get this depressing car).

In the mid 80s, Ford was on top of the world.  Their Escort "world car" was selling plentifully around the world, the game-changing Taurus mid-sized sedan was turning heads everywhere, and Ford was well into development of another vehicle that will turn the car industry upside down (the Explorer)  Yes, it was a great time to be a Ford dealer.  Around this time, the was a dramatic increase in college graduates looking to buy their first car or their first "new" car.  Looking to capitalize on this new demographic, Ford went ahead and offered a simple and affordable car called the Festiva.

Because Ford was pretty exhausted with developing the Escort and Taurus, as well as having their hands full with the Explorer, Ford pulled a GM move by dumping the responsibility of developing and assembling this new car to their Japanese partners, Mazda and Kia.

Gotta love that optional air conditioner!
And Get a load of that automatic seat
belt!
(photo credit-moibibiki.com)

The origins of the Festiva itself is actually quite confusing.  The car was originally developed by Mazda as the 121 sub-compact and was marketed mainly toward those who lived in city settings (specifically Tokyo) where cars are taxed based on size and dimensions.  Mazda would then enter a contract with Kia Motors of South Korea to assemble the 121 and sell it as the Kia Pride.  When Ford came along and asked to sell the car in the United States, it would be the Korean derivative that would wear the Ford emblem.  So whenever someone in America pops open the hood or look closely at the V.I.N plate, it will say "Manufactured in South Korea by Kia Motors."

The Festiva went on sale in the U.S in 1988 and sold fairly well.  Like Ford had hoped, the Festiva sold well among college graduates and new drivers.  The Festiva was also quite popular with individuals who had long commutes, as the car got very good gas mileage (35 city/42 highway).  The only drawbacks to the cars were it's laughably small wheels that wore out frequently and it's very poor crash test ratings (but don't worry, Ford put motorized seat-belts in the Festiva so that nobody forgot to buckle up!)

The Festiva sold well enough for Ford to keep the Festiva through the 1993 model year.  At this point, the vehicle underwent a major re-design.  Because the new Festiva looked completely different from it's predecessor, Ford decided at the last second to change the name to "Aspire."  To sum up that car as briefly as I can, many people agree that it was probably the worst possible name to give that particular car...

Even after it was re-designed, several markets continued to sell the original version of the Festiva, specifically in emerging markets.  Kia sold the Pride virtually unchanged until 2000.  China sold their own version of the Festiva as the "Donfeng Yueda" in the 1990s and early 2000s.  Iranian car-maker S.A.I.P.A STILL assembles and sells several different variants of the Festiva to this day, including a 5-door hatchback, 4-door sedan, station wagon, and even a pickup (why anyone would buy a Festiva to haul things is beyond me.  I bet the towing capacity of one is pretty laughable).

An Iran-built SAIPA pickup truck at the Factory. Even the people
that built it looks as if they don't understand the point of making
a pickup truck based off a Festiva...
(photo credit-Technically Jurisprudence.blogspot.com)

And if you thought a pick-up Festiva rose eyebrows, there was an unofficial "Festiva SHO" or "SHOgun."  California-based Special Editions Inc, a coach builder took seven Festivas and mounted the 3.0L DOHC V6 typically found in the Ford Taurus SHO in the Festiva.  Along with the engine swap, Special Editions also widened the wheel displacement (to prevent rollovers) and added a unique body kit to differentiate the SHOgun from regular Festivas.  Jay Leno owns SHOgun #3 and you can see a video about that one here.  I read an article on Leno's official website (for which I couldn't get the link on here for some reason) that this was the car he drove to his first day of hosting the Tonight Show back in 1992.    

Jay Leno with his 1990 Festiva "SHOgun." He even went
ahead and added NOS to the engine...well then!
(photo credit-flatout.com.br)