neither of the two big local junkyards currently have any aerostars.this is the first time ive seen the pull a part not have any.they have had as many as four.i haven't seen any first gen aerostars in a junkyard for a while.

 

 

Blame Obama. His "cash for clunkers" program took thousands of them off the road.At the height of that program, I saw as many as 15 to 20 in the pull a part yards at one time. All with that orange colored junk pored in the crankcase to seize up the engine. They all went to the crusher. What a waste!

 

Actually, blame GM, as they sold the whole "cash for clunkers" scam through their congress-critters because they could not sell their huge SUVs, including the whole Hummer brand, which they were pushing so hard at the time. If it wasn't for the California senators putting in the requirements for increased MPG with the newer replacements, it would have been a second round of bail out for GM. The pretense was that the new cars were supposed to pollute less than the old cars, but the cars that GM was trying to unload were those heavy trucks which actually polluted worse than most cars. Fortunately, it didn't turn out that way, but I agree a lot of good cars were crushed.

Also, I saw plenty of Aeerostars in my local yards long before the cash-for-clunkers program, as the whole SUV culture replaced the mini-van culture. So many people were so fearful of the "soccer mom" or "little-league dad" image of mini-vans that they had to get rough and tumble SUVs to improve their self image. It has to be the biggest misnomer: Forget any pretense of sportiness despite their name, and not nearly as util as a mini-van. I think a lot of us on this forum like our Aerostar for its utility, which is much more than any SUV of similar size.

You will find a lot of AWD Aerostars in cold climates. But most of them will be pretty well used.

 

Bumper covers, very hard to find

 

some blame Obama, some blame GM.

I blame the owners of these vehicles.

 

That's a good point; a lot of old car owners were lured by the ~$4000 rebate, but forget that a new car costs from a minimum of $15,000 to sky's the limit. If your car was on its last leg, it would be a good thing to take advantage of, since you need a new car anyway, and the government is going to essentially make a down payment for you. If you had an old car that was working fine, like most of us Aerostar owners here, it would make sense only if you're really tired of your old car and want to pay for a new one.

About trying to find used parts at the junk yard, remember that the car hadn't been made in over 20 years, was never as popular as the other minivans, and you will understand the scarcity. Whether the van ended up in the junk yard because of it just being worn out, or because someone offered cash for clunker trade in, it's going to get crushed sooner or later.

The other thing I seem to recall was that when I looked it up, the Aerostar may not have been eligible for that trade in program.

 

Its so rare to just see another one going down the road. And when you do, they never, never have good bumpers, and they are usually pretty beat up, but I always try to get along side them and give a thumbs up.

 

Charlotte PAP did have 4 Aeros about a month ago when I was there, got a good tire off one. Not as many as a few years ago though!

 

 

i was able to grab a couple of usable extended rear bumpers at the charlotte pull a part.i didn't realize at the time that new front bumpers were no longer available.

 

my pull a part now has one 97.i haven't decided if i want to make that thirty minute trip to see if i can use anything off of it on my 91.i mainly need interior parts.

 

The interiors changed between 91 and 92, so I know at least the dashes were different.

Something I wish I could do is to adapt the shoulder belts from the later models to my 1990 model.