1994 Ford Aerostar XLT, the soccer mobile.
(first posted 8/20/2016) Mrs. W, proud mom of two boys, wanted a minivan; only a minivan would do. Mr. W did not want a minivan, a station wagon would do. But Mr. W was willing to compromise: “How about a full size conversion van? We have a detached garage that is big enough and you won’t be driving it yourself anyway.”- “No,” the lady demanded, “a minivan!”
I heard Caravans had finicky transmissions.
I took two used Grand Caravans for a drive and both of them made the same clunking noise in the back. I guess it was the hatch, but I am not sure. Yet I knew I did not want to hear this for the next ten years or so. Besides, these vans were known to eat transmissions for breakfast, lunch and dinner. But more so, I had already decided to get the largest beast possible that went under the term minivan.
Chevrolet Astro featured a Tupperware style interior
That led me to Chevrolet’s Astro and Ford’s Aerostar. The Astro I took for a spin was ponderous and sported the cheapest looking interior of all. The instrument panel seemed to come out of the Cavalier and the plastic panels around the cabin had the look and feel of cheap Tupperware knock-offs. No way.
Shorty will chirp the tires if equipped with the 4.0 engine.
I visited the Ford dealer in neighboring Boone and had a look at a silver Aerostar with the 4.0 engine. It was the short version. Upon stepping on the pedal the rear tires chirped and I thought: now that’s a minivan I can live with. I also was pleasantly surprised that the steering wheel was not bumping around much at all, something the early Aerostars did. The interior was head and shoulders above the GM’s and it was available as an extended van with a 15” longer rear section. The long version looked quite impressive. Sure, you had to get used to the looks of the front but overall it was a decent looking box. Now I knew: Ford Aerostar, extended, in mocha, green or red, and it must have rear heat and air conditioning and the 4.0 V6 engine so I can chirp the tires when I want to. The Boone dealer only had the shorty in stock. The classifieds of the Des Moines Register had an ad for a green one. I called and it had the 3.0 engine. “It’s really great on gas!” she said, but I did not want it.
A dealer in Newton, IA. had exactly what I wanted and in my price range. My neighbor bought his Lincoln Town Car at that dealership. He was a very picky guy and that lent credibility to the dealer.
A not-so-mini van.
I drove my beloved Mazda 323 there on a Saturday and heated the clutch one more time to make it behave before going on the lot. The salesman offered an alternative: a 4WD model or a RWD model. The 4WD was out of my budget. So he took me to the RWD. I liked it with the dark (electric?) red and medium grey interior, plenty of space, nice seats, a middle bench and a rear bench and space behind the 3rd row. I took it for a drive and it went well too. It had about 23000 miles. The tires did not chirp but it felt poised at highway speeds and nothing negative popped out at me.
It was dirty inside. There was a black stain on the rear bench and dirt footprints on the carpet in the trunk area. He apologized and explained it was their rental unit. But they have a man who does a great job detailing. The asking price was $17,000, but it dropped right away. He got the mechanic’s report on the 323 and said: “It has some miles but it is a good car.” I suppose the clutch behaved well. In the end he applied a trade-in of $2800.
Thursday night that week I took the 323 on my last drive and came back with a red, shiny Ford Aerostar XLT. The detailer did a great job as promised and Mrs. W was happy with our new soccer mom status symbol.
Next morning I took No. 1 son to preschool. I opened the garage door and he looked at that big red thing. His wide eyes turned to me with question marks all over. Then he bent down and looked under the van. “Well, we don’t have the blue car anymore. This is our van from now on.” He was visibly disappointed. Mazdas can do that to you.
Velour seats, rear A/C and heat vents, remote radio controls.
Some of the same folks that approved of my Mazda were now approving of my Aerostar. A colleague was driving one too and he pulled his boat all over the interstates with it. His friend too had one and had no trouble with it at all. Remember, not very long ago there was a kernel of truth in the FORD acronym: Found On the Road Dead.
FoMoCo’s “premium” minivan. “Thanks. But No Thanks, Jac!”
Maybe even Ford wasn’t quite sure about their creation. A few months later I received a postcard inviting me to check out their “premium” minivan Mercury Villager. Two years before that I had a look at one. I opened the door, saw the automatic seat belt and then I closed the door. The salesman couldn’t even make me sit in it.
Ford Aerostar in “Swordfish”.
My colleague recommended I have the body soundproofed because today’s vehicles are made of such thin sheet metal. I took it to the Ziebart place that just opened that very day and asked for a soundproofing. When I came back 2 days later, I was greeted and cheerfully informed that the rustproofing was done and the van was ready. “Rustproofing?! I asked for soundproofing!” They apologized profusely and added soundproofing after rustproofing free of charge. Of course soundproofing is most effective when you apply it directly to the sheet metal, not over rust proofing. But the worst thing was that they stripped a few holes for the panel screws. I had to re-tighten them every other month.
In November Mrs.W had a professional conference in Rapid City, SD and the Aerostar got its first long ride with us.
Badlands National Park, South Dakota
We took the scenic highway 240 through the Badlands and stopped at Wall Drug. Of course we combined the trip with visiting Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse monument in its beginning phase and the town of Lead. There was no problem putting the little ones in their seats and the requisite gear in the back. Driving went well. I even got to experience the first ride on packed snow in the Black Hills. I was a little nervous at first but nothing scary happened. This van came with rear wheel ABS which helped a lot with conditions like that.
Aerostar in “The Bodyguard”.
But some shortcomings became evident. The seating position was not ideal. There was a draft coming in through the front door seals. In the front the floor sloped down towards the doors. Anything that dropped on the floor during the ride fell out of the van as soon as I opened the door. Noise levels were ok except for the rear HVAC ducts. They were running up the B pillar next to my left ear and across the ceiling. They had their own fan and the air rushing through the ducts was tortuously loud. Talking about torture: I found molten crayons on the carpet behind the driver’s seat. The rear heat was that hot! That was balanced by a freezing cold rear AC. Obviously the engineers had trouble to get the rear heat/AC tweaked just right. I cooked or froze my boys depending on the season.
Sitting high gave me good command vision. However I had to adjust to the fact that regular cars could be to my right and completely hidden from my sight. I caused two or three situations trying to move into the right lane when this happened and the drivers honked at me. Adjusting the mirror and paying close attention avoided further trouble.
In North Carolina we had one fun excursion with the van. We filled the van with our boys and five more cousins and took them to the North Carolina Aquarium, Kitty Hawk and the beach. None of the kids had been to the beach before. They were chasing the edge of the water, backing out and running from it when the next wave came in while screaming on the top of their lungs.
Overwhelming displays at the House on the Rock.
To entertain the kids I bought a 12V powered TV/VCR. I cut a piece of plywood and used some bungee cords to mount it across the armrests of the front seats. It worked quite well but this primitive system provided only the choice of two evils: listen to the movies’ soundtracks through a squeaky low quality speaker or deal with cranky kids. Oma and Opa came from Germany to visit us for spring vacation and Opa got the worst of it: the TV’s speaker was pointing to the right side and cranked up loud, so the kids in the back could hear something. He was exposed to the constant noise coming from the crappy speaker and in a language he did not know. This trip took us to the Wisconsin Dells, to the Barnum & Barnum Circus Museum in Baraboo, and The House on the Rock.
Animated in “The Fast and the Furry.”It came also in Four Wheel Drive. Really!
The van needed the 30,000 mile transmission service. K-Mart relocated to a new building and the automotive department was now run by Penske. When I took it there they told me about a newfangled way of servicing transmissions. They will use a machine that pushes all of the old fluid out as the new fluid gets pumped in. Hooked up to my van, the pump blew a line and spilled half a gallon of fluid on the floor. What a mess. They mopped it up and fixed the machine with a proper hose clamp. Then they got the van taken care of with a two hour delay.
The same shop did a shoddy brake job on Mrs. W’s car and that meant I needed to look for a better place. When the van needed tires I called around the local tire dealers to find a good value offer. The lady at one one shop recognized my name because her daughter was a preschool classmate of our boys. That made the decision a lot easier. I knew they would treat me right and I’ve been a customer ever since. Jason the mechanic would get to know my van rather well. They told me that the original tires were of a special size and they would be horrendously expensive to replace. They suggested the closest standard dimension and saved me a bunch of money right off the bat.
One day on the way home on I 35 the check engine light came on. I had flashbacks to my experience with the oil pressure light in my VW 1302 back in Germany. This was my first encounter with the CEL and I did not know what it meant. I stopped and checked the engine. It was still there. I decided to keep going, but I did not feel good about it. My check engine light went off, who knows why.
I thought I could save a few bucks by doing some of my own maintenance. I bought the spark plugs and opened the hood. I realized I could handle the first plug but then I looked for the others. To get to the rear most plugs you need to remove the dog house and dive in. There was no way for me to get to any of these plugs with the tools I had. At my favorite shop I paid about $180.00 for replacing 6 plugs. Holy Moly! Later I learned that some people drilled a 3″ access hole into the floor pan to get to the most hidden ones.
Meanwhile the boys grew into their cub Scout, Boy Scout and soccer years. Add Suzuki violin, basketball, football, little league, any other ball game you can think of, chess club and bible school. In fact the boys had so much “structured time” I think they lacked “just-being-boys-time”. Hint: if your kids’ schedule does not leave you any time to be an adult person then your kids have no time being kids either.
I took No.1 son to his first soccer practice. The club had divided the participants into teams and asked a parent to be coach of that team. Coach Tom’s finely tuned ears alerted him of my German accent and he immediately announced me a soccer expert. He also made me assistant coach. My German accent was sufficient qualification. It did not matter that I never played soccer nor particularly cared for watching games. But in Germany you will watch soccer by default. After one season he promoted me to head coach while he assisted and one season later he became “color commentator” or something. Well done, Tom!
Coaching soccer turned out to be a great experience. I always wanted to do something for the community I lived in and this worked out really well. One season we had a most diverse group. The kids came from backgrounds that were literally spanning the globe: Korean, Israel-Argentinian, Nigerian, Midwest white American, German-African American. That’s my kind of a team. We were “one for all and all for one”. I looked forward to every practice and every game. They had a great time and it’s nice to hear a kid saying “Coach Wolfgang is my best buddy!”
The van performed nicely hauling kids and gear to all the events. Biking was another activity we enjoyed. I liked fixing bikes as much as I liked riding them. Somebody stole bikes out of the garage when we were out of town. To replace them I purchased used bikes in thrift stores and fixed them up. This turned into a hobby and since then I have fixed bikes up for resale. Once I had seven bikes in this van. On soccer trips out of town I sometimes came back with one or two bikes. It paid for some of the gas money.
Featured in “Wild”: extended Aerostar
It also took us to North Carolina numerous times. One Christmas we had it loaded up with stuff and gifts to the headliner. I couldn’t even look out the back. At a rest stop a couple laughingly took note and told us how much this reminded them of some of their own trips. Another man was reminded of his former Aerostar and how well it served him. It was really good on fuel, he said. When I picked up one of my son’s soccer team mates the boy’s mother admired the interior. “We don’t have such a fancy van.” she remarked. It’s nice to get compliments like that. The folks in NC assumed we rented it and were surprised to learn otherwise. They were accustomed to see us with the same old hatchback for nine years.
This may have been the storm that gave us 800 miles of icy roads.
Going to North Carolina was never a problem. Coming back during one of those winters was a different story. I just bought a pair of wheels with winter tires and that was a good thing. Just west of Winston Salem the rain came down and froze to the pavement. There were cars and pickups slip-sliding around coming down the hill on the eastbound lanes. I braced myself for a long slog home. What followed was a drive of 800 miles of uninterrupted ice and snow over 2 days. Boy, was I tired after that. I think I saw about 20 cars in the ditches. But the Aerostar brought us home safely going no faster than 45 mph.
“To Catch a Yeti”. Three Aerostars in one screen shot!
A few weeks later I had another scare. I was driving alone, van empty and came back into town on a four lane road. I was in the far right lane and coasted at about 35 mph on packed snow. The road goes up a minor hill and as usual I just tipped the accelerator a little bit for the hump. In an instant I did a 180° and came to a stop in the far left lane pointing out of town. Luckily I had the road for myself and I hit nothing. My pulse, though, hit 180 bpm I think.
Was it a reliable van? Yes it was, but it needed its fixes. The radiator leaked and was replaced. The power steering pump leaked. I fixed that with an additive. The oil pan gasket leaked. One lower ball joint wore out. The muffler and catalytic converter rusted out. Oil consumption increased as the miles accumulated. The transmission slipped slightly at times. It was low on fluid because of a leak at the output end. The multi-function switch failed ($300), the clock spring too ($200). The shock absorbers were replaced. They were inexpensive. There was a safety recall related to electrical fires. My van had scorched wires on the firewall. The lower sliding door roller wore out. The rear wiper linkage needed WD-40 on occasion. Headlights were getting yellow and cloudy. I polished them with rubbing compound and got them clear again.
The end of the locust tree. Photobombed by our Aerostar.
And then, there was that strange misfire on the home stretch from a summer vacation in the Wisconsin Dells. It came and went without rhyme and reason. We made it home though and I took it to my trusted garage. Jason’s eyes glazed over when he saw my van. He changed the ignition cables and plugs and cleaned a few things. When I picked it up they told me that it is much better but still not 100%. They thought it was electrical and tried spraying water all over to look for errant sparks. They spent a lot of time but wouldn’t charge me for that. That’s the kind of mechanic I recommend. I did a little internet sleuthing, went out in the night with my water sprayer and repeated the diagnostic procedure. I worked for about 15 minutes and noticed one single spark jumping from that black box thingy on top of the engine to the body. I took it back and told them about it. They changed it out and it ran like a top. The thingy was called a coil pack. I think it shorted out mostly internally and Jason did not think about that possibility.
And the muffler pipe was held up by the rear axle because the hanger broke. In true MacGyver fashion I collected a piece of wire on the side of the road and fixed it temporarily.
Once we came back from another extended vacation trip that went without any automotive glitches. Our neighbor, a young guy with family asked me about our trip and I told him our destinations and those 2500 miles. “Wow”, he said. “And that car trouble.” I was perplexed. “What car trouble? I had none.” Now he was surprised. Then I realized he must have suffered from the Found On the Road Dead syndrome.
In “The Rat Race”
Then one day I saw a guy riding one bike that was taken out of my garage 2 years earlier. I followed him and flagged down an oncoming police car. He turned around and stopped the cyclist. He asked him how he got this bike. “I don’t know how it came to me”, he said. ‘Sure’, I thought. ‘Bikes are like hungry stray dogs. They just come to you when they are hungry.’ The officer addressed me: “Sir, is this your bike?” “It sure is!” I responded. Then he addressed the teenager: “Are you willing to give this bike to the gentleman?” He knocked the bike towards me and said: “Yes!” The officer and I looked at each other and bit our tongues to contain our urge to laugh. That kid went on a looong walk home. That was an excellent piece of police work.
The ’94 Ford Aerostar XLT was certainly not perfect but with proper maintenance it was reliable. After 10 years and reaching 165,000 miles it was time to switch to a newer vehicle. There was rust on the rocker panels (hey, Ziebart?), there was a crack in the engine mount rubber and I wasn’t going to spend money on fixing leaks. The kids started complaining about their bench and I simply grew tired of the beast. Besides, it never chirped the tires for me, not once! In September of 2005 I traded it in. I am sure it went to auction and hopefully continued its career as a family hauler.
Related Reading:
Curbside Classic: 1995 Ford Aerostar
I’m really entertained by these slice-of-life stories. I didn’t know that soccer was a mandatory German skill, although I suppose despite never paying much attention to American football, I have ended up absorbing most of the rules.
It seems you had a pretty good experience with the Aerostar overall. The Caravan/Voyager vans generally got better marks for car-like behavior, but I imagine they would have been no less troublesome (if not more so).
As you I learned the rules and strategies of American Football by watching TV. I learned enough to enjoy watching some games. Baseball however will remain an enigma to me.
I’m glad we’re finally in an age where American males can safely admit they’re ambivalent to football, and other spectator sports, for that matter. Believe me, that wasn’t the case as I was growing up in the South. The reactions are sometimes priceless when you have such ambivalence, and you’re tall and athletic (cyclist and weightlifter): “What do you mean, you don’t want to sit in my extra seat at the football game?” Honestly, for me to have to sit still that long is close to torture.
Nice piece, Wolfgang. I miss relatively simple vehicles such as this one; when they broke, the reasons and the repairs were far less mysterious than they would be today.
Chicago is a big sports town so I’m still met with those reactions occasionally. Unlike Aaron I still have no clue what half the words in football mean, and my Dad was a HUGE fan – like making a Packers centric man-cave in our basement before man-caves were a thing HUGE fan – and most of his side of the family for that matter, but it just went in one ear and out the other with me. Baseball was more the sport I absorbed despite ambivelance, but I think only because I find running around a diamond more interesting than running back and forth in a square field, so I may have tried harder to get it. Plus I can enjoy it because it’s slow enough where I can actually somewhat enjoy the park as a park on the occasion I go to a game, that’s much more my style, I dislike anything fast paced
Ice hockey is too fast for me. I can’t even see the puck most of the time. I very much prefer sports that involve wheels, like F1, motorcycling, cycling as long as it is on road courses. The real world has right turns too.
I liked baseball for about six months when I was around seven years old and I’m pretty sure I played most of these sports (except ice hockey) in gym class, which is part of why I more or less know the rules.
I suffered in a sense from gym classes that were far too invested in being “serious” about sports: a few would-be jocks and hyper-thyroid gym teachers wanting it to be hyper-competitive and thus shutting out and shunning the kids who weren’t very athletic or just weren’t that into it. I never had any particular animus toward playing most of the sports — with the exception of tackle football, since if you’re a kid with glasses, contact sports make you very nervous on practical grounds — but most everyone involved went out of their way to prevent it from being any fun.
That said, other than that brief phase of interest in baseball (which passed quickly), I’ve never had any interest in watching sports. Even motor racing, which is sometimes interesting to read about, but I find deathly dull to watch.
AUWM writes “if you’re a kid with glasses, contact sports make you very nervous on practical grounds.”
You’re not kidding!
Starting in the 3rd grade I wore thick glasses most of my adult life (they got a little thinner with technology) and I was mostly blind without them.
The glasses, and my inability to catch, throw, hold, or see any type of moving ball, combined with a poor understanding of the rules of all sports, made me a bit unpopular during gym.
I took refuge in wrestling and track events. Being 6 foot tall and weighing maybe 125 lbs, I towered over guys in my weight class, and years of running from bullies made me quite fast on my feet.
In 2005 I had PRK laser surgery on both eyes. It was a life changing experience.
Very true! I’ve worn glasses since I was 6 so that certainly was a factor, and during gym classes I often got scolded with “don’t be afraid of the ball” – you going to pay for a new set of frames teach?
I agree with motorsports, I never watch them, I’m more interested in what hits(hit) the streets as a result. I might have a different attitude if I grew up in the period when race cars weren’t just homogenous spec cars, but even then I don’t think I’d commit for more than a few laps/runs.
“Very true! I’ve worn glasses since I was 6 so that certainly was a factor, and during gym classes I often got scolded with “don’t be afraid of the ball” – you going to pay for a new set of frames teach?”
That’s not so bad , in my day the coach would watch you make _one_ mistake and begin screaming ” !FAGGOT! YOU MUST BE QUEER! ” and on and on….
Then they wanted to know why I flat refused to play any Sports when I was only five years old ~ I got beat up and derided at home , not about to take any sh*t from strangers .
A sad thing as I firmly believe sports are important tools in the learning curve .
-Nate
Very true about the glasses.
I had a gem of a schoolteacher who had a deep and meaningful conversation to the sixth grade when I was off getting my glasses. Don’t know what she said, but when I showed up with them, the class bully came up to me and said “If anyone gives you a hard time about those glasses, just tell me and I’ll bash them up for you”.
I never made the connection between poor eyesight and being bad at sport until about thirty years later. Take my glasses off and it’s like “Ball? What ball?” And as for soccer, bouncing the ball off your head? No way!!! I could, however, do long jump and triple-jump well enough to win the school sports one year, but not high-jump, of course. If I couldn’t see the bar, how could I jump over it? Dumb sports teachers!
Thank you so much for saying this. I know I came to the right place and feel even more at home now with the community here at Curbside Classic.
Oh, also! House on the Rock — that brought back flashbacks. What a genuinely peculiar place. (I went there several times as a kid.) It’s very difficult to explain to people who haven’t seen it because it’s a lot like trying to explain a moderately coherent dream, or a David Lynch movie.
The myriad of displays is mind boggling. What really hit me were the tobacco related paraphernalia. In those years that I live stateside the attitude towards tobacco has changed so much. Seeing all those lighters, ashtrays, cigar cutters, cigarette filters, and pipes that once were as essential as a tie displayed in about 150 linear feet of glass cases made this change so shockingly clear.
The changing attitudes toward tobacco over time do make for some very interesting contrasts with the modern era. Until earlier this year, my employer held a contract with a large tobacco manufacturer, and I worked on their premises as part of that contract. As a sort of “artwork” in many of the hallways and conference rooms, there were framed vintage advertisements. Looking at those and how cigarettes in particular used to be advertised–“More doctors smoke *********** than any other brand” and the like–is quite shocking in comparison to current attitudes.
Your boys were adorable! They’re just a few years younger than myself. I forgot to comment on your last article but it’s so lovely to see your stories interspersed with family photos. A photo truly does tell a thousand words. And it’s so lovely to see another interracial couple! It’s sobering to consider how just a few decades prior, interracial marriages were looked upon with great scorn and today in the western world – at least in most places – it’s absolutely no big deal. It goes to show there were no “good old days”… History is filled with darkness.
Nice to hear your Aerostar was decently reliable. These followed a similar formula to the Astro but just did it better. Interesting that these RWD minivans – MPV, Previa, Astro/Safari, Aerostar – are all gone today.
Thank you, William.
We got some stares mostly in the Southern parts and by little old women with few blue hairs. We still get stares now and then and waiters keep asking: “Will this be on separate tickets?”
Agreed. And not only bi-racial, but bi-cultural. Your kids are truly citizens of the modern world. And very adorable!
There are plenty of “good old days”, it just depends on your perspective and priorities.
“And it’s so lovely to see another interracial couple! It’s sobering to consider how just a few decades prior, interracial marriages were looked upon with great scorn and today in the western world – at least in most places – it’s absolutely no big deal. ”
Izzat so ? .
I still get a lot of hard time from many people and I live in Los Angeles .
Oops ~ turns out this LapTop doesn’t have the nice pic of my Sweetie and I all dolled up (me in a TUX) for my Son’s wedding so you’ll have to do with this , imagine and ugly old fat cripple standing next to this beautiful Woman who for some odd reason , allows me to share her life .
-Nate
And you guys are foster parents? (I learned that in a comment below.) That is wonderful! Your foster kids certainly hit the jackpot!
A neighbor of ours was a foster parent. Unfortunately she passed away. Many of her foster children were present at the celebration of her life. Their testimonies showed what incredible impact she had on their lives.
Yes ;
My Lady is the most amazing Woman .
We’ll often be some where far from home on a date ad out of the crowd will come a young Man who’ll stop us and say ” remember me ? ” , they never forget .
Not long ago I took out current crop to a vintage truck show , they had a good time .
When I was a kid , I always envied Foster kids because they got ” three hots and a cot ” 7 days the week .
Almost all of them are good boys , they just happened to get caught in life’s switches .
-Nate
Outstanding, Nate!
Glad to see you got one of your bikes back. Every mini van has a story. Thanks for the article. Our family had the F.O.R.D. Syndrome a few years befor the minivan craze. We went with the Caravan….twice! Last was a 2010 long wheel “grand”,…such a disappointment, compared to the 2003 short wheel base model. Traded it in 3 years to the date exactly after we had it paid off.
I like the interior of your van.
Once again, a great “every story has a car” account! Dad always said Ford stood for “Fouled Out Rebuilt Dodge.” I remember that ’96 storm well, we lived in Charlotte, NC then.
Great story Wolfgang. I bet the time those 7 (SEVEN!) kids first saw the ocean is a memory they will have forever; probably many other Aerostar based memories as well.
If ever there was a time when a minivan was appropriate for a family, this time was it. Mrs. W was right.
And number one son’s reaction to the missing Mazda is not unusual. Kids often treat cars like pets. They love them and miss them when they are “retired”.
Adults sometimes feel the same way.
Fun read this morning. Thank you.
RL: they may have been 7 kids or even more (seat belts be damned). The picture is of a hotel advertisement. It conveys the mood fairly well. The best was that screaming and giggling when the ocean waves licked their toes. People were just delighted by their reaction. The reminded me of the “Rascals” of the TV show.
Great read! You have also given me a new found appreciation for the Aerostar. Chrysler vans were so dominant that is typically what comes to mind when I think “minivan.” But these Fords had a nice “aero” style–without being crazy like the GM dustbusters, and the interior looked quite comfortable and upscale. Good to hear that it gave you many years of mostly trouble-free service.
_Excellent_ piece Wolfgang ! .
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I almost didn’t click on it but that first photo was so great , I had to .
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You’re a good writer and Father too judging by your comments .
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Nice to take Kids to the Ocean , here in Los Angeles there are millions who live12 miles from it but have never seen it apart from the T.V. .
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I love taking our Foster boys to the Ocean , Mountains , Desert etc. and let them run and see new horizons .
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-Nate
I’ve never been to the ocean. Doesn’t help that I’m hardcore landlocked. My parents were never ones to do vacation traveling, long day trips were for a purpose such as shopping in the city or visiting family. Even within Manitoba, most of my exploring new areas was on account of work. But someday, I’ll touch an ocean.
Matthew: Set a date in writing. Put it on a picture of the place you will visit. Put that picture on the refrigerator door. It will happen.
Matthew (with 2 Ts), There are a million places I have never seen and never will see, but I want to post a quote from JFK from 1962 talking about the sea for your consideration:
“ … it is an interesting biological fact that all of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea – whether it is to sail or to watch it – we are going back from whence we came.”
Nice. “I AM the ocean.”
I used to live about 30 miles from the sea (maybe 10 from an estuary), and had no car. Having grown up on the coast, I missed it like I’ve never missed anything.
Now I am married to a Minnesotan and will be moving there in 18 months or so. Slightly concerned…
Plan a weekend trip up to Lake Superior and you can get your big water fix. Since you will be a newbie up here, I will warn you though: Lake Superior is an inland ocean and can be just as dangerous as any sea, even more so. Have fun, but do not EVER underestimate this body of water. Your wife likely knows this already. If you sail, check out the Apostle Islands for some of the best sailing on the planet.
PS: We had an Aerostar conversion by Van House out of NE (yes, they did exist). it had the body graphics and all the mood lighting and oak woodwork inside. It was quite a comfy ride to many a hockey tournament back in the day.
Yeah, I’ve been to Lake Superior (and Lake Michigan) but “big water” just doesn’t cut it. It has to be the sea!
Nice article. A fun and fair account of life with an Aerostar…. I’m enjoying the series. The check engine clip is hilarious … Because it’s so true. A million years ago I had a friend with a Dodge Dart with the famously indestructible 225 slant-six engine – and a perpetually glowing oil light in the dash. It was on for at least a year, and he told me it was a faulty light because he’d put in a full quart of oil and the light stayed on. One day I borrowed his car and (in keeping with tradition) filled up the tank as a ‘than you’. Since I was there, I decided to put some oil in it for the hell of it. It took more than four quarts… And the light went out. I decided not to say anything… And my friend never noticed.
You saved that slant-6, no doubt. The dash light was probably for the oil level, not the pressure. Even a slant six will die with air in the oil lines.
Oil is optional in the slant 6 and that light on the dash was absolutely for oil pressure. Decades ago at the shop I worked at a customer, who I believe was on some sort of public assistance called in the middle of the month to schedule a tune up because the car was struggling to make it up the big local hill. However she didn’t want an appointment until after the first of the month when she would get her check. The boss put her down and come the day of the appointment she comes into the parking lot and we could all hear the clatter. She then came in for the tune up and said yeah there is a red light on too. She had driven it daily, admittedly around town, for several weeks with the oil pressure light on. The boss had a used engine sitting in the back room so he sold it to her cheap. Once the boss pulled it in he decided to see if he could make it go boom. He put his foot to the floor and left it there and after what seemed like an eternity he finally gave up. I was happy since I had to do that job and didn’t want a locked up engine that I couldn’t turn to access the flex plate to converter bolts. I had another friend who tried something similar with his slant 6 and was also unsuccessful at getting it to toss a rod through the side of the block or even stop running.
Dude, that’s legendary! I also read somewhere that machine shops broke their cutting tools on the cylinders of the slant 6.
Two of my Uncles on Mom’s side had Aerostars at one time. Both couldn’t quite live up to the reputation of reliability though; both went through a transmission or two, if I recall correctly. My parents almost bought a used Aerostar, maybe 15 years ago; no go, much to my disappointment. Grandpa wouldn’t have approved; not a fan of Ford.
Sadly, the only Aerostars that I’ve encountered, driven, and ridden in were at the end of their (long) service lives. I’ve never seen a really nice new one up close. Thanks for sharing your story!
Interesting that you went for the Safari over the Astro, I had one Aerostar and it was a letdown after trading in a Econoline for it. I traded the Aerostar in on an Astro and I never looked back. 4 Astros and 1 Safari later I am glad I did. But I digress.
Back in the Mid 80’s I had to get from Tampa to Ft. Lauderdale for a meeting. I had decide to team up with a co-worker who lived 40 miles north of me. Since I did not think his vision was that great I told him that I would drive. I decided to go via Alligator Alley through the Everglades in the then almost new Ford Aerostar. It was Early morning trying to make the 9:00 A.M. meeting when the upper radiator hose blew in the middle of nowhere. The co worker I was with started to panic. I remained calm and opened up my tool kit and whipped out the electrical tape and proceeded to wrap the hose. You should of seen his eyes when I told him to pick up the old milk jug laying by the big ditch and I asked him to get me some water out of the ditch. “I ain’t going near that ditch” I said “what you Alabama Boys are ‘fraid of gators, Hell I aint scared and I was born in NYC”. Filled the radiator with swamp water and left the cap loose and limped into Fort Lauderdale 5 minutes before my meeting. Left the van at the local Goodyear and told them replace the hose flush the cooling system real good and watch for baby water moccasins that may of got in with the swamp water. The look on their faces was almost as funny as my co-worker’s
For one brief moment, I considered selling my 94 Club Wagon Chateau and buying a similar age Aerostar, because the latter seemed to sell for quite a bit less, thus putting some extra money in my pocket. But on some test drives, I kept finding myself noting all of the things that the Aerostar just didn’t do as well. It wasn’t as quiet, or as smooth riding, or as powerful, or as comfortable. In the end, I priced my car really aggressively and nobody bit, and I was OK with keeping my Club Wagon.
Great story. Those water moccasins should have been fully cooked and ready to eat by the time you arrived in Fort Lauderdale.
Wow, what a trip. You started with these exotic stories of German biking and end up copying my boring life in the midwestern US schlepping kids to games and back. 🙂 I always enjoy reading about family stories here, and the “minivan years” always make for a lot of good memories as we get older.
I remember the Aerostar as being all over the place in the mid 90s. They were a really appealing package then, but I opted for one size up with my 94 Club Wagon that I bought in 1995. When you mentioned the green and mocha, I knew *exactly* what you were talking about. Had I bought a minivan at that time, I probably would have gone for one of these. I liked the RWD and Ford was at one of its periodic high points on the quality roller coaster.
During the entire story I was holding my breath, waiting for a blown head gasket out of that 4.0, but you seem to have avoided that issue. These did turn into serious rusters, unfortunately. Other than rust, these Aerostars seem to have come in two kinds – the really good ones like yours, and the really awful ones that chewed large holes in the owners’ wallets. Glad yours was the former.
Wolfgang, This was a delightful read and reminded me of my and my family’s long time enjoyment of our 1990 AWD Eddie Bauer Aerostar that replaced our 1986 Mercury Sable station wagon here in the rust belt of northeast Ohio. I also had the Aerostar Ziebart rust proofed. The rocker panels were a notorious rust prone area of the Aerostars which were replaced by a FoMoCo recall that we had done after approximately 8 yrs of ownership in 1998. Eventually by 2014 Ziebart and Ford couldn’t contain the extensive rusting caused by the salt fortified tin worm here in Ohio. Because of the rusting my second wife refused to drive the van and issued orders that it had to be replaced, despite my affection for the van.
Mechanically the Aerostar was delightfully mechanically solid and reliable over the 185k miles of ownership which I maintained with routine 3k oil changes and attention to any or all minor issues.
This Aerostar van faithfully took my family to multiple wintertime skiing trips to Vermont or especially to Western New York State, to our yearly shore vacations in Rehobeth, De, and on trips to Florida to see grandparents. The all wheel drive combined with the torque rich 4.0 V6 was unstoppable during the winter. I loved the long distance capabilities of the Aerostar.
In 1993, my then Polish Princess ( see I learned from RPLAUT) requested/demanded a more refined, less hard riding minivan than the Aerostar, so we became owners of a 1993 Toyota Previa S/C LE all wheel drive model with leather seating. Truly the Previa was a more refined van than the Aerostar but the Aerostar was kept by me because of its larger internal size and utility. The Aerostar was the more useful vehicle for hauling furniture, garden supplies, mulch bags, gravell, pavers, etc that she would never let into her Previa.
Eventually the Polish Princess (PP) left with the Previa during our divorce in 1997, and the Aerostar stayed with me for years into the then future until the tin worm won. Despite that all of my three children enjoyed that Aerostar with which we still took on skiing excursions, and eventually all three learned to drive with the Aerostar, and all three successfully passed their driving tests with the Aerostar (perhaps the DMV testers gave pity on them for using a van for their test vehicle).
Wolfgang, perhaps as with your family, the Aerostar insinuated itself into the fabric of my family’s life, and to this day we all have fond memories of the years we had with our “the Van”.
For Paul, re the Previas of Eugene, I agree that Previas are reliable, as was ours, but our Aerostar was equally delightful and reliable. The longevity of Eugene Previas would likely be shortened here in the SALT BELT of the Midwest. Even my PP ex-wife’s Previa eventually succumbed to the Salt Enhanced Tin Worms before my Aerostar succumbed.
Your lyl fthfl srvnt, geelongvic
I am thinking that the picture of Crazy Horse was not taken by you? It (Crazy Horse) has been under construction for at least 50 years. The picture of the Badlands is very good, and captures the essence of the place.
Correct. I found it on the web. I liked this picture of the Crazy Horse monument a lot because it shows the left aspect. There is a look-out from which you can see the right aspect. Pictures from there are in abundance.
The picture of the Badlands I found on the net as well.
For quite some time I left my camera at home. I noticed I spent too much time watching things through the viewfinder than participating in the things that went on.
love this series wolfgang! as others have noted, the best part is the way you blend the car stuff with your life experiences.
never understood why ford got out of the minivan business. my sister-in-law was quite happy with her aerostar, and the mercury villager / nissan quest that replaced the aerostars are considered extremely reliable.
Ironically Ford offers an almost over the top range of mini- / midi- / maxivans in Europe.
As there are, and I just checked Ford’s website:
-the B-Max
-the C-Max and Grand C-Max
-the S-Max and S-Max Vignale
-the Galaxy
-the Tourneo Courier (based on the Transit Courier)
-the Tourneo Connect (based on the Transit Connect)
-the Tourneo Custom (based on the Transit Custom)
-the Transit minibus (based on the Transit Transit), which is a maxivan.
As an addition, the Vignale is nothing more than an extra-plush edition. Like the Ghia of yore in Europe and the Brougham in the US.
Ford S-Max Vignale exterior:
I like how Ford have sullied “Ghia” to the point that they have to start sullying
another name instead.
Interior:
I think ‘Safe as Milk’ is referring to the truck-based or body-on-frame passenger minivans with RWD or AWD system in the US. They have largely vanished from the model range in the last fifteen years. Not to mention smaller availability of minivans, which have been mostly superseded by CUV or SUV.
Due to diverging safety regulations and expensive certification process for the US market, the Americans don’t have the wider range of body styles, motors, gearboxes, and trim levels in the US as Europeans do.
I’d like to know, what did you trade the Aerostar for?
Check back next Saturday. 😉
Good post, Wolfgang. I had a fair amount of experience with many of these minivans back in the 90’s. I still want to find a cherry 1990 Chrysler Town & Country, I drove them when they were fairly new and are probably my favorite of all the early minivans.
Coincidentally, we rented a 1996 Aerostar minivan for a trip home to Ohio from Georgia. At the time we only had two cars and my father in law’s Caravan wasn’t available to us (I don’t remember why), so Hertz to the rescue. It wasn’t a bad drive, in fact my then three year old daughter liked it so much she talked about it for weeks after we returned it.
But here in SW Michigan the rust claims everything, eventually. I knew a number of people who had them back in the day, and the quality was hit-or-miss. My neighbor had one for 12 years and the rust is what took it off of the road. Other people I knew who had them, they would eat transmissions and other expensive sub-systems frequently. That usually be followed by declarations of “never again” from these same folks.
Glad yours ran well for the time you had it. I have recently gotten back into minivans, even though I’m an empty nester with no grandchildren in the picture. I just like having the capacity to load up the car with friends or take home really big items I find or buy and not figuring out how to make it all fit. I have a nice set of H-rated tires on the van now, and I can get the big girl to dance pretty well. A middle aged guy like me should be obssessing over sporty red convertibles, but the Silhouette is treating me fine.
There are some guys I’ve heard of who have the minivan AND the red convertible . . .
Boy, was I lucky in regards of the transmission:
http://etereman.com/blog/ford-transmission-2/the-ford-a4ld-get-to-know-its-problems-and-how-to-prevent-them
There is nothing wrong with any vehicle as long as it suites the owner’s purposes. For the reasons that you listed minivans are still the most practical vehicles on the road. The Olds Silhouette and its siblings are very car like to drive too.
I remember the Ford Aerostar. Although no-one in my family ever owned or driven a Ford Aerostar, I saw plenty of them throughout its production run. At the time, I found it more attractive than the Chevy Astro. Today, I would take either van over anything produced today. My only disappointment for both vans is that neither of them were ever available with a diesel engine, not even a turbo diesel engine. Considering what people used the two vehicles for, both business and personal, that they were deliver better fuel economy than would otherwise.
Remove the front tires
Change plugs
Stress free
Never been a huge van of the mini-van, probably because with a two person household most of that additional space is wasted much of the time. We did have an Astro conversion van for a short period in the late eighties. My wife thought she wanted a mini-van and the Astro was selected to be her daily driver. After the third or fourth time she nearly ran over someone while changing lanes the Astro was on borrowed time. Actually the only one in the household who really liked the beast was our Old English Sheepdog; he had plenty of room to roam around in the back when he got tired of sitting between the front seats.
I certainly don’t mean to put down those who own and drive mini-vans, if you have children they are almost essential, especially today when everyone is strapped into their own seat. Of course when I was growing up my siblings and I were just herded into the back seat of the family car and if we happened to touch one another you just had to deal with it. Seriously, I’m glad you had a positive experience with your Aerostar; one of my sisters had one back in the day and it was a total POS. She was in one of her episodes of single parenthood and I’m sure the Aerostar didn’t get much love (or maintenance).
I always preferred station wagons or pickups, as most vans, mini or otherwise, are a real pain to work on the engine! Except for the first gen Chrysler minivans. But as you said, those eat transmissions. And not just the infamous ‘Ultradrive’. One month after my younger brother bought a low-mileage used ’84 Plymouth Voyager, the automatic died. That van spent the next ten years in the backyard – as a storage-shed!
Happy Motoring, Mark
“No,” the lady demanded, “a minivan!”
Good post. I had to chuckle about that line above. It has been so long since I heard anybody who was adamant about getting a minivan. Most folks nowadays look horrified at the prospect of getting a minivan. But I guess back then the minivan was still “the vehicle to have” I have never had an issue with them but my brother dislikes them and went out of his way to buy a Dodge Journey SUV instead of a Caravan. I still don’t have the heart to tell him it still looks like a Caravan from the front due to the front end bearing a resemblance to the front end of the Caravan.
Anyway, I have been waxing nostalgic in relation to cars and trucks that were new when I was a child or in high school and I saw one of these Aerostars in the parking lot of the grocery store 2 weeks ago and the design still looked good. I prefer the 92-97 version since the 1992 refresh seemed to “smooth the lines” a bit.
However working on them was another thing. I was working as an apprentice tech at the Ford dealership near my home. I always got Areostar duty and they were a pain in the @$$ to do any engine work to. (I guess in my mine that is why the 1984-1995 Dodge, Plymouth and Chrysler minivans were better then the Areostar and the Chevy Astro/ GMC Safari because you could work on them with relative ease.
So how long did it take you to stop looking for the clutch pedal in the Areostar after a life of driving stick shift cars? I have Ford Probe( a Mazda under the Blue Oval) and a Chevy Colorado. The Probe is a manual (and thanks to its transmission and engine being of Mazda design, makes the car feel like it is much faster/powerful then it is ) and the Colo is a automatic. I find if I have driven the Probe for several days that when I get back into the Colorado, I look for the clutch pedal.
Changes in sensory-motor adaption can be a lot of fun. Seat belts are a must when you move from a manual transmission to an automatic.
My wife flat out refused to learn the manual transmission. Therefore we always had two cars. I learned the “bi-pedal” driving on hers and was good with it when we bought the Aerostar.
Used to be a delivery driver for my company, delivering payrolls, we had stick shift Nissan Sentra’s for years. They then changed in 1989 to Ford Escorts all automatics. On my way back to our office the first day in my new delivery car on the off ramp of the 91 freeway in CA, I had a brain fart and stomped on the brakes thinking it was the clutch, the brand new Escort did a 360, scared the crap out of me. Thank goodness it was mid morning and there were no other cars near me at the time! Funny thing is I have not driven a stick since. We did also get a Ford Aerostar van in the fleet too, but that was a stick base cargo van with a 4 cyl. It was a dog.
Very enjoyable read – and nice family pics. I read somewhere long ago that Aerostars were built in Ford Kansas City Assembly Plant which had one of Ford’s highest quality scores.
With Fords, I’ve always found that to be the key factor in how well they were built – the Wixom Plant which built Lincolns and T-Birds always turned out a good product. The Wayne Assembly Plant, on the other hand, tended to slap theirs together.
I don’t know if its still that way – hopefully Alan Mulally fixed that before he left.
Great story! I’m glad you had a generally good experience with the Aerostar.
Yes, minivans are often scored, but their utility is quickly appreciated – with children, carpooling, hauling cargo. And compared with the old style big commercial vans, their drivability is great.
My aunt and uncle had one of these–I think an ’89 or ’90, SWB 5-speed in a sort of golden brown color. Not sure which engine, but I do know they got a deal on it because it seems very few people wanted a manual shift minivan. Came in handy with 4 kids in the family. Theirs wasn’t trouble-free but it was reliable enough to stick around for about 10 years, though at that point the A/C hadn’t worked in quite some time and it had some other issues as well.
You mentioned that your wife decided the 323’s replacement would be a minivan–which is all well and good but if she demanded the van why didn’t it become her vehicle? Just curious on that one.
Chris, it is not a matter of logic. I found my wife is unable or unwilling to focus for any length of time on driving. She limits herself to driving in our town only. Only automatic and a car as small as possible because she is afraid of putting it into the garage.
I once asked her to take the wheel for me on a vacation trip and after about 30 minutes my nerves were in tatters. Her biggest trouble was adjusting speed. She did not slow down for turns and squealed the tires. Therefore in the interest of safety I took over and never even considered asking her again.
Meanwhile she is a much better driver (operator of cars) but driving is just not her thing.
I had one. Best minivan I have ever experienced and the only one I would ever consider owning again. Proper drive wheels, decent viability, excellent utility, and it is a FoMoCo.
I owned an AWD extended version about 15 years ago, a ’93. Other than the junk transmission (and 14MPG), it was the best go anywhere winter vehicle I ever owned.
Once I fixed the transmission myself, it went on to give undying service to me and a buddy’s wife when I sold it. It met it’s end when someone lost control coming at her and she T-boned them.
The narrow 14″ tires were just the key in the Lake Ontario snowbelt for plowing through the deep snow. I’ve always considered another, but here in the rust belt, I haven’t seen one for years.
I’ve had my ’96 SWB Aerostar cargo van for ten years. Never in salt, snow, ice, so zero rust ANYWHERE.
According to those who have them, the early years were crap, but by mid 90s the bugs were out, and 300K not unusual.
The 3.0 V6 is much preferred over the 4.0.
I was able to get 27mpg, highway on trips from New England to Florida.
Changing the plugs is a bear. The front two are easy. The back four, I finally figured out, can be removed from underneath with a combination of two wrenches, the closed end of a combination wrench applied to the plug and the other looped through the first. Even with the tires on.
All in all, I recommend them. My rule is never buy anything made in the USA aimed at the consumer market. Stick with trucks (including cargo vans) that are sold to the commercial market. And wait a few years for them to become bug free. The American infatuation with power and style and new features, forces the company’s, in my opinion, to develop new product way too often.
The result is half built junk.
Another great post Wolfgang. Minivans are not cool or interesting but a lot of cool and interesting stuff always happens near them. Some turn up their noses at minvans but we still have one, the box is still useful.
I’ll bet your kids are interesting to spend time with, one of my good friends had parents from Egypt and Germany, they met at University in Germany, married and moved to Canada. He is very bi-cultural and a super interesting guy. His parents are gone now but his mother was a great German cook and I loved her Rouladen! Yum