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Vehicle

Ford Aspire

The very small hatchback that replaced the Festiva, and like the Festiva it is not a Ford design — it was built by Kia, which sold it at home as the Avella, using a Mazda-derived 1.3. Three names, one car, and almost nothing has been written under the Ford one. That is the practical point: Kia and Mazda material is where the engine and gearbox information lives. Mechanically it is about as simple as anything in this catalogue — no variable valve timing, no turbocharger, and a short list of places a fault can hide — so a driveability complaint is usually fuel, ignition or a vacuum leak and can be worked through systematically. Notable for its era as one of the few cars this small sold in North America with a driver and passenger airbag as standard.

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Ford Aspire five-door
Elise240SX · CC BY-SA 4.0 (external)

Generations

  • First generation 1994–1997

    Built by Kia and sold there as the Avella; a Mazda-derived 1.3 and very little else.

    Body styles
    Hatchback
    Platform
    Kia Avella
    Engines
    • 1.3 four-cylinder — petrol · Mazda B3
    Transmissions
    5-speed manual · 3-speed automatic
    Drivetrain
    Front-wheel drive

Service information

Information, not instruction

CarGeek is a reference, not a service manual. Its pages are written from public sources and from what other people have found, never from a manufacturer's own service information, so they can be wrong or incomplete for your particular vehicle. Some of what they describe carries real risk: high voltage, fuel under pressure, stored energy, hot and moving parts.

Have anything you intend to act on checked by a trained person against the manufacturer's own procedure for your vehicle. Nothing here replaces that procedure.

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