Kia Pride - "Saved From The Scrap Yard" - Christmas Countdown - Day 4

[@JonCoupland]

Day 4 sees possibly the rarest car I'm going to feature on this countdown. A Kia Pride ... Verdicts?

[@darrenwilson8042]

I worked with a guy who had one of these back in the day and he raved about it

[@JonCoupland]

Awesome 👍 ​@@darrenwilson8042

[@johnedwards3198]

The PRIDE of Korea... And Japan, American and Lincolnshire at the time. I'm still a late 90s level Korean enthusiast mmmmm the Hyundai Accent and Kia Rio get me hot under the collar (because mine didn't have air con)

[@xjsteve]

What a unicorn of a car! I remember these cars vividly, as a local second hand car dealer called N.K Motors in Chilwell, Nottingham agreed to sell a few on a sale or return basis when Kia first came into the UK. Nindy Kumar, owner of N.K Motors is now the biggest Kia dealership in the UK! My wife has a current Kia Sportage GT Line, an excellent car from a now global manufacturer based in South Korea 🇰🇷. Great to know the little Kia Pride lives on, it’s a very rare and significant piece of motoring history!

[@JonCoupland]

Fantastic story and like Hyundai, Kia have really regenerated themselves the past few years - its a shame i couldnt have kept it. But im glad its got a good home

[@ThomasCollectables]

This is much more what I expected from your car collection. Excellent find!

[@JonCoupland]

Some crackers to come

[@jamesdavis8425]

I bought one of the last brand new in 2000 on a W reg. It was £4995 from Kia dealer in Cardiff. Green with colour coded bumpers and electric front windows. Lovely little car. I owned it for 15 years. Always a struggle to get through the emissions test but otherwise faultless. The only brand new car ive ever bought.

[@JonCoupland]

Thats sounds a lovely little car! Thanks for watching

[@SamMarshall-hs4pp]

Looking forward to the 40 days of Lent mini-series in the Spring. Keep up the good work JC.

[@JonCoupland]

I might need to speak to some local dealers and see if they can hook me up with some motors .. thanks for watching mate

[@stuarttanner2052]

This car would have been through my hands when it was imported. I ran the compound that we bought all the Kia's into shumas sportages ect. Unfortunately by 1998 we had over 1500 of these in stock we could not shift even to staff for £1500 each. We pre registered them on a s reg to boost the sales figures and it didn't work out. We also imported Mazda's with many thousand in stock at the same time. We were the main supplier to budget rent a car who suddenly decided they didn't want the pride.

[@JonCoupland]

Fascinating and sad at the same time - poor little Prides

[@ClunkerCars]

Of the cars you’ve featured so far, this is the only one I’ve thought that if it were me, I’d have kept. Good that it’s being enjoyed, though!

[@JonCoupland]

Good choice. At the time I didn't have the space or ability to keep it. Now ... It would have been a fun thing to have kept and enjoyed 😊

[@bradjohnson1627]

I think you should have kept this one, good news that it's being looked after 😊 We had them as the Ford Festiva, sold like hotcakes. I am biased ,I do own it's baby brother 😂

[@JonCoupland]

If I had the space at the time I would have done 👍

[@danielrussell446]

Wow what a survivor it’s been many years since I’ve seen one we had a Mazda dealer in brierley hill which sold the 121 as it was and other models then gained the then new Kia franchise as well so the old 121 (pride) sold against the new Mazda 121 (the bubble shaped one) they were very popular and a good first car or runabout so glad it survives now but would have been worth keeping for the rarity value thanks for a great video Jon Daniel

[@danielsellers8538]

You should have kept this one jon

[@JonCoupland]

I agree

[@mikes747]

I remember when they came with whitewall tyres when new!

[@JonCoupland]

They looked the business

[@fhwolthuis]

My sister's first car was a 3 door 121 from 1989, base 1.1 model. It was quite nice!

[@JonCoupland]

Oh brilliant

[@easternundergroundsounds6977]

i had one of these for my first car 1992 j had it in 2002 did suffer from bad body roll but was a little trooper!

[@JonCoupland]

Great to hear peoples fond memories of these cars

[@UniversityOfTurmoil]

Whitewall tyres need to make a come-back.

[@JonCoupland]

I agree

[@charliecoco2115]

I believe this was badged and sold in the USA as a Ford Festiva.

[@JonCoupland]

Absolutely right 👍

[@mrjsv4935]

Interesting to see this Kia Pride version, even as a 5-door version. Kia came here in Finland in 2004/5, so we only saw this car as a Mazda 121, and only as 3-door Hatchback. Interesting to see also that old Kia logo. Used to have two Mazda 323's myself, a 1982 3-door Hatchback and 1990 4-door sedan, and currently have 2016 Kia Rio, so indeed cool to see an old Kia which I never saw here :) I think the Kia Rio is called Kia Pride in some markets, so perhaps this Kia Pride / Mazda 121 is kind of an older generation of Rio?

[@JonCoupland]

Interesting! I'm not 100% certain. Thanks for watching

[@Phiyedough]

I would not have guessed it was rare but I suppose they were cheap when new so not many people would have wanted to put a lot of money in them to keep them going. I did just do a quick look on a Hungarian car site and there were none but there is a 1997 Mazda 121. That looks to be a newer shape, more like a Fiesta.

[@lesklower7281]

In Australia we never got the Kia Pride but we did get the Mazda 121 but we did get the Ford Festiva and what a great little car had it for a while until the Fiesta got stolen but we did get the Festiva back had a couple things to be repaired but the one thing we didn't get repaired was the frame for the drivers window that's how the thieves broke into the Festiva and water would get in when it rained but my wife wanted to get rid of it so we traded it in on a second hand Hyundai Accent didn't have that long and traded the Hyundai in on a Ford Fiesta new and that was the absolutely worst car we ever bought it was a pile of junk turned us of European and British built vehicles

[@JonCoupland]

What a sad end to the story there, hopefully some good memories too of the car - thanks for watching mate

[@a11csc]

that shudda bin a maybe

[@JonCoupland]

😁👍