Faults:

Power steering assembly went bad, repaired under warranty. Appears to be a problem well known with Ford service technicians.

Faults:

Nothing (yet I'm sure).

General Comments:

Overall I must say that I like the vehicle. Of the things I like:

Great ride. Very smooth.

Dual sliding side doors.

Handles well.

Zippy responsiveness. I can pass like nobody's business.

Great sound system (for a non-audiophile anyway).

Comfortable seats. Driver's seat has adjustable lumbar support.

Things I don't like about it are:

Rear seat legroom is non-existent for anyone over 4 years old.

Cargo space doesn't exist without removing the rear seat.

Removal of the rear seat is a huge pain (literally and figuratively).

Low gas mileage.

The monthly payment ($420)

The drastic drop in value (went from $36,000 to $14,000 in 2 years).

The dealership I bought it from. I'd heard bad things from many people, but I didn't believe it until I had to deal with them. We won't ever go back to that particular Ford dealer ever again. From now on we'll only go to the neighboring city's dealership.

Faults:

The most problems we have had is the transmission. When you first take off and put into drive it hesitates up to 5 seconds or longer. Was told by the dealer its normal and having a transmission problem is rare. It clunks hard shifting from 1st to 2nd once in awhile. Was wondering if anyone else had this problem.

General Comments:

Would not take this van on a long trip. Don't trust it.

Faults:

Automatic door-locking feature intermittent.

Power window motor noisy.

Remote hood latch adjusted wrong.

Engine "pings" under a load in low gear.

General Comments:

I have not noticed any transmission problems during up-shift or down-shift on this vehicle as other people have reported. (I have owned several Fords, and I know exactly what the problem feels like- my old F-250 and Fairmont did it!). We test drove ALL other minivans, and only the new Ford Freestar and Toyota 2004 minivan compare in comfort and performance. We live in mountainous terrain, and only the Fords and Toyota could not only go uphill, but downhill safely without lugging the engine or overheating the brakes. The Dodge/Plymouth was straight up dangerous on steep grades! The only real significant problem we have had is a re-occuring detonation/pre-ignition problem when under load in first gear. The Ford technicians at our local dealership say that nothing is wrong, which is probably what the OBD computer is telling them, but it still pings. Does anybody have any ideas? I think the timing is running to far advanced, but don't think I can adjust it on this vehicle myself??!

As for performance itself, the car gets about 17 m.p.g., runs fine, but it is not a "performance vehicle" as some people have stated. It doesn't like to take corners fast, and if you can call its acceleration great, then take a ride in our stock 2001 Ford Taurus with the 24 valve V-6! I guess you could call the engine adequate in this minivan, but like all the other minivans we drove, none really felt spirited. We call this vehicle "mom's taxi"~!