(Photo by CJCZ92)
Wordless Outtake: The Fanciest-Wheeled Aspire There Ever Was
– Posted on January 23, 2019
(Photo by CJCZ92)
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the worst car I ever rented was an “Aspire”.
17 mpg on the highway w/ an automatic, certainly not aspirational
a genuine “S” box
Holy crap, 17 highway mpg from an Aspire? I knew they were generally bad cars but, surely, something was wrong with it for fuel economy to be that low. Even the craptacular Chevy Aveo got better gas mileage than that.
The car that Aspires to be a real car.
Are those BMW Bottle Cap wheels?
I think they are. BMW used 4×100 for a time, and although they had an offset suited to RWD, lots of folks used BMW wheels on FWD cars. When FWD subcompacts had 12″ and 13″ wheels, the BMW bottlecaps were one of the few OEM wheels in 4×100 with a 14″ diameter.
I have developed the ability to drive almost anything and feel OK about it due to a basic respect for the machine itself. This one would give me some pause.
How many dead Aspires do you think have been harvested to keep this one alive?
I’m counting 3 just to fix the front end. Black, red and that lovely purple so many were painted.
I see your BMW OEM wheels and raise you RONAL BEARS. I shot this on a BHPH lot a few years ago.
I remember when those wheels were popular with VW New Beatles along with the “daisy” wheels.
https://tires.tirerack.com/tires/Daisy%20Rims
And people make fun of me for putting a “TRD” badge on my Highlander.
I remember describing those bear wheels to a relative’s kids years ago; they didn’t believe me until I showed them the ad. Some things are just too cute to exist, I guess. Just once I’d like to see them on a Charger or Magnum, though.
I like how you think. I’m not sure they exist anymore, or what sizes were available, but I figured that even in 2007 that they were worth far more than that car. I think that they were very expensive when new. I did always think it was clever that the center cap lock was the bear’s belly button.
CC-on-CC Effect in action: I was just thinking about this car the other day, wondering if any of them still exist.
My mom got one as a rental around 1999 when her minivan was wrecked. The Aspire had the worst-smelling interior glue/plastics I’ve ever been around, a smell I can remember to this day.
I would rank this as the fastest-disappearing car on American roads.
it’s weird, the Festiva and the Aspire. same engine, horsepower, trans, and suspension. similar dimensions. same Korean assembly. but one has like a “soul”. the other sucks yours out.
The difference-there wasn’t any Shogun Aspire
Had one of these as a loaner while the GF’s car was in the body shop. She refused to drive it, so I loaned her my truck. I let it be known to all who asked, “I had no desire to acquire an Aspire”. It was one step above a riding lawn mower.
There was a red one here, but I haven’t seen it in several years.
Despite all the flak the chevette gets, someone, at Ford or Kia or Mazda decided to copy its styling for the aspire and just make it much uglier. The chevette may not have been amazingly beautiful, but it was handsome, this car copied the styling but bloated and puffed it out.
Where is the rest of the car going to go if it copies the styling of the chevette? There was a c/d review of this car which tried its best to be kind but this car came within a few hundred dollars of the neon, escort, and other immensely faster and better cars and was found sorely wanting. According to the review, Ford decided this would be some sort of third car for people to tow behind RVs, so if you owned one, you wouldn’t. . . actually drive it most of the time, but have it on hand like one of those dinky spare tyres? I think this was more fragile than its predecessor and immediate relative, the festiva. This car made its owner aspire to own ANYTHING else, even a contemporary Hyundai or Kia sephia.
Ford Aspire The official car of “yeah, my insurance company only gives me 30 bucks a day for a rental”
I used to see some Aspires here in Curitba – Brazil. A red, a golden, a black, a silver and a green like that. The Ford Fiesta of that time looks skinny and weaker if compared to the Aspire, I wonder why Ford didn’t put the Aspire as the Fiesta Mk4. However there are hundreds of that “Fiestinha” (little Fiesta) running everywhere still today, but the Aspires didn’t crossed the next century.
c’mon! the Aspire was paving the way for the Challenger over 20 years ago! eh. at least down under.