I’ve been going by this house on Jackson Street for what will be thirty years this summer when I bought my first rental there. The Ford pickup has always been there, driven by the now-elderly matriarch. And presumably her son lives with her, as there have been cars out front associated with that demographic for much of that time, at least the past twenty years. But the Aerostar is a new addition. Has he arrived at the minivan stage of life?
This is a burly F250 with the good old International IDI (indirect injection) 6.9 L diesel V8. Actually, I remember a middle-aged man driving it in the early years of my acquaintance with its distinctive clatter (not as loud as the later direct injection Powerstroke). Presumably he died, because for much of these thirty years the driver has been an gradually-aging slight white-haired woman. I still see her driving to the store about eight blocks away from time to time, but she is getting up in years, as is her truck, although I suspect the truck will most likely outlive her. What could kill it? These International diesels were very simple, rugged old-school engines.
Wikipedia shows two versions, with 150 and 170 hp. Not sure of the applications of each, but in any case, these will get you there, just not in a hurry.
Not sure what to say about the older Chevy pickup, but it’s clearly not been getting any exercise for quite some time. And lo!, there’s actual rust on it, but then I hear these are a bit prone to that in harsher climates. There’s still quite a few intact ones around here that have escaped that fate.
Aerostars are getting a bit scarce on the ground, but except for a few pieces of loose window trim and seals and a missing bumper cover, this one looks pretty solid still. This looks like it’s probably from one of the earlier years, and I wonder if it might be a fairly rare version with the Lima 2.3 four used only in 1986 and 1987 instead of the more common V6. Most likely not. Looking at some data, the V6s in these had a somewhat curious applications, as the Cologne 2.8 was only installed in the first part of its first 1986 model year, replaced by the new 3.0 Vulcan V6. But the larger 4.0 L Cologne came back for 1990, in the AWD version as well as an option above the 3.0.
This gen3 Camaro has been here for quite a few years, in what appeared to be in non-running condition for some of them. But Eugene has gotten more aggressive about long-term parking on the streets (they used to only respond to complaints) and I noticed it tagged about a year ago. That prompted the owner to get it back in running condition and there’s no more grass growing under it. Not really sure of the year or what’s under the aftermarket hood, but who knows? Most likely not the iron Duke 2.5 L four that was standard on gen3 Camaros for a while. Now that would be a find.
SN95 Mustangs are not my forte, but hey, even I can tell it’s one of the facelifted versions, from 1999-on. I see that actually makes it a SN99. And a GT at that. I assume it replaced the Camaro as the owner’s daily driver. It’s pretty clean at that, and its wheels and tires are still in keeping with the spirit of its times. And with its 260 hp 4.6 V8, it’s undoubtedly the fastest car on the block, unless there’s a Camry V6 I failed to notice.
It’s nice to know that Mom still gets to use the driveway, but when I see the Mustang there, I’ll know her driving (or living) days have finally come to an end.
A nice group .
-Nate
We still have one actively used Aerostar in my neighborhood; plain white. It’s interesting that the Aerostar used the 2.8 Cologne V6 in 1986 and transitioned to the 3.0 Vulcan later in the same model year. The Ranger used the 140 hp 2.9 V6, fuel injected, in 1986 and didn’t transition to the Vulcan until the early 90’s.
The Mustang looks real solid for being at least 22 years old and street parked (but then solid street parked vehicles are Eugene’s specialty, right?)
A Mustang GT would be my natural choice, but I think I’d actually take the F250. Its burly, utilitarian, dont-care-what-you-think-of-it vibe is too cool. What’s going on with the rear bumper? It’s sticking out strangely far.
The F250’s bumper might have been extended to accommodate a slide in camper.
That makes sense. This would have been a perfect truck for that duty.
Ah, this is like the old days when CC pics were frequently rainy. This here is ike comfort food for me. And interesting to see a house with TWO RCLBs as well as a van, lots of haulin’s going on there. Or at least the possibility thereof. The pony cars I suppose want to be haulin’ something different.
I’ve come across the Lima 4 in an Aerostar paired with the manual transmission but in a cargo version, I can’t recall if that combo was a thing in the passenger one as well.
A worthy photo op indeed, perfect to enjoy with the Sunday morning coffee.
I strongly suspect that all or almost all of the Lima 2.3/manual combo did go in the cargo version.
And yes, after a long Juneuary winter has finally come back. Good thing, as there has been almost no snow in the mountains and the skiers were very sad indeed. But this week looks cold and wet.
We’ve had one decent snow after Thanksgiving and about an inch a few weeks back. A little rain the last couple of days for maybe half an hour each but in the 50s most days and sunny. Today will hit 62, “Juneuary” is right! Virtually unheard of for up around here at this time of year. Normally we would have had a couple of feet of snow so far in the season and temps far closer to or below freezing rather than very comfortable late spring conditions. Maybe your rain will head 1200 miles east next week…
There’s a house near me sort of like this, with a Rambler Classic and an Aerostar and, the newcomer, a 2000-ish Saturn SL. For most of the 32 years I’ve lived in central Indiana, there was a Pinto wagon slowly rusting into the ground there too. It disappeared somewhere in the last several years. The cars are all up against the garage at the end of a very long driveway, so no photographing them this easily.
My brother bought a new ’83 V6 Camaro in that same blue, only new car he’s had in his 67 years. He was so proud of it at first, and when I took our 1st ride in it at 3 weeks old I really wanted to say something nice but think I maybe said I liked the color, that’s it (had my ’68 E-type at the time). It was a crummy cheap looking POS even new. Wasn’t long before he despised it too.
Usually, it’s the REAR bumpers on the Aerostars that go first, but the one on this van still seems to be mostly intact, and besides a few imperfections on the windshield and left side window, the rest of the van is still in decent shape. I believe the one here is an ’89-’91 model; the earlier ones had a chrome-trim grille, but this one has black trim in that area, and then of course the ’92 refresh moved the oval to the upper third of the grille to mimic the front-end of the then-new Explorer.
I LOVE the rims and whitewall tires on this one even though they don’t look factory, but I can understand if the owner had to upgrade to 15″ at minimum as 14″ wheels are getting harder & harder to find. But all the better for the looks without overdoing it!
The Mustang & Camaro look good for their ages, too, and kudos to the matriarch for keeping that F-250 & Chevy pickup around as well. Will modern-day pickups still be around 30 years from now? Who knows!
As the 2nd owner of a New Edge Mustang that turned 27 last week I must opine. It’s the Fox4 platform and by 99 Ford had figured out the 90° Buick V6 Ford clone from 1982 to where it is and was very reliable. Is it fast today? No. Is it slow? No. 200+ lb feet of torque at ANYTHING over 2,000 rpm and at only 3,100 lbs and with Fox platform goodness makes it a great around town 19 mpg cruiser. Handles well even. Fabulous considering its basic guts came out in 1977. One thing curious is that every Dodge truck or Nissan Altima wants to race. I already won. Their vehicles won’t hit 27 … and will never be a Mustang 😀
The Mustang is still SN95, it was never renamed, the unofficial definition for the the 99-04s is New Edge. The 95 is irrelevant to the year, as the generation started in 1994.
Ford’s platform naming at the time tended to be category, country and the project number. MN12 for example (which my Cougar is) is Midsize North American project 12. I believe SN95 is Specialty North American project 95
In high school (early 90s), my buddy’s folks had an Aerostar. Not sure what engine, but he called it the Growler. Because it made a lot of noise but didn’t have much go.
Another buddy in the later 90s had one. Riding through the city with him, me in the back as always because I’m the small one. He took a corner so hard that the middle bench lifted from its mounts with me in it.
The one in the picture looks great with those wheels. I’ve seen plenty of Rangers with them but the van looks better.
“No less than 5 live here.” At first I was thinking how a bunch of cars with some barely functional is probably a single guy. Just like the 5 cars at my place, but thankfully I live where nobody cares.