Posted for its entertainment value:

Avoidable Contact: Dealer vs. Manufacturer | The Truth About Cars

Cute van, but the front caliper brakes engineering design really sucks.

 

AKA Foukus Fever, the 21st century version of the Pinto.

The car designed to self destruct

 

Bump for one heck of a good read....

 

Pretty good read. However it is not a true story. In 1995 The Aerostar was still in production due to popular demand, otherwise Ford if they had their way would have shut down production and '94 would have been the last production year. During the three years the Aerostar and the Windstar were both on the market, the Aerostar outsold the Windstar each year. When Ford shut down the Aerostar in '97, it largely had to do with internal struggles between different divisions. The Taurus plant made the Windstars, and they viewed every Aerostar sold as a missed opportunity to sell a Windstar. The small truck plant where the Aerostar was made also made the Explorer. They viewed every Aerostar sold as a missed opportunity to sell an Explorer. Combined with the fact that all '98 model year passenger vehicles must have a passenger side airbag, which would require an interior redesign of the Aerostar, there just wasn't enough support inside the company to keep it alive. Someone apparently was fighting to keep them in production however. Thats why the '97 4.0L got a better trans, whoever was in charge of Aerostar production felt that updated designs could improve the sales of the Aerostar, but the decision to kill the model was really already made.

 

Economic politics and the fairy tale nonsense about passenger air bags.

Automotive opinions are like religion, they do not know the true facts.

 

transporting ourselves to today (2012) people won't touch the Windstar with a 5 mile pole, used car dealers don't want them, but you bring a nice Aerostar in for trade-in and they all gather around it like ants.

ohh and I forgot... I work at a business where the owner rents out part of the property to a used car dealer who sells any car as long as it sells. He comes around to pay the rent once a month. Nice guy. He saw my '97 Aerostar, asked me who owns it, I told him, "yours truly". "Wanna trade for the Toyota I have??" he asked... I asked, "what are you asking for the Toyota minivan?".... "$32 thousand" he said.... "does that price include the Infiniti G35 you have there?" I asked back. He smiled..."that's a nice Aerostar you got there, what did you pay for it"...he asked...."$32 thousand" I said. End of conversation.

 

The air bag issue is not nonsense. All 1998 model year and newer vehicles were required to have airbags on the passenger side, which the Aerostar simply didn't have, and did not have any provisions for.

Much of this was all explained in a letter that Ford sent out to dealerships explaining why the Aerostar model was going to be dropped in 1997. All large corporations are motivated by things other than profits. Each division has people in charge who make decisions based largely on how their tenure will be viewed by those at the top. Each project manager has an agenda, and because those project managers are rarely involved in the actual sales, the decisions they make have more to do with their legacy than with actual success. The people in charge of the Aerostar had their run, the people in charge of the Windstar and Explorers were at odds with the Aerostar people, and at the time had more to loose, and had more clout. Their just wasn't enough support inside the company to keep the Aerostar alive, and the fact that the Aerostar was outselling the Windstar didn't matter, they just looked at Aerostar sales as stealing from Windstar sales.

In hindsight, Ford should not have introduced the Windstar at all. It was built as a Caravan knock off, at least that is how it was largely perceived. As a result, its sales would likely never surpass those of a Caravan, and it would only appeal to the same type of customer. Instead Ford should have stayed with the RWD Aerostar design, and improved on it. Fix the safety issues, which was the Windstars strongest point.

In marketing and sales, often the most success comes not from making something that is acceptable to more people, but rather in making something that really apeals to a smaller group, i.e. find a niche.

By imitating the Caravan, it made it too easy to compare the two models, which in turn meant that if Dodge felt that the Windstar was safer, and since the Caravan was already the best selling minivan, all Dodge would have to do is improve their safety too, stripping the Windstar of its only real advantage, which was its safety ratings. The same is true of almost every other major selling point. If a competitor comes out with a new feature, all Dodge has to do is copy it to maintain their #1 position.

If Ford had stayed with the Aerostar, its RWD dominance combined with the common AWD variation is very difficult for Dodge to imitate without compromising what a Caravan even is. The Aerostar could appeal to a slightly smaller, but more profitable group (Ford did profit hugely off Aerostars, they were inexpensive to build, and most people did not buy the basic model) that likes to do things like light towing, and where cargo room is important (the amount of usable cargo room in Aerostars is huge.) AWD is much easier to implement in a RWD chassis, especially when you are sharing parts with the light truck models.

All Ford really needed to do is first, improve the safety of Aerostar, fix them where they were shown to be weak, maybe some added suspension improvements like the addition of a factory rear sway bar, promote the addition of the tow package, and use the cargo area as a huge selling point. Also the cargo version should have been extended, the shorty should have been discontinued entirely. By having the extended cargo vans, and offering the 4.0L and AWD as an option in the fleet cargo vans, it would have those same strong points as a delivery vehicle, especially to those who have to run deliveries in adverse weather. They could have made a left hand drive version suitbale for use in parcel delivery for use by USPS, UPS, and FedEx, as well as smaller private carriers. Then add an interior and exterior redesign. Add a passenger side airbag, improve the upholders, reinforce the door panels, make a stronger more trouble free slider door design, improve the exterior appearance by rounding more of the corners down, and making the model slightly less square. While they were at it, they could have made some changes to the engine compartment to not only improve access, but to make it compatible with the next generation of engines. The 3.0L would have been mostly unchanged, but if the clearange could have been increased to accommodate the later 4.0L SOHC motor with its extra 40 hp, that could have keep things in the game.

Sure the sales would have never surpassed those of the Caravans, but you could have a consistent group of buyers who will keep coming back, because the rest just won't do. The Aerostar would have enough advantages between being heavier duty than a Caravan, larger than either an Astro or Explorer, and the options of AWD, that it would always have enough buyers to keep its sales strong.

Sorry for my rant. I am a fan of the Aerostars, and I am very knowledgable about how marketing really works, versus how large corporations think it works, and I understand where they make blunders, why they make blunders, and why they can't see their own blunders. Large corporations often only look at the bottom line and sales figures as a way to measure success, and will use theoretical but unrealistic projections as a way to make decisions. They will often use incorrect comparisons to justify decisions.

The bottom line, the Aerostar was a good cash cow for the company, they always made money on them. But Ford didn't look at it that way. When they decided to introduce a FWD model, I'm sure whoever was promoting the new model used the argument that Dodge sells XXX Caravans, and that we can take those sales away by making a comparable model. You can see the error in this thinking. People aren't going to buy a Ford instead of a Dodge simply because its a Ford, it must have some real advantages. Stealing sales on a comparable product, especially if that competitor is already the market leader, is quite difficult. You can expend a lot of money trying, which Ford did. All Ford really did was make the Caravan better, since Dodge copied every major improvement Ford introduced to the Windstar.

 

here's my reality, a last year (Nov. 1997) Extended Aerostar 4.0. The last of the Mohicans!

yes I painted the grille to match the like-new body paint (Oxford White).

The front, rear, and sides are done, now I'm working inside redoing the headliners, new stereo and speakers.

if anybody knows where I can get a white and chrome grille emblem, let me know.

 

I'm afraid you will have to make your own white and silver grill emblem. Ford uses its corporate colors for almost all its emblems and logos like that.

You can try to take apart a stock emblem and paint it.

Part of the loss of the Aerostar comes from the market. In many comparisons, the Aerostar is found to be too truck-like, and rated as being not as comfortable as the more car-like minivans, such as the Caravan. Most minivan buyers want essentially a tall station wagon with features that are not the Aerostar's forte', which is load carrying capacity. So the people who continued to buy Aerostars after the Windstar was introduced are already those niche buyers who are looking for specific features that they can't find in other minivans of that time. So in the pursuit of Caravan buyers, Ford abandoned the Aerostar buyers. I guess they probably went for the Astro after 1997 to get similar features.

 

yes I've heard that about the emblems, I think a white emblem would be nice.

I looked at Astros but they are so boxy and ugly, I decided to look for another Aerostar in mint condition, I was lucky to find one. I don't think the Aerostar has a harsh truck-ride at all, it is very comfortable IMHO. Well, it is not a Lincoln, so what do people want?

the main reason I've owned three Aerostars one after the other is the fact that I can accomodate all my music equipment, a dolly, stands, cases, you name it, everything fits like a glove. AND it is a small van, not a large gas guzzling behemoth. This time I went with an Extended Aerostar because my equipment has grown a bit, and I can use the extra space, though it is not a lot more space, just enough.

 

Not white, but here is a chrome one, which would match the chrome headlights.

NEW!!! **FORD** hood/back/trunk EMBLEM chrome color logo badge tempo gt taurus | eBay

or you might want to try to contact this guy...

Ford f-150/Edge/Ranger,9"x3.5"CUSTOM "TAILGATE Emblem"BLACK"COVER" other colors | eBay

 

thank you! I have the 5-3/4" emblem, the first link tells me the emblems are not compatible, the second link says these are 9".

here's the best instructions I have found to DIY:
http://www.rangerpowersports.com/for...ge-249316.html

here's what I want:

 

Ooo, shiney. That looks really nice.

 

It's funny that when I repainted my Mustang about 10 years ago, the nose emblem was faded and coming apart. I thought about refinishing it like those web sites did, but it was much easier to find another one in the salvage yard. But later I thought about modifying my old one to install LEDs in it. It kind of crumbled in my hands as I was taking it apart, so I forgot about it...

 

I know the second guy is listing 9" F-150/250/350 but he also says that he does custom ones.

Worth a shot on e-mailing him.