I'm not sure where OT questions go......

My elderly father-in-law looking at buying a 2000 FORD Windstar van. Does anyone have any feedback to help me to help him decide?

Why do I sense a Ford/Chevy battle???

I currently own my second Windstar - '03 SEL - and it looks like I will be purchasing it after my lease expires next month. Had a '99 prior to this one and it had the flashers on teh rear view mirrors that flashed when the sliding doors were opened and would always drain the battery if we left them open for any length of time. On th e'03 they fixed that issue and put it on a timer. Other than that, we've had little issue with either. Watch, now that it is off warrantly and I own it it will be a lemon?

Sorry, don't know much about the Windstar, or if it is related to the Aerostar. But my company had a couple of Aerostars that were beat to death for 10 years without problems. They still have the 1991.

Google "Ford Windstar Problems". You will see everything you need to know. Dont ask me how I know.

I have searched the net and found quite a bit of info but I value the opinion/experiences of those on the club......

Nature's way of ensuring mechanics have plenty to do, or so my American car specialist friends say.

The Cap'n

FORD = Fix Or Repair Daily

The Windstar is a major POS.

Check out any JD Powers reports.

If he wants a minivan, even a used one, get the original, a Town and country or a Caravan

There are some good used deals and some great lease offers now on new ones.

Mark

It depends on what you are going to pay for it. YOu should be able to get a pretty nice 2000 windstar for around $8000. Buy one from a person NOT A DEALER & you should come out pretty good. Resale value on them is really bad!

I bought a low mileage 2003 Windstar from Enterprise car rental about 2 years ago. It was maintained very well by Enterprise and I've also kept up with servicing. It's a lot more comfortable than my last POS.

I've put about 55k miles on it since I bought it. It has served me well and I'm very pleased with it.

Our family kid haulers were a Ford Aerostar, Ford Taurus, and Ford Windstar Van in that order. All were OK, did everything we wanted them to do, and ended up being traded at approximately 80,000 miles. The interiors were all comfortable, the AC blew cold, and the only real problelm areas for us were the transmissions, assume you need to get them rebuilt at 50,000 miles. Luckily, extended warrenties paid for the two that we needed.

Not the most exciting vehicles, but did what they had to do for us.

Had two. POS, both of them. Didn't learn the first time, had to get another. Trans problem on the '96 and head gasket on the '98. I believe by '00 they had worked out some of the problems, but you see that they no longer make them, well I guess they re-named it.

I worked on and launched the V229 (Freestar) program.

I can go into incredible detail about these minivans and how they stack up against the competitors.... but I won't clog the board with that... and nobody would believe I know what I'm talking about anyway.

Bottom line is... it's not a great minivan, but it's a good one and can be a relative bargain compared to the great minivans (and IMHO Chrysler does not make a great minivan).

$8gs sounds like too much money for a 2000, but I haven't looked at the values recently.

My folks have a 2000 (I think) Windstar - I would never buy one. They don't even have 50k miles on it and it seems like they're constantly having issues with it.

My parents have had several Aerostar vans with no major problems, but the Windstar, at least the earlier models had major transmission problems. I have know several people that had the same transmission problem and I'm not sure of the model years, they were probably pre-2002 models.

My wife worked at Ford at the time and tried to help a friend get their Windstar repaired with no luck. It was out of warranty, but the problem had started when it was still under warranty and work was performed under warranty, but it obviously wasn't fixed they kept having problems.

I would research Consumer reports and other sources, but I would shy away from this one myself. The newer models may be better, but I have heard enough horror stories to be very scared.

Not to cause a pissing match. If it has Ford, Dodge, Chrysler or Plymouth on the body. Take your money elsewhere....seriously. Believe it or not I'm not particular to any one car manufacturer. However, I have spent a good part of my life working on the vehicles above (no choice of my own) and they all missed the boat on dependability and durability. Take the money and get yourself a nice Toyota, Nissan, etc or other similar make. They put a bunch more into their vehicle quality. Still a bitch to work on, but they don't fall apart as easily.

Kevin touched on something that seems to apply to all manufactures. There is some great engineering going into modern cars.

But the execution is horrible for the american manufactures. Ford hasn't built a transmission that would survive more than 50K miles since the C6. Expect problems with any 3.8 litre engine. They will pop head gaskets.

I would really look at something Japanese. Reliability and quality of construction offsets the price difference.

Toyota or Honda are the way to go. The Ford's not really made in the USA anyway, so that shouldn't be an issue. On most American minivans, you go back and forth, replace a headgasket, then a transmission, back to headgasket, and another tranny. My grandfather had a taurus, after 18,000 miles it never ran right. The dealer replaced $4500 worth of electronics and it still wouldn't run. It sat for a couple of years and a neighbor bought it, replaced the head gaskets and it ran fine for another 50k, except for a transmission replacement at 60k.

My folks went through four transmissions in an 88 Taurus before donating that POS to the local tech school. My dad had a 93 that blew a head gasket at 60K miles on a 3.8 engine.

I just can't justify buying american when it is junk. Dollars are hard enough to come by to be wasted on something with very little value. Made in America just doesn't mean much anymore.

how do you spell trouble?

We purchased a 2000 Windstar SEL new in Nov of 99, and got decent service from it, although the power sliding doors needed expensive repairs every two and a half years. The first time it was fixed under the extended warranty, the last time the repair cost us $512.00 and took three days at the shop (waiting for parts), after it was six months and three thousand miles out of warranty! The door wouldn't close under power and wouldn't latch at all. My wife was 50 miles from home and had to have a band-aid repair to get home, so it was another $60 just so she could get home.

This really was the corker for me. I could imagine being somewhere in cornfield IL on the way home at 6:00 Sunday evening and have this happen.

Besides the door issue and no better than 21 mpg, we didn't have too much gripe with the performance of the vehicle. The resale value is what sent us to a van with the funny little H on it. Our new Odyssey is heads and shoulders above the Ford. Sunroof, rolldown glass on the rear doors, Nav and Entertainment, lots of storage, fold flat rear seats, etc.

Did you know the Honday handles better than a Jaguar XKE (stock) and as good as a 356 (stock)??? Put some plus one wheels and tires on the Ody and it handles better than the 356! This van drives like a very good sport luxury car.

3.5 Six that shuts off half the cylinders, plenty of power, and much better resale (if that's a consideration). Our Windstar was valued between $7000-$8000 and a year older Ody is worth as much or more.

Bottom line is that the Windstar may be a good deal on a used one, but I'd want to see the service history. We got out of ours before the value tanked anymore, but when we got it we planned on keeping it for 150k miles, which I don't think is realistic.

F-O-R-D, G-M, C-H-R-Y-S-L-E-R, etc