1997 Ford Aerostar Reviews - Page 3 of 5

Alternator went out.

Starter went out.

Hose for anti-freeze blew.

AWESOME VAN!!!

Very reliable.

Seats; ehhh... they're OK.

Awesome gas mileage; 18-21 MPG.. not bad for an 8 yr old vehicle, huh?

Once again, very reliable; nothing major has gone wrong that we couldn't fix.

Power steering pump blew up 300 kilometres ago.

The van eats brakes, have replaced both front and rear twice and rear once by themselves, plus new rear drums, I think due to anti-lock rears.

Hard on tyres and alignment, has eaten a set of top of the range Canadian Tyre in 70,000 km, despite several alignments and rotating the tyres.

Engine was totally gutless until a dealer replaced some chips in the computer, afterwards whilst overtaking there would emit a distressing series of clicks from under the dash and the engine would respond by heaving away.

After the power steering pump was replaced, the new one was three times as noisey as the original, and I don't know why, but we started getting a random series of what can be only described as hissing from behind the passenger's seat, maybe a electrical switch?

BTW, when we asked why the power steering was as noisey as it was we were told by the dealer "it's just the way it is with those things"...

Cannot fault the practicality of the van.

It has been a reliable vehicle, despite the annoying problems.

On the highway, it is very comfy to drive and be a passenger in, even at time when I've really overloaded the thing.

Other than the items I've mentioned, it has been a great wagon, hence the high marks, it's not hard to see why people hang on to them.

Never drive this thing in the snow without really good snowies or sticking on some iron, it is absolutely uselss, it was a embarrasment to me several times last year...

Nothing to date. Only regular maintenance needed. Recall on all wheel drive transfer box. No problem with us and the dealer was very good.

Not as smooth as other vans. A bit of a bear in city traffic.

We used it to pull a trailer and was always amazed it could haul a 4,000 lb trailer 5 people and all the camping stuff with no problems.

AWD is great in the snow, but uses a bit of gas the rest of the year.

Comfortable to drive best going in a straight line as it tends to lean around corners. Stereo is OK at the best. Air conditioner is good.

Only complaint would be gas mileage and poor handling. Otherwise 6 years and 100,000 kilometers and no real problems. No plans on getting rid of it in next couple of years.

After 80000 miles a steady low sound is coming from the airfilter box at idle. This sound will go away once I depress the accelerator. Diagnostics at Ford did not register this anomaly. Radiator coolant temperature is not affected by this noise. Car seems to operate normal once the sound fades away after stepping on the gaspedal.

Great van,

4 liter is the right size.

Carry large loads,

Seats are easy removable.

Replacing spark-plugs is a virtual pain

It is a quiet vehicle.