You insulting the Dodge Caravan. My dad wouldn't like that. He loves his Dodge Caravan.

 

I love Dodge Caravan rear axles!

They unbolt quickly at the spring perches and are dandy for small trailers.

 

Ford already did the damage to the Windstar name.

They could use the name again I suppose, but it would be a gamble.

 

Yup, got one of those now. Just unbolt the perches from the body and weld them to the trailer frame. The springs are too soft, though, at 2000lbs it's sitting on the frame. They do make helpers for those though.
The Kia is a bad starting point for Ford, it gets horrible gas mileage.

 

The Aerostar was better than any Ford min-vans that followed.

GM was smart enough to keep its sturdy, capable rear drive Astro on the market for years after the Aero was nixed.

 

That's not saying much because it too was troublesome. The unit body floorpan on the early 1986's cracked above the rear axle. FoMoCo's fix: Weld the crack shut and weld on angle iron, lots of it.

Aerostars were notorious for overheating, the frog made A4LD (also used in Rangers & Bronco II's) was the worst A/T ever, even worse than the AOD, and that's saying something.

When the Aerostar was introduced, FoMoCo said that within three years, it would be the number one selling mini-van. Never happened.

 

I know, you can't argue with statistics and facts.....except I'm going to.
I'm on my fourth Aerostar. The three before my current one each went over 250K miles without engine or tranny problems. Yea, some of them had a little rust. My current one just hit 230K miles without engine or tranny problems...knock on wood. The exterior on my current Aero still looks good. I ALMOST called the scrap man last fall after hitting a cow with it. I simply put on a new left fender, headlight assembly and grille parts instead and chose to keep driving it. I do change the tranny fluid every 25K miles and do absolutely no towing with it. I have, however, gone on extended vacations with them with 6 other guys each weighing over 200 lbs. each. (I'm 6'6", about 250) I continue with Aerostars because each family member is well above average height. My previous Aerostar was purchased by me (cheaply) from a mechanic because he told me the tranny was shot. It simply had a leaking tranny pan gasket and was low on fluid.
I'm glad that the Aerostar has such a crappy reputation by you and everybody else. That way I can buy the good ones really cheap. Please don't even try to give me a Windstar, however. Most of their trannys don't make it to 100K before they have major problems.

 

I drove an `01 Windstar from 2002-2006. It had 204,000 miles on it when I traded it in and the only problem I had was the transmission needed rebuilt at 170,000 miles. That van road nice, had great visibility and was very versatile.

 

Oh gawd no!!!!!!!!! The reason why Ford left the mini van business was because they didn't do it very well. The windstar was junk, too heavy for the transmission and it remained in Chrysler's wake all of it's life.

I think a mid sized truck and a vehicle like a Nissan Cube would be a mush better investment.

 

Bottom line...Chrysler/Dodge owned and will always own the mini van market. They created it and have invested alot into it. It's trying to convince someone that Ford hasn't sold a F-150 or 2 on reputation alone.

Ford decided to bail on the market...which is a good thing when you look at it now. The line between cross overs and mini vans is very fine. You have way too much competition.

We own a Freestar and friends own the last year of the Windstar. IMHO, the interiors are much the same ( hell, it's a mini van! ) but the ride and build quality is alot different.

And my Freestar has more miles...

 

true, nobody wants the Windstar, people don't want them, used car dealers don't want them, junkyards crush them for scrap, and people are still buying Aerostars.

 

I'm on my third Aerostar, does that put me in Second Place?

 

I want them to produce a new Bronco II

 

Without the 2.9 please.

 

If they do bring back the Windstar, then whatever they do, name it something else!! If they don't, the reputation will kill it! My family had one, a 96 with the 3.8. You couldn't keep head gaskets in it to save your life. The transmission went at 75,000 miles. Low flying aircraft would make all the door locks pop up and down repeatedly. It was traded in on a 2002 Chev Impala, which was even worse! Don't even get me started on that one...

Sam