Our family recently purchased a new 2000 Ford Windstar SEL and so far I have been very pleased with the purchase, which when you read on you'll understand that this is saying a lot!

We are a family of 4 with two boys 10 and 6. The wife an I both work outside the home and I drove a 1992 Ford Explorer and the wife drove a 1991 4 door Honda Accord. We love to go camping and we pull a medium size Colemann Pop-Up camper when we are able to go. I was starting to have serious problems with the Ford Explorer, and we decided it was time to buy a new tow vehicle. After looking at other manly vehicles (Tahoe, Lincoln Navigators, Suburbans, etc.) I just couldn't justify their cost and fuel mileage. Besides the wife typically takes the boys (and their friends) to recreational activities, so she would be driving it as often as I did. After some discussion (and believe me I was not an easy sell) we decided to look into mini-vans as an option to replace the Explorer.

Needless to say, I swallowed my manly pride and we are now owners of a mini-van. After looking into many different models we decided on Ford because they were offering 60 months .9% financing at the time on the Windstar and they came packaged with the best options for the price. We purchased an SEL model with leather, CD/Cassette, dual A/C, back-up sensors, and power sliding doors (driver & passenger side), etc.

After owning this vehicle for 3 months now, we could be happier (yes me too). Gas mileage in town is been running 17-18 MPG, and 23-25 on the highway. It has plenty of power to pull the camper and plenty of room for kids and related sporting equipment. I am very picky about vehicles and this van has impressed me as being very solid and free from defects. I do hear quick and slight drive train grind when initially driving off after the van has been parked for a while, but it only lasts a split second and doesn't re-occur until the van is stopped and restarted. The other annomily that I've heard is the occasional sound of water from the A/C dripping on the exhaust when going down the highway.

Finally, I thought that the power sliding doors was a bit too much when we first purchased the van, but after owning it for a couple weeks I realized just how conveinent that option was. No hands door opening, keeps kids from scratching the doors, ensures that they can get in even on hill sides, and makes it nice for putting groceries in when your hands are full! Oh yea, I now drive a 4 dr Honda Accord to work each day, quite a step from a SUV.

UPDATE: We had just returned home from a 11 hour road trip only to have the transmission completely fail while trying to take off from a stop light. It gave me no warning of any kind, just a large crunch when trying to accelerate away from a stop light.

Get this... The warranty expired less than 60 days earlier and after the road trip the van now has 37K miles on it. Ford has agreed to pick up part of the cost but I'm stuck with a $950 repair. (Oh, yea a rebuilt transmission could cost anywhere from $2,200 to $2,800.)

The main problem is that Ford uses the Ford Taurse transmission in these mini-vans. These transmissions are alread plagued with problems and when you add the extra 800 lbs of a mini-van, it's just asking for trouble! If your debating the different mini-vans, look beyond Ford and go with Toyota or better yet Honda. I'll likely trade mine in as soon as it gets back from the dealer! My advise, stay away from Ford products with FWD automatic transmissions.