Pride and joy

[gricer]

By request from Mr Bollox and others, here's Britain's oldest Kia, alive and well and covering insanely low mileage at the hands of old ma Gricer, aged 92.

 

 

It's an original press fleet car from the UK launch, which took place several months before actual sales began. A small batch of H...FKM cars were registered, and these were the only H-plate cars. Actual sales started in August 91, on J-plate, with slightly different spec details. 

 

I bought the car from the press fleet in November 1991 to replace my Mum's Astra. She's been driving it ever since. It has never, ever let her down. As far as I can tell, it's the only survivor of the H...FKM cars still either on the road or on SORN.

 

 

It is starting to show its age. The front bumper has become pretty discoloured, and still looks crap (though better than in these pix) after a couple of bottles of plastic colour restorer. The back bumper is as good as new. There's a bit of rust on the bottom of the passenger door and the rear wheel arch, and a couple of small dings on the wings. Nothing that can't be fixed. 

 

 

Interior is clean and tidy. It's done fewer than 50,000 miles.

 

 

And the Pride wears its history with pride

 

Only problem is the loss of one of its uber-rare wheel trims (hence the poundshop minilites on at present). These were only fitted on the H-reg cars, plus a few other early models. I've seen them on a Pride Van. I have another set of originals with a slightly different design, with the logo, but I really want one of these... if any hubcap collectors out there have one, I'll make you a generous offer!

 

 

My old ma will probably have to give up driving in the next year or so, but the Pride will be looked after and restored. And taken to car shows, to annoy the tweed cap brigade. It'll have white-wall tyres of course. I was stpid not to keep those (it's only on its second set of tyres)A new front bumper is the other hard-to-find part, as most Prides seem to have body-coloured bumpers.

 

The UK was Kia's first export market in Europe for its own-brand cars. It had made Prides for the US as Ford Festivas from 1986. But considering just how massive Kia has become, this car, the oldest of its brand in Europe, really does have some genuine historical provenance...

 

 

 

[saucedoctor]

Outstanding, a proper piece of motoring history right there.

 

There are many advocates of boiled linseed oil, peanut butter (really!) and heat guns on this forum, as a means to getting your bumpers back to good condition. Maybe worth a try on the front one if you haven't already done so.

 

Edited to add: given the car's history, maybe it would be worth contacting Kia UK and telling them you have it. You might get some freebies. Like wheeltrims, for example.

[gordonbennet]

I have a soft spot for Pride's, had one for more than a month as a courtesy car whilst my 306 (i hated that car) was being rejigged.

 

An endearing simple little motor, decent headroom when the fashion was otherwise, went well and enjoyable to drive.

 

My only real criticism, and this applies equally to older Puntos, is that better controlled rear damping (not harder springs) would have transformed the cars handling, if i'd owned one i would have found good quality rear dampers for it.

[sporty-shite]

Boiled linseed oil is the best thing for those bumpers. Heat guns only bring oil to the surface from deeper in the plastic when really they need new oil applying. It's a bit like moisturiser for your motor. Peanut butter only works because of the oil it contains and is obviously messy.

[lisbon_road]

Very impressed.  The idea of contacting Kia is good.  One thing is for sure, you'd struggle to find one like that in South Korea.

[holbeck]

thanks for sharing

[500tops]

mind. blown.

[stephen01]

Stephen likes this .

[Lacquer Peel]

Nice! White wall tyres required, however.

[Sloth in a bowl]

Thanks for posting this.

[dollywobbler]

Absolutely brilliant. 

[Junkman]

Oh my God, it even out-awfuls my Daishitesyou.

I'm full with envy.

[vulgalour]

Truly amazing.

[dave21478]

[cms206]

Excellent! I remember a young couple moving in down the road from us when I was a nipper and they had an F-reg Proton 1.5SE which they replaced with a brand new J-reg Pride in metallic blue with chrome trim rings and whitewall tyres. It looked fantastic compared to our C-reg Montego base

[Mr Lobster]

Ace! Definitely contact Kia, theres always a chance of them having a few bits for it that they thought no-one would ever require now.

[Cavcraft]

Superb! I'd also echo SD's suggestion of contacting Kia, they will probably try and help you and may even display the car at one of their showrooms.

[gricer]

Glad you like it! Kia are very aware of the car - in fact it starred in the 20 years of Kia in the UK press release in 2011, having been featured in the original Press Kit back in 1991 (which I don't have any more, but would like!)

 

Trouble with getting Pride parts from Kia Motors UK is the fact that the current distributor wasn't the original importer. For the first 15 years or so, an independent importer (part of former Mazda importer MCL) brought in the cars. KMUK is factory-owned, and Pride was gone from the range before it started - so Pride spares are scarce.

 

[scruff]

Worth dropping a line to Practical Classics. It's probably been binned now, but when I worked at Media House there was a massive library of press packs and photographs going back to the 80s. Good for copies if nothing else... 

[carlo]

Wow, liking the car pictured on recent publicity literature, that would make me feel very proud!

 

Presume you have a copy of the Autocar 1991 road test which features H299 FKM, a 5dr on whitewalls?  If not let me know and I'll scan you a copy.

[trigger]

Excellent! Did it ever have whitewalls?

[phil_lihp]

Superb, glad to see it's in good hands and that Kia like to recognise their history!

 

Whitewalls and original trims are a must if you can get them, of course, and I second the use of boiled linseed oil, works better than anything else I've tried.

 

My parent's neighbour had a brand new Pride in that shade of blue on a J-plate in 1991, complete with whitewalls.  It must have been one of the first in the showrooms, I think I might have a photo with it in somewhere.  It looked pretty smart next to our rusty red Maestro.

[gricer]

Yes, it had whitewalls for the first ten years of its life. Foolishly didn't retrieve them when it had a tyre change. It'll get them again at some stage in the future. At the moment it's still a daily driver. Sort of. More like once a fortnight!

[gricer]

Carlo - yes, I do have that edition. There's probably an Auto Express test somewhere too.

[DSdriver]

 

 

At the moment it's still a daily driver. Sort of. More like once a fortnight!

Yersee, that's the problem with modern technology. Oldies don't get out enough. Thursdays the roads used to be chockablock with giffers going to collect their pensions from the post office. Now they don't even have to go to the shops, they can buy their groceries at supermarket online.