1996 Ford Windstar GL review from North America

Fan Belt blew at 156000km,

Windshield-wiper motor blew at 156000km

Head gasket blew at 156000km.

Rust erosion has now deteriorated both intake and return gas lines, causing gas to leak from the vehicle fairly rapidly.

Both break lines are nearly rusted through.

Anti-lock break signal on dash flashes on and off.

Parking-lock break flashes on and off.

Air-conditioning has never worked.

Ford's Customer Service:

The van was sold to me with a power-train warranty and air-conditioning (as stated in the invoice and receipt). The latter has never worked at all and the former was never transferred over to my name. Only when the head-gasket blew did I realize the warranty wasn't in my name. After more than a week of hassling them they finally transferred the warranty over to me. No apologies from them. In the meantime I took the bus.

Now I face a bigger problem: gas and break lines (both intake and return) have all been rusted and Ford no longer makes these for the 96 Windstar. Fixing this problem requires shopping at the scrap yard, but it will still take well over a thousand dollars in labor to get the vehicle running, plus whatever the scrap-yard charges for the second-hand parts.

The Vehicle:

Its sort of comfortable, pretty good on gas and handles reasonably well. But, mechanical problems occur about once a month and keep me pretty broke. I strongly advise those in the car market to be wiser than I was. If the van isn't in the garage, you can assume there's a problem pending.