The
Ford Windstar is a
minivanMinivan is a type of van designed for personal use. Minivans are typically either two-box or one box designs for maximum interior volume – and are taller than a sedan, hatchback, or a station wagon....
that was produced and sold by the
Ford Motor CompanyFord Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
from the 1995 to 2003 model years. This
front-wheel driveFront-wheel drive is a form of engine/transmission layout used in motor vehicles, where the engine drives the front wheels only. Most modern front-wheel drive vehicles feature a transverse engine, rather than the conventional longitudinal engine arrangement generally found in rear-wheel drive and...
minivanMinivan is a type of van designed for personal use. Minivans are typically either two-box or one box designs for maximum interior volume – and are taller than a sedan, hatchback, or a station wagon....
was the second minivan designed by the company, serving as a replacement for the rear-wheel drive
AerostarThe Ford Aerostar is a minivan produced by Ford Motor Company for the North American market; the first such design by Ford, it was sold from the 1986 to the 1997 model years. It was sold in both passenger van and cargo van configurations in two body lengths with both rear wheel drive and all wheel...
minivanMinivan is a type of van designed for personal use. Minivans are typically either two-box or one box designs for maximum interior volume – and are taller than a sedan, hatchback, or a station wagon....
. The two were sold concurrently for three model years until the Aerostar's 1997 discontinuation. For the 2004 model year, the third-generation Windstar was introduced as the renamed
FreestarThe Ford Freestar is a minivan that was manufactured by the Ford Motor Company from 2004 until November 2006. It replaced the Ford Windstar for the 2004 model year. The name change accommodated Ford's strategy to rename all their cars to words beginning in F...
. All Windstars were assembled in
Oakville, OntarioOakville is a town in Halton Region, on Lake Ontario in Southern Ontario, Canada, and is part of the Greater Toronto Area. As of the 2006 census the population was 165,613.-History:In 1793, Dundas Street was surveyed for a military road...
,
CanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
The
Ford Windstar is a
minivanMinivan is a type of van designed for personal use. Minivans are typically either two-box or one box designs for maximum interior volume – and are taller than a sedan, hatchback, or a station wagon....
that was produced and sold by the
Ford Motor CompanyFord Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
from the 1995 to 2003 model years. This
front-wheel driveFront-wheel drive is a form of engine/transmission layout used in motor vehicles, where the engine drives the front wheels only. Most modern front-wheel drive vehicles feature a transverse engine, rather than the conventional longitudinal engine arrangement generally found in rear-wheel drive and...
minivanMinivan is a type of van designed for personal use. Minivans are typically either two-box or one box designs for maximum interior volume – and are taller than a sedan, hatchback, or a station wagon....
was the second minivan designed by the company, serving as a replacement for the rear-wheel drive
AerostarThe Ford Aerostar is a minivan produced by Ford Motor Company for the North American market; the first such design by Ford, it was sold from the 1986 to the 1997 model years. It was sold in both passenger van and cargo van configurations in two body lengths with both rear wheel drive and all wheel...
minivanMinivan is a type of van designed for personal use. Minivans are typically either two-box or one box designs for maximum interior volume – and are taller than a sedan, hatchback, or a station wagon....
. The two were sold concurrently for three model years until the Aerostar's 1997 discontinuation. For the 2004 model year, the third-generation Windstar was introduced as the renamed
FreestarThe Ford Freestar is a minivan that was manufactured by the Ford Motor Company from 2004 until November 2006. It replaced the Ford Windstar for the 2004 model year. The name change accommodated Ford's strategy to rename all their cars to words beginning in F...
. All Windstars were assembled in
Oakville, OntarioOakville is a town in Halton Region, on Lake Ontario in Southern Ontario, Canada, and is part of the Greater Toronto Area. As of the 2006 census the population was 165,613.-History:In 1793, Dundas Street was surveyed for a military road...
,
CanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
Although sold in the Ford car lineup, the Windstar broke from tradition by not having a
Lincoln-MercuryMercury was an automobile marque of the Ford Motor Company launched in 1938 by Edsel Ford, son of Henry Ford, to market entry-level luxury cars slotted between Ford-branded regular models and Lincoln-branded luxury vehicles, similar to General Motors' Buick brand, and Chrysler's namesake brand...
counterpart and was completely unrelated to the
Mercury VillagerThe Mercury Villager was a minivan, marketed by Ford from model years 1993-2002. A rebadged variant of the Nissan Quest, the Villager was a product of a joint venture between Ford Motor Company and Nissan and was built at Ford's Ohio Assembly plant in Avon Lake, Ohio.The Villager was unrelated to...
. The successor to the Windstar led to the first Ford-developed Mercury minivan, the
Mercury MontereyThe Ford Freestar is a minivan that was manufactured by the Ford Motor Company from 2004 until November 2006. It replaced the Ford Windstar for the 2004 model year. The name change accommodated Ford's strategy to rename all their cars to words beginning in F...
.
First generation (1995–1998)
The all-new Windstar was released in March 1994 as a 1995 model. While stretched 12 inches longer than the extended-length Aerostar, its sleek design,
front-wheel driveFront-wheel drive is a form of engine/transmission layout used in motor vehicles, where the engine drives the front wheels only. Most modern front-wheel drive vehicles feature a transverse engine, rather than the conventional longitudinal engine arrangement generally found in rear-wheel drive and...
, and better car-like handling made it more competitive with similar offerings from
Chrysler Chrysler Group LLC is a multinational automaker headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan, USA. Chrysler was first organized as the Chrysler Corporation in 1925....
and
GMGeneral Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...
. The Windstar had beaten the third-generation Chrysler minivans to the market by over a year, which played a crucial role in Ford taking significant market share in the minivan market.
For its first year on the market, the Windstar was priced above both the Aerostar and the Mercury Villager. By 1997, however, the Villager's base price had surpassed the Windstar's by several hundred dollars, and top-of-the-line Villager
Nautica models were priced some $6,000 USD higher.
Standard features on the Windstar were
anti-lock brakesAn anti-lock braking system is a safety system that allows the wheels on a motor vehicle to continue interacting tractively with the road surface as directed by driver steering inputs while braking, preventing the wheels from locking up and therefore avoiding skidding.An ABS generally offers...
, dual airbags, seven-passenger seating, and a 3.8 L V6 engine, borrowed from the Taurus/
SableThe Sable was a very important sedan for both Mercury and the American auto industry.Ford had lagged in introducing mid-size front wheel drive cars to compete against General Motors' Chevrolet Citation and its best-selling Chevrolet Celebrity/Pontiac 6000/Oldsmobile Cutlass/Buick Century quartet as...
. This engine produced 155 hp and 220 lbft of
torqueTorque, moment or moment of force , is the tendency of a force to rotate an object about an axis, fulcrum, or pivot. Just as a force is a push or a pull, a torque can be thought of as a twist....
. For its inaugural year, the Windstar was available in base
GL and high-end
LX trim, as well as a cargo version called
Cargo Van.
Year-by-year changes
- 1996: A new 3.0 L
150 hp Vulcan V6 became standard on base GL models, while the larger 3.8 L V6's horsepower was upped to 200. The driver's seat gained an available tilt/slide feature for access to the rear from the driver's side. The only exterior change is the addition of a contrasting metal strip inside the side rub stripe (1995 models are solid plastic).
- 1997: A bare-bones unnamed base model was now available. A CD player became a new option on models.
- 1998: The Windstar received minor cosmetic changes including a new grille and headlights, and the blue Ford logo on the rear liftgate was moved just above the license plate; it had previously been located in the lower right corner. In compensate for the lack of a driver's side rear sliding door, the driver's door was extended six inches (152 mm), as it was not possible to create a driver's side sliding door with the current bodyshell. Ford, at the time, claimed that a drivers-side sliding door was not noted a key feature needed by focus groups. An ultra-luxury Limited model was new. It included leather seating and faux wood interior trim. Second-generation airbags that deployed with less force were also new for 1998.
Trim levels
- Cargo Van • 1995–1998
- base • 1996–1998
- GL • 1995–1998
- LX • 1995–1998
- 3.0L • 1998
- Limited • 1998
Problems
Throughout its life, the first generation Windstar developed a long list of reliability issues. The 1995 3.8 L V6
Essex engineThe Ford Essex V6 engine was a 90° V6 engine family built by Ford Motor Company at the Essex Engine Plant in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Unlike the British Essex V6, the Canadian Essex used a 90° V configuration, in addition to having different displacements and valvetrains...
was susceptible to headgasket failure, as in the
TaurusThe Ford Taurus is an automobile manufactured by the Ford Motor Company in the United States. Originally introduced in the 1986 model year, it has remained in near-continuous production for more than two decades, making it the fourth oldest nameplate that is currently sold in the North American...
and
Mercury SableThe Sable was a very important sedan for both Mercury and the American auto industry.Ford had lagged in introducing mid-size front wheel drive cars to compete against General Motors' Chevrolet Citation and its best-selling Chevrolet Celebrity/Pontiac 6000/Oldsmobile Cutlass/Buick Century quartet as...
; however, the Windstar's problem was exacerbated by an even tighter
engineThe internal combustion engine is an engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber. In an internal combustion engine, the expansion of the high-temperature and high -pressure gases produced by combustion apply direct force to some component of the engine...
bay and higher loads, the van being 700
poundsThe pound or pound-mass is a unit of mass used in the Imperial, United States customary and other systems of measurement...
heavier. Ford extended the warranty on the headgasket to 100,000 miles on most Windstar models. The 3.0 L V6 Vulcan engine was not susceptible to headgasket failure, being a completely different engine design.
The Windstar was paired with an
AX4SThe AXOD was a 4-speed automatic transaxle for transverse front wheel drive automobiles from the Ford Motor Company. It was introduced in the 1986 Ford Taurus/Mercury Sable . The AXOD and its successors are built in Ford's Van Dyke Transmission plant in Sterling Heights, Michigan...
transaxle, which was prone to internal failure. The transmission suffered from cracked forward and reverse clutch pistons. These transmission failures were most susceptible with the 3.8L engine, as the transmission could not handle the extra torque and the extra vehicle weight. Windstars with the 3.0L engine could go far past 150k miles with regular maintenance.
IIHS Crash Test Results
The 1995-1998 Ford Windstar, which was tested as a 1996 model received a "Good" rating from the IIHS in all marks, in which the driver survives the accident without any injuries.
Second generation (1999–2003)
The Windstar was completely redesigned for the 1999 model year; the most visible part of the redesign was the inclusion of dual sliding doors. The
3.0 LThe Ford Vulcan V6 is a 3.0 L , 60° V6 engine with an iron block and iron heads, used in some of Ford Motor Company's vehicles from model years 1986 through 2008. It was originally designed to be the optional engine in the Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable. In 1992, it became the standard engine for...
and
3.8 LThe Ford Essex V6 engine was a 90° V6 engine family built by Ford Motor Company at the Essex Engine Plant in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Unlike the British Essex V6, the Canadian Essex used a 90° V configuration, in addition to having different displacements and valvetrains...
V6 engines were carried over from the previous generation. It was built on a
dedicated platformThe Ford V platform is a dedicated minivan platform exploited by Ford and Mercury. It was the second minivan-specific platform utilized by Ford in North America . It was introduced for the 1999 model year when Ford introduced the second-generation Windstar minivan...
, unlike the previous generation
based on the Ford TaurusThe Ford D186 platform is a mid-size car platform, and was used for three cars and a minivan. The D186 was first used with the 1986 introduction of the Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable. D186 was also significant because it introduced front-wheel drive to Lincoln as well to Ford minivans...
. Among new features were front seat-mounted side airbags, dual power-sliding doors, and rear reverse sensors. From lowest to highest, 1999 Windstars were available in
Cargo Van, base,
LX,
SE, and
SEL. Dual sliding doors came standard on
SE and
SEL models, and were optional on the other models.
SEs and
SELs were equipped with 2nd row captain's chairs and adjustable head restraints , while base and
LX models came with a 2-passenger 2nd row bench seat and fixed head restraints.
Year-by-year changes
- 2000: The Limited model returned as the most luxurious model. A VCR-based rear-seat entertainment system featuring a flip-down LCD screen was a new option on SE, SEL, and Limited models.
- 2001: Slight cosmetic changes were made to front and rear fascias for '01. LX became the base model, and a new SE Sport model joined the lineup. The smaller 3.0 L was gone, leaving the 3.8 L as the sole engine choice. Models with 2nd row bucket seats now got their own center console. Front-seat side airbags became standard on Limiteds. The chrome grille on the SE and SEL models was redesigned. The steering wheel was updated to a more modern style, with the blue Ford Logo placed in the center.
- 2002: Dual sliding doors became standard on all models.
The 2002 Windstar was the most dependable minivan on the market in the JD Powers dependability survey at three years in service in the 2005 survey. The Windstar beat out the Toyota Sienna and the Honda Odyssey for these honors.
- 2003: The last year of the Windstar; no major changes were made in anticipation of a 2004 redesign. In a new marketing strategy, the upcoming third-generation Windstar was rebranded as the Ford Freestar
The Ford Freestar is a minivan that was manufactured by the Ford Motor Company from 2004 until November 2006. It replaced the Ford Windstar for the 2004 model year. The name change accommodated Ford's strategy to rename all their cars to words beginning in F...
. The last Ford Windstar was produced on July 25, 2003.
Trim levels
- Cargo Van (1999–2003)
- base (1999–2000)
- LX (1999–2003)
- SE (1999–2003)
- SE Sport (2001-2003)
- SEL (1999–2003)
- Limited (2000–2003)
Recalls
In September 2010 Ford recalled 500,000 1998–2003 Windstars over rear axle cracking.
In March 2011 the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Ford announced another Ford Windstar recall over corrosion concerns. 425,288 of the model year 1999-2003 Windstar vans originally sold or currently registered in some cold weather states are part of the recall. The problem involves rusting of the subframe. Most of the corrosion occurs on the passenger side of the subframe. If the subframe collapses while driving, the vehicle could potentially lose all steering control and end up in an accident. According to the NHTSA action #PE10026, some Ford Windstar owners had their drive axle detach from the transmission. Ford is offering alternative transportation to owners if their vehicle is unsafe to drive. If the minivan can't be repaired, Ford will repurchase the vehicle.
Crash Test Results
The 1999-2003 Ford Windstar received an "Acceptable" rating by the IIHS for fair structural performance, moderate injuries to the left foot, and fair dummy control. Although most redesigned vehicles outperform their predecessors to cut down insurance costs and possible injuries to the driver, this generation Windstar did not perform as well as its first generation predecessor. The NHTSA graded the minivan an overall rating of 5 stars in both the frontal and side impact tests.
Yearly American sales
| Calendar Year |
Total American sales |
| 1999 |
213,844 |
| 2000 |
222,298 |
| 2001 |
179,595 |
| 2002 |
148,875 |
| 2003 |
113,465 |
Redesign and name change
For the 2004 model year, the Windstar was redesigned; the nameplate was discontinued in favor of "
FreestarThe Ford Freestar is a minivan that was manufactured by the Ford Motor Company from 2004 until November 2006. It replaced the Ford Windstar for the 2004 model year. The name change accommodated Ford's strategy to rename all their cars to words beginning in F...
" as part of Ford's new naming scheme of using nameplates starting with the letter "F". Despite a restyled nose, front fascia, revised interior and new engine (3.9 V6 Essex), the new Freestar was built in the same factory as the Windstar and suffered the same problems. The redesign and new name did not help
FreestarFreestar is a name used more than once:* FREESTAR, a science package, including MEIDEX, SOLSE and other experiments, carried on during STS-107.* Ford Freestar, a car designed by Ford Motor Company....
sales. The Freestar was pulled from the market after the 2007 model year as it was replaced with the new
Ford FlexThe Ford Flex is a full-size crossover manufactured by Ford Motor Company. Its styling is based on the Ford Fairlane concept unveiled at the 2005 North American International Auto Show. The production vehicle made its debut at the 2007 New York International Auto Show. Sales of the Flex began in...
Crossover.