Bought a Kia Niro hybrid as 2nd car - blows my Mirage away

[Cobrajet]

It's one thing to say that 'they don't make em like they used to', but Kia has come a long way, baby!

I had one of the first Kias off the boat here back in 1998. It was a 1995 Sportage 4x4 I bought used. That gawdawful "1990s Teal Green". Not sophisticated, but very reliable and great in the snow. It used a fuel injected version of the old SOHC Mazda B2000 pickup motor from the 1980s, purchased from Mazda back when Kia, Mazda, and Ford were all in bed with each other (eg, the aforementioned Ford Festiva). In fact, the entire drivetrain was made by Mazda.

I knew the Kia had a Mazda pickup motor the first time I heard it start. My dad bought an '87 B2000 SE-5 brand new in late 1986. He put 376,000 miles on it before totaling it in 2001. I heard that pickup start outside my bedroom window EVERY WEEKDAY MORNING from age 13 to 18! Sounded just the same!

The '19 Sportage gets pretty high marks. Kias were crude, cheap, and reliable back in the day...kind of like the Mirage! I dated a chick who bought a new Sephia in 1997. It never gave her any trouble, and was actually quite quick for a cheap compact sedan.

[Tyrelirwin]

no radio,

That IS a special kind of 'economy car'!

[Mark]

That IS a special kind of 'economy car'!

It was truly a base model. I did add a stereo system by the way. My singing isn't that good!

[MetroMPG]

There's one Festiva left running around my neck of the woods. Which is odd, considering rust eats economy cars well before the mechanicals are toast. I've got the last Metro/Firefly hatchbacks in this part of the world.

[Cobrajet]

There's one Festiva left running around my neck of the woods. Which is odd, considering rust eats economy cars well before the mechanicals are toast. I've got the last Metro/Firefly hatchbacks in this part of the world.

Rust isn't too much of a problem here, but you reminded me of the last Festiva my buddy bought. He was really into those little cars, and we became friends when I helped him tow one on New Year's Eve in the middle of the night. The car was literally FROZEN to the ground. We had to break it loose!

A couple years later he buys another one but can't get it to run. He told me it is a really nice car...especially for a Festiva...and I asked how many miles were on it. He said, "I think 31,000. The odometer only has five digits."

I came over to look at it one night. It really was quite nice, but I had to give him some bad news. I looked at the instrument cluster and the car DID have a six-digit odometer. That Festiva had 310,000 miles on it!

We did a compression test, and it had about 50 psi on each cylinder. Motor was just worn flat smooth out!

[Daox]

That Festiva had 310,000 miles on it!

We did a compression test, and it had about 50 psi on each cylinder. Motor was just worn flat smooth out!

LOL imagine that.

My dad had an 89 Festiva. Still many fond memories of us tooling around in it.