By Marcal Eilenstein
As I was sitting in traffic yesterday, a thought occurred to me; I have not seen an Aerostar on the road in months. I used to see them often, especially the second generation XLT models, full of kids, their stickers all over the windows. After all, why not? The extended cab models had lots of cargo space, seating for seven, and a V-6 under the hood with enough power to keep moving. It was the perfect soccer mom van, and for several years was the #2 minivan in the United States. In my former job, I drove a 1992 cargo van, with MDF on the floor, a cage behind the front seats, and little else. It always impressed me how much I could stuff in the cargo area, and with a 5,000-pound tow capacity, it could keep up with most of the full-size pickups we had in our fleet. The rear drum brakes were comically sensitive – a quick stab of the brakes at almost any speed would lock them up.
These days, though, I almost never see one. I think that’s a shame: even now, they offer great versatility and convenience. Take this one for example:
From the ad:
1993 Aerostar. Short version. Family owned high way commute vehicle.
Recent: water pump-radiator-alternator-4 shocks-brakes-starter. And more.
No leaks No smoke. Very reliable,would take anywhere. New tabs.
Auto. shifts like new. Very reliable. Clean,straight,shinny.
Power windows ,locks. factory tint. . Medical cond. forces sale.
For a 20-year old van, the interior really isn’t bad. The carpet is stained and probably dirty, but nothing appears to be broken or missing. I’m not entirely certain, but the middle bench appears to fold flat, and combined with the back bench, makes for a decent bed. The plastic bag in the picture holds a set of snow tires – handy in this part of the state, where they are required on certain roads at certain times.
It’s been a long time since I saw one this nice – even the wheel covers are in good shape. What do you think about this van?
[Source: Seattle craigslist]
Jeff Glucker 
Ross Ballot
Meh.
If I'm gonna have one, I want an extended one for max cargo volume.
So that's what one that isn't subjected to Texas summers looks like. Usually, overtime the bumper covers become hard and brittle, and shatter with the smallest bump. A lot of the ones down here are missing pieces of the bumper covers (or the whole thing is gone, usually the rear one). They're not bad vans, although the 3.8l Essex V6s are a problem, and accessibility to some of the engine items is a PITA.
The 3.8 was never offered in the Aerostar, only the Windstar, your choice of V6s were the Vulcan 3.0 and later the Cologne 4.0. Accessibility to everything was a PITA on the Aerostar but still better than the Astro/Safari.
You're right; the one person I knew that owned one (extended length) had a 4.0. The Wiki article states they debuted with the 2.3l Lima 4, and the 2.8 version of the Cologne, dropped the 2.8 after the second year and added the Vulcan (for 1988), the added the 4.0 for 1990. It also says a diesel was considered then dropped during development.
You're on the right track. They are not a bad van and share many underpinnings/mechanicals with the venerable Ford Ranger.
IIRC you had 3.0L or 4.0L power with the aerostar?
The only thing they shared with the Ranger was the engine and transmission. The Aerostar was a unibody vehicle with a SLA front suspension instead of twin I/traction beam front suspension and they used a 3 link coil spring set up to hold up the back instead of leafs. The base models did both use the Ford 7.5' rear axle but if you spec'ed out the Traction Lock you got a Dana 44 in the Aerostar and an 8.8" in the Ranger. Certainly they reached into the basic Ford parts bin for things like switch gear ect.
Looks like the post has expired. How much did they want for it? I rarely see one that nice anymore – most are in hoopty status here.
Pretty sure it was $2500.
That's not bad.
Not bad at all, considering the age and condition.
For awhile it was the #1 selling van since both Chrysler and GM sold theirs under two different brand names.
Bigfoot Fastrax Van approves… <img src="http://cdn.bleacherreport.net/images_root/slides/photos/000/158/495/Fastrax_display_image.jpg?1266355423">
Is that first car it's jumping a Plymouth Sapporo/Dodge Challenger? The second one is a later Chevette.
If it's a Sapporo, don't tell Antti.
Amazing condition, but of absolutely no interest to me. Chrysler's minivan really was the state of the art at that point. GM's dustbuster series looked kind of cool, but weren't all that practical. VW's van was slow and expensive, and the Japanese weren't quite up to speed on peoplemover vans yet. A minimally optioned short full size van was still your best bet at that point.
Is it the towing capability that defined these compared to the Chryslers?
I would say yes.
I want this more than any other childhood nostalgia vehicle from my day.
These things were everywhere in Dearborn, MI in the early 1990's, however they were not nearly as rust resistant as the Rangers that they were based on, and so I haven't seen one in years.
Could it be that people drove the hell out of them? I rarely see any of the minivans from this time frame other than a few Chrysler/Dodge and there were 3x as many Caravan/Voyagers sold.
Likely. Ford marketed these as trucks in later years, and many people used them as such. As I mentioned, I used the cargo van to haul some heavy loads, and it never failed me.
Mom and dad bought one new in '89- about 3 years ago when it would have been 20, they gave it to a neighbor who needed a basic transporter and was in a bad spot financially. I think it had well over 200k miles on it, and is still kicking around the neighborhood. Deluxe? Nope. Tough and durable? Absolutely.
I'll prefer the 2.3L version with an actual clutch pedal, thankyouverymuch.
When we replaced our '85 Plymouth Voyager in '91, my parents looked at these.
They were a notch bigger than the 2nd generation Chryslers (8 seat belts instead of 7) and could be had with AWD, which was attractive for snow trips.
Instead we bought a full size Econoline, which was equal parts awesome and crappy.
Wish I still had pictures of the 81 Econoline conversion van we drove for a few years. 500 pounds of wall-to-wall shag carpet.
I made this out of an Aerostar cargo van for paintball games. I would own another in a heart beat but they're getting really hard to come by.. <3 Ford Aerostar.
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/S0JUf.jpg">
With a gun that doesn't rotate, maybe you should have gone Swedish instead of German.
<img src="http://www.rollmodels.net/nreviews/armor/stank/strv103b05.jpg">
I thought it made a pretty good Jagdpanther 😉
<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Jagdpanther2.jpg">
You sure did, kudos!
A tank with a gun that doesn't rotate? Pshaw, here's a tank that rotates every time it fires its gun: <img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/British_Mark_V_%28male%29_tank.jpg" width="600">
Source: Wikipedia
My family had 3 Aerostars over the years when I was a kid. They were really dependable, until they weren't. Then you just had to shoot it and put it to pasture… We always had the extended Aerostars, which mom would pack so full of all of the things we might conceivably need on family roadtrips that the rear end of the van would sway lazily back and forth in its lane while going down the interstate. I remember being in awe of the fancy digital "trip computer" when I was a kid.
A Ford body shop guy told me one time that when the airbag deployed in one of these (the later models that had an airbag) with the windows rolled up, it would reliably blow out the little fixed windows in the front. Don't know if that was true, but it sounded good.
I've done quite a lot of road tripping in Aerostars, despite never having owned one. A girlfriend in college borrowed her parent's van for a trip from Seattle to Southern Oregon (actually, that van was the same color as the one in the ad, and a Seattle example, but that was well over 10 years ago). My father-in-law owns one (that I've mentioned before). I've driven the latter across Texas along the East-West axis (Southern New Mexico to Dallas), around Eastern Washington and from Oakland, CA to Albuquerque, NM via Salt Lake City, UT.
They're very practical, RWD and body-on-frame. There's even a rare example with a five speed (I've seen one in the wild). However, I think I'd rather have a full-size truck, a station wagon or a full-size van before I ever bought an Aerostar. The driving dynamics are just terrible, and I hate the automatics they came with. Maybe it's just age and wear, but my Father-in-law's is never in the right gear and is extremely jerky.
OTOH, I did have a transformative moment in my automotive life in my Father-in-Law's Aerostar. When we were driving over Donner Pass on the Bay Area to Albuquerque trip mentioned above, I-80 had road construction on the Nevada side of the pass. This caused a huge traffic jam on the eastern face of the Sierras. It was early July, and the half-working air conditioning was just keeping us from dieing in the Nevada sunshine. On the road with us, going both east and west, were a bunch of Jeep Wranglers. I remember one in particular was dirty, had no top to speak of, crap strapped to the roll cage and four people stuffed in it sitting in this traffic baking in the sun with us.
But they looked like they were having a great time. Maybe they didn't have air conditioning, but they also weren't in a greenhouse. Maybe they were stuck in traffic, but they were relaxing in the sun, talking and hanging out. They looked like they were having fun. At that moment, watching those people in that Jeep, is the moment I really fell in love with Universals and Wranglers. Watching them is when that combination of short-wheelbase, convertible, 4WD, retro-before-it-was-cool looks, truck suspension and everything when from being "neat" and "understandable that someone would buy/want one" to magical and something I must own and drive before I die. I was not wrong. That magic still happens every time I turn that key. And that magic started in a Ford Aerostar.
So, even if I'm down on the Aerostar's driving dynamics, keep posting them. There's a special place in my heart.
Cool story. Maybe I'll find some weird old DustBuster van this week.
Sorry but the Aerostar is Unibody, not BOF.
Dern it. You're right, or at least, more right than I was. It's a Unit body with a box frame welded to it, which makes it not BOF, if a bit of an unusual unibody.
For unibody vans having stamped steel frame rails welded to the bottom of the floor is the norm. The original Econoline was that way, as were the Astro, Chev G series, Dodge, Sprinter and even the Caravan/Voyager.
That was sweet, keep on keeping on Jeff.
I thought that was a space shuttle…
[youtube MHPD2WWqIS0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHPD2WWqIS0 youtube]
Strangely enough, I saw a later Aerostar Sport on the road this morning. Oxidation has absolutely taken its toll on their numbers, and this one was easily on borrowed time.
Interestingly, Astros and Safaris littered my lakeside hometown growing up, for the sake of boat towing, but these didn't catch on quite as much (they were around, but not like the dominant forces of GM's and Chrysler's vans).
is this for sale i have one with 5 seats i need one with 7
The ad is long gone after six months.
Try searching Craigslist, Ebay Motors, and AutoTrader.