Anyone here own a Windstar? I have a 2000, and in pretty decent shape.
and the 3.8 in these things kicks butt for a minivan!

 

I had a '98 Windstar. It was on its third transmition by the time it had 20,000 miles on it I traded it off with out looking back.

 

My wife just traded her '04 Freestar for a '06 Fusion. She wanted to save on the gas. It's not a bad car, but I like the room the Freestar had. And I'm not sure how I like my truck being designated the "Family Trip Vehicle."

Anyway, we had no problems with the Freestar.

 

We had 2 Windstars... a '98 and a '03... the '98 we put about 170k on it... and the '03 we had like 110k on it... no problems with either and were quite fun to drive and virtually indestructable.

The '98 I took offroading... never got stuck in a swamp. But it tore the crap out of the underbody.

A friend has a '96 with like 324k on it, and it's running fine... still on it's first tranny.

 

The Fusions are awesome cars. Ford hit it the nail on the head with it.

 

After a few weeks with mine and about 700 miles, here's my quick little input on the Fusion.

The I4 is a snappy little motor, but is a little high revving. I would have bought the V6 but I wanted the manual transmission. 5th gear is a little too high, at 75 mph (interstate speed limit here) I'm running about 3200-3300. Thats my only complaint though, the thing rides well, corners well and has enough power for my needs. I have taken it through the mountain passes, I can set cruise on 75 and leave it in 5th gear and not have to down shift at all. Actually I had to get around a semi and just floored it in 5th, not down shifting and accelerated right up the pass.

All in all, I'd say you are right they are sweet little cars. I do miss my F150 though.

 

We bought the new Windstar back in 1995.
Had it for 11 years and put 155k on it, no issues.