Traveling with 3 kids can be a bit of a challenge from time to time. One reviewer recently referred to a DMZ between her children, and I'm a firm believer in the concept. I like to think of traveling as a zone defense, each child has a zone, a parent at the front and rear helps control the wildlife. Or so I like to delude myself.

So when our 1987 Plymouth Voyager died, we knew we couldn't live without another minivan, but we weren't ready to plunk down the cash on a brand new one. We went shopping, and found this minivan in GREAT condition, and after much soul searching, we got it.

From the look of the car's exterior and interior, as well as the fact that all maintenance records were included, I'm sure that the previous owner took very good care of it, and of course, a lot depends on that. I can't really tell anyone else whether or not to buy a used Windstar, all I can say is what we've found after a month of living with (and loving) ours.

The Perks
We were lucky. Our Ford Windstar SEL comes with many nice options including a 3.8L V6 engine, power seats, power windows, power locks, power doors, tilt steering, tinted windows, A/C, cruise control, automatic transmission with overdrive, and an anti-theft system. There's the AM/FM/Cassette/CD player with rear headphone jack and rear control so that our near teenage son can put on his nois...I mean music and the baby and daughter can still listen to their They Might Be Giants CD. There's also rear climate control so that the interzone squabbling is diminished at least a little. The center seats are bucket seats, another point diminishing the likelihood of quarreling. There's also a cargo net, with a variety of little spots to hang your child..er, grocery bags in the cargo area to keep them from spilling over.

There are both driver's and passenger's side automatic sliding doors. They can be opened a variety of ways. First, the traditional "pull on the handle, you dope" method. Then there's the remote key, using which you can push the button and swoosh, the door opens. But wait, there's more. You can also push the door button above the rear view mirror. Or, you can push the button that's located about halfway down the door frame behind the front seats. For better or worse, these buttons are placed where a child in a car seat can reach his little toes out and push the button all by himself. However, ONLY pulling on the door with your hand can open the door while the car is in gear or the doors are locked. There's also a shut off that disables the backseat buttons so that the cherubs can't repeatedly open and close the door.

The car has both driver's and passenger's side airbags, of course, which means that small children, especially those in child seats can NOT safely sit in the front seat of a moving van, but that's pretty much standard with this year, no matter what the make and model.

When the car is turned on and at intervals of approximately 1 minute thereafter, incessant beeping commences for about 10 seconds if the driver's seat belt is not fastened. Consider that good or bad based on your personal view of seat belts and government regulations. This function can be disabled in 2 ways: temporarily by pushing the release button on the seatbelt, which buys respite for the duration of your trip, or by following the directions in the owners manual for permanent effect.

When the car is put in gear, all door locks automatically lock. From the perspective of keeping the natives from opening a door while moving, I like this additional feature. My husband loathes it. It does mean that when you go to get in the car the next time, any door that wasn't opened to get out of the car is locked when you go to get in. With 5 children, that's rarely an issue for us, but my parents' van has a similar set up, and it drives them batty.

Our remote access keys are really cool. There are buttons to unlock the door, open either sliding door, and a panic alarm which can all be activated from a distance of at least a few meters. If you push the unlock door 3 times, it will beep the horn very briefly, as if to say "Dufus, why didn't you LOOK where you parked me when you got OUT of the van?" Trying to turn on the car without this remote key (including microchip) sets off all the anti theft equipment. I'm not entirely sure of the details there, but I'm sure it's not pretty, and I know it includes one of those annoying car alarms. Warning: The cool remote access key is REQUIRED to operate the car and costs $100 to duplicate, and must be ordered directly from Ford We'd thought hey, 3 kids, 2 adults, these keys will get lost, lets get another at the Ace Hardware...Uh uh. Think again. Let's not lose those keys.

My husband, prior to being married, had in his infinite wisdom bought a Saab 900, which for reasons that baffle me to this day, had no cup holders, so cup holders are a big issue for me. Rest easy, this baby has 6 cup holders with an additional couple on the backs of the bucket seats in case you happen to be driving with the bucket seats folded down. We've never actually had occasion to do that, but they're there should you feel the need. The cup holders slide or fold up in and out of their little homes (under the dash, at the bottoms of the bucket seats) when you don't want them out, which makes them less likely to be accidentally broken when the 3 year old decides he needs a little extra lift to get into his car seat.

The interior of this car was in great condition, which I consider to be partly due to great care on the part of the original owner, but likely also partly due to good sturdy construction by Ford. Why? Because I can tell from the name "kayla" scrawled on the drivers side sliding door that the previous owner had children. Children are heck on cars, no matter HOW you try to control it, as evidenced from the ball point pen name. Except for that name, though, you would never guess that this car had ever held children. The leather interior is pretty easy to care for, and the removable carpet pieces that protect the 'real' carpet help immensely in trying to control the pet and child damage.

The Windstar in Action
The car has working cruise control, and unlike a lot of cars I've had, it only drifts a tiny bit down when you set the cruise. I've only had one other minivan with cruise, and on it when you pushed the button and released the gas, it would drop at least 5 to 7 miles per hour before stabilizing, so if you wanted to cruise at 65, you had to push the button at 70. The Ford Windstar does not have that problem.

The AC on the minivan works great! We only had it for one month of summer (August) but in Nebraska the temps get up to 90 easily in that month, and did several times. The AC kept us comfortable all the time (with some comments about being too cold, which made the dual climate control super nice).

The parking break isn't particularly powerful, but then I've never seen one that was. It's sufficient, but barely.

Pick up on this minivan is pretty good, considering it's a minivan. I wouldn't try tearing out between two speeding cars, but it's a nice predictable and solid acceleration. Treat it right, it treats you right.

Steering is nice and tight, without significant pull in any direction.

Panel controls are conveniently placed so that the minimum attention is required from the driver to adjust anything from the radio to the door locks while in motion, leaving you free to pay attention to other, more important things: like which child has moved out of their appropriate zone and needs to have their life threatened.

Rear view mirrors are well placed so that any blind spots are minimized. With a normal amount of caution, lane changes and turns are not a problem with this van, like they are with my parent's Chevy Astro. If you want HUGE blind spots, go with the Astro...

Drawbacks
I'm not absolutely certain what's normal for a minivan, I always figured our gas usage on my 1987 was high because it was old. However, this van gets about 13.5 miles per gallon. Granted, this is mostly in town, and when we go on trips it can get up to 15 or 15.5 MPG. Still, I'd hoped for a little better, especially with gas prices recently skyrocketing.

The back seat is almost inaccessible for an adult. I can tell already that the second our 3-year-old graduates out of the car seat, he'll be taking up the rear zone. It's hard already for my oldest son's friends to get in and out of the back. When they're teens, I expect it will be darn near impossible, but I'm trying to pretend that he's never going to BE a teenager, so I'm not really going to think about that any further.

Overall, we love our Ford Windstar. The perks are great, the vehicle is sound and reliable, and I wouldn't hesitate to purchase another.
Amount Paid (US$): 11000
Condition: Used
Model Year: 2000
Model and Options: SEL