1995 Ford Windstar GL review from North America

At 82000 miles the transmission began to slip. The vehicle would surge ahead after the engine revved. The Ford service writer pulled the part I needed from his drawer and told me it was a common problem. That cost $1100 to fix.

At around 120000 miles the transmission gave out completely. The rebuild cost $1750.

At 150,000 miles I had the rapid overheat problem from coolant and transmission fluid mixing in the radiator. I took it to a friend who repaired the heads for $1000.

At 230000 miles the transmission went out again and I paid another $1750 for the rebuild.

I have also replaced one of the computers(used), and an injector. These cost about $600.

The smart things I did were to buy lifetime warranty tires and front end alignment.

I was putting 40,000 miles per year on the vehicle for the first few years of ownership.

I bought this van because it was comfortable and handled decently. I needed a larger vehicle for work and with a soon to be expanding family wanted the safety and utility.

I thought that excellent maintenance could overcome most problems.

Ford taught me the opposite. Bad engineering and cheap materials can only be overcome by companies that care about putting out an excellent or even just a good product. I will never again be a part of Ford's bottom line.