Summary:
This vehicle is a competent van
Faults:
Power steering whine: I treated it with Lucas power steering additive. The whine vanished immediately and never returned.
The right side power sliding door will not always close.
There is a little rattle from the blower motor at low setting. It is just enough to be annoying. It does not occur in warm weather.
I replaced the nearly worn OEM tires with Goodrich Traction Control T/A tires. I am happy with these tires.
General Comments:
We choose this van over Honda Odyssey and Toyota Sienna because of its lower price. The difference was about $5000.
We choose it over the Chrysler minivans because the Windstar offers a firmer road feel and the Chrysler transmissions have a reputation of braking down. Ford transmissions brake too, but the odds seemed better.
The interior gives a feel of quality, something that I missed with the GM minivans.
I was driving this van 2 days straight for 1350 miles and I was half as tired compared to doing this trip with the Aerostar.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 27th July, 2006
6th Dec 2006, 19:18
After one year of use we still like this van. It has pleasing styling, nice interior, dual power sliding doors, entertainment system with nice sound quality and VHS system, quad seating, shopping bag holders in the trunk, and 5–star safety rating.
Nice acceleration. Good braking even in slippery conditions thanks to ABS. Good road feel. And nothing major went wrong.
The van is kind of thirsty, yielding 16 mpg in town to 21 mpg on the highway. But hey, we saved $5000 over less thirsty minivans. Tire wear could come into play as well. The outside edges of the front tires wear down rather quickly. I used to take corners rather fast, now I slow down more before turning. I have seen other minivans with this wear pattern.
The kids love their captain seats and occasionally comment how quiet and comfortable the van is.
The 6-CD-Changer is too sensitive and spits out perfectly fine CD’s.-Well, no longer. I used a CD cleaner and that fixed it.
The video system took time to understand, in particular “Dual Mode”, when you listen to the stereo and the kids use the headphones for the video. Finally we figured this one out: to keep it in “Dual Mode” you must have the radio or CD player on. If you want it quiet, turn down the volume, but don’t turn off the audio. Because then it will automatically switch to “Video” and you have to listen to Duffy Duck: “Deffpicable!”
The leather seats don’t breath in the summer and are very cold in the winter. My next vehicle will have velour seats again.
I found that the rattle reported in the review does not come from the blower motor. It’s the baffle in the ductwork. Other posters have reported that as well. Hard to believe Ford did not fix that in all these years.
Opening the power sliding doors took some getting used to: Put it in park, push power locks open, push sliding door button. For maintenance, make sure the tracks are clean and keep the wheels greased, or the doors may not fully close.
Rear wiper does a poor job. It often does not touch the glass at all. WD-40 in the linkage helps.