This puppy has to be pretty rare, right?
It has the short body, sealed-beam headlamps (making it no newer than 1991) and a raised roof. Why, it has everything a family could want, proving it wasn’t so hard to make a minivan after all!
There just can’t be too many like this still being used as a driver. A planter, maybe, but not a driver.
Explore this and other rare and interesting treasures today at the Cohort, and thanks to Dave_7 for the submission!!
Update: The year of this fine van has been brought downward on commenter input.
I had an ’87 briefly. Bought it used in ’91. Biggest POS I’ve ever owned in my life. It never really wore out, it just disintegrated.
You know, I’m going to say that it’s between an ’86 and ’88, because it has the Aerostar badge on the fender, and I think they went to a black grille around ’89.
I’m shocked that it doesn’t have more rust on it. Around here you can almost watch Aerostars rust away right in front of you…
The climate is pretty dry here. Almost desert that gets snow in the winter.
AFAIK, the “Aerostar” fender badge disappeared after 1987. So, this is an early early model; of the sort I haven’t seen on the road in years…
I think it’s too bad they didn’t keep making these till they got it right. Somehow, I think in my world there should always be room for a small pickup or van with rear wd. Life is a changing as I get older but I still see a place for something that can haul a trailer for a while. I have done that with a front wd but feel more secure with the rear.
I see the fwd for hauling kids and the rwd for hauling loads. I like this concept but don’t think I care much for the execution. I believe the chevy astrovan was a better execution of the same concept. Having said all that, I think I could be sold on most of the small vans out there if the price was right.
Never had these inflicted on this market so very rare.
Its a Bread Box.
Drove this and the Astro. Preferred the Astro. However I’ll take either one over a FWD minivan.
I’m surprised it still has the rear bumper cover. I still see Aerostars from time to time, and almost always the rear plastic bumper cover has rotted away.
A friend of ours bought a new extended Aerostar Eddie Bauer in about 1995. It was pretty sharp in two-tone emerald green over prairie tan. One of the most loaded Aerostars I’d ever seen, it even had all wheel drive.
One of my customers is still driving one of these, short wheelbase and all. He’s a carpet installer, and it is a beater. But yeah, most of these have passed on–not surprisingly, since they went out of production after 1997. I believe that a combination of the less-than-rocklike-durability A4LD transmission and extremely difficult access to anything under the hood did them in.
These were truly wretched cars. Hoary V6s, flaccid foamy seats, and a thumpy, juddery ride. The Astro/Safari felt much the same, but without trucky looks to match the trucky dynamics, the Aerostar seemed so much worse.
In fact, it’s the opposite. The Aerostars proved that it’s not so easy to make a minivan. In fact Ford is so bad at it that it just plain throw the white flag and didn’t make a single one anymore, for decades now. It just quit the market altogether. GM did the same, only Chrysler continued plugging at it, and had some success. If there was a case of inglorious automotive failure, Ford Minivan serves as a good example.
All the non-California Aerostars have rust in the exact same place – the rocker panels under the front doors. Saw lots of these up in coastal Alaska – all rusted in the rocker panels under the doors. I was looking for a bright orange AK plate on the photo vehicle . . . . The Hawaii ones had similar rust and rust holes on top of the A pillar surrounding the windshield – and surrounding the rear hatch window.
You’ll never see any rust on that rear lift gate, though!
Ford and GM never figured out how to build a minivan that anyone wanted. I can’t figure out why. Even Honda just said, copy the Chrysler and make sure a piece of 4×8 plywood will fit in the back.
The story as I understood it was that Honda of America shipped 4×8 sheets of plywood to Japan to make sure they they knew what had to fit in.
” Even Honda just said, copy the Chrysler ”
Right down to the crappy transmissions. It appears that they did that better too, and made a transmission even crappier than Chryslers. In my area, I am starting to see fewer Gen2 Hondas than Gen 3/4 Chrysler minivans.