24th Jan 2006, 04:00
Now we know why Ford has just announced it is giving up on Minivan production altogether.
Yes, really, NO MORE FORD MINIVANS!!
I like this type of vehicle, but need an even bigger van.
I recently bought a '98 G1500 Chevy Express Custom Van for $3,800-00 at auction.
Seats 7 people in comfort, four of them in Captain's seats.
It has a 350V8 and rear wheel drive, not troublesome front-wheel-drive like the Windstar.
I like it so much I may never buy a normal sedan again.
Next time I'll buy one with the extended roof to make moving around within the van even easier.
Strongly recommended from a family man with the need to haul lots of junk and kids.
Amazingly quiet and smooth.
High-up driving position gives good visibility and feels safe as impacting cars would pass under you.
Van is at 186,000 miles and feels like it could run for another 200,000.
Kids love the big built-in TV.
25th Jan 2008, 13:06
I will never buy another Ford. Our Windstar van is built like crap, and has had nothing but problems. Ford service is unbelievably bad, the people are rude and try to screw you over continually. The latest round with them, they tried to tell me the Windstar we bought in Canada is different than american ones, and the parts in the US won't fit. (we now live in the US) Funny thing is they didn't know that WE knew that all Ford Windstars where built in the same plant - IN CANADA.
And yes, the part we ended up getting from the auto wreckers did fit. We had to get it there because the a-holes at the Ford dealership told us we needed to buy the ENTIRE heating system at 1300.00 in order to get one small broken piece of plastic. This was after they said we could get the small piece and they ordered the wrong part twice.
DON'T BUY A FORD!
24th Jan 2006, 00:39
I have a 99 Ford Windstar for almost 4yrs now.Luckily, I bought the extended warranty for it because it's more than 4xpaid for itself. The warranty is just about to expire and I am going to get rid of it before it does. Since I purchased this vehicle, the warranty has paid for the upper intake manifold twice (within 30,000 miles each time) because it melted, the outer tie rod ends replaced, the whole rack and pinion system, including power steering pump, various sensors in the transmission and fuel injection system, replaced the computer chip, and a few other minor little things, but a nuisance just the same. I keep up the regular maintenance as required to keep the warranty effective. Here it is the beginning of the year 2006 and this 99 Windstar just past 70,000 miles and its running like...crap again, there is something under the chasis that's rattling like it's about fall off. Never in my life have I had a vehicle that has caused me so much grief!! Thank goodness I bought into that warranty. Now I will take it to the dealership one last time to have whatever it is this time fixed, hopefully under warranty, and trade it in. I couldn't possibly sell it to someone without feeling guilty about not warning them what their buying into.