Ford FreestarThe Ford Freestar is a solid, highly capable minivan that performs well and offers all the latest safety features. Much of the Freestar's structure and design came from the Windstar it replaced. Windstar offered class-leading safety and solid performance for its time. Freestar is the highest quality minivan it has ever built.
Due to the nature of this forum, many of the problems with the Ford Freestar are highlighted in this site leaving many with doubts about Fords overall commitment to quality. To no avail, I have suggested numerous times that everything mechanical breaks regardless of the manufacturer. Somethings seem to break prematurely and more frequently that others as well but it is important to keep our opinions well founded.
To each their own but to support my point, I went around the internet to find similar sites to this one to show that all manufacturers have their fair share of issues.
These sites and countless others are out there proving this point. Simply do a search for the Manufacturer and the word 'forum'. So if you hate Fords, if buying a Ford was the worse mistake you have ever made, or if you will never buy another one; well have at it elsewhere. It is annoying.
Good luck with finding another company that is utterly error free. With this being one of the most prominent mini-vans on the market during their run, they are doing pretty damn good. You should be happy you didn't by a Chrysler or a Kia.
To everyone lets get on with the conversation and deal with our challenges rather than whine about how unfair it is.
no one wants there car to break down and it is a very stressful situation when it happens.Some people have an unrealistic veiw of how reliable their vehicle is or will be.I could not afford to pay me to fix my vehicle and try my best to help eveyrone out on this site and at work to fix their vehicles quickly and cheaply as possible.Alot of people think I'm trying to rip them off when I recomend services/maintenence but I will not give up.I have a bad day just like everyone else,we dont have an easy button and I dont try to sell stuff I would not do to my own vehicle.I am not perfect and I do make mistakes.
It is also interesting to notice how many threads on these forums have zero replys. This is one of the best communities on the web as well as the best moderated!!!
I partially agree, but the proof is also in the pudding. All vehicles will fail, but these vans have a higher than usual failure rate. Consumer Reports magazine is one of the most unbiased, fair publications around. Look up the Freestar or the Monterey in a back issue. You'll see lots of big black circles (meaning trouble points with high failure rate) ... the transmission gets a nice big black circle. Then look up the Sienna and you'll see tons of nice, bright red circles (few problems). Yes any van can fail. But these have a much higher rate than they should be. You've got to admit that.
And to address your point about Kia and Chrysler vans. I also partially agree, but I have a friend with a Kia van and a friend with a Chrysler van. Yes, both of them have run into serious engine or tranny problems. But neither until over 100,000 K. A very high rate of these Fords/Mercury's are dying well below 100,000 K which is unacceptable.
It's interesting how these boards have either the "Ford can do no right" or "Ford can do no wrong" folks. Hardly any in between. I apologize if I've become one of the "Ford can do no right" folks but I fear it's more than just coincidence that I've owned six cars in my life. Three Fords and three imports. The Fords had nothing but problems. The imports had none other than normal maintenance.
I'm only coming down hard on Ford because I want them to be better. Make America proud so people don't have to buy from Japan. Then I'll be more than happy to be a proud Ford owner.
Last edited by MonsoonMike; 10-13-2009 at 09:39 AM..
It's interesting how these boards have either the "Ford can do no right" or "Ford can do no wrong" folks. Hardly any in between. I apologize if I've become one of the "Ford can do no right" folks but I fear it's more than just coincidence that I've owned six cars in my life. Three Fords and three imports. The Fords had nothing but problems. The imports had none other than normal maintenance.
I'm only coming down hard on Ford because I want them to be better. Make America proud so people don't have to buy from Japan. Then I'll be more than happy to be a proud Ford owner.
I guess I am trying to take the 'in between' position. I do like Fords but I admit they have issues just like anything else; part of the reason I like them perhaps is I am fairly familiar with their mechanical attributes. I can read them rather well and know whats working and whats not; generally speaking they have with me a pretty strong track record less a few minor issues (battery's, belts, lights, tires, and fuses). Most who who me believe I am a bit hard on my cars so this is pretty good.
I think it is reasonable to expect better and I believe that based off of my experience of owning Fords of every few model years all from 1988, most recently from 00 Contour, 03 Taurus, 05 Freestar, 08 Fusion; this is one company that has listened; do they still need to improve? Yes but what company doesn't?
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God Bless America!!
2008 Ford Fusion
2005 Ford Freestar
1988 Ford Ranger
I also owned a 1990 suzuki sidekick, replaced a manual transmission @ 110K miles... out of my pocket..failed fuel injector at 120K, it went through starters like oil changes.... oxygen sensor @ 80k, wiper arm on driver side stripped off at about 110k.
Owned a 1991 nissan Pulsar the SE twin cam 16 valve, All valve overhaul @ 40K.......Thank God for a warrenty...Fuel injectors died..out of my pocket...The power steering had a feature that would stiffen up the steering as speed increased.....Out of my pocket... Got rid of the piece of crap...
Windstars and freestar have been the best vehicles I've owned so far..
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Knock on wood!!! Own 2 windstars, 1 freestar and no transmission or head gasket problems yet!!
If there are humans involved in judging anything, there are biases.
Consumer Reports test things in a lab; not in real life dragging 4 kids and a wife around not mentioning all the cargo to go with this. Just 'advertising' that they are unbiased doesn't make them unbiased. Just ask the folks on the Toyota Forums.
__________________
God Bless America!!
2008 Ford Fusion
2005 Ford Freestar
1988 Ford Ranger
If there are humans involved in judging anything, there are biases.
Consumer Reports test things in a lab; not in real life dragging 4 kids and a wife around not mentioning all the cargo to go with this. Just 'advertising' that they are unbiased doesn't make them unbiased. Just ask the folks on the Toyota Forums.
Actually, Consumer Reports doesn't test anything with respect to auto reliability--they use responses to customer surveys.
The holes that can be driven through their methodology is big enough to drive, well, a Freestar though...
I find MSN's reliability rating to be a lot more useful. For what it's worth, they seem to report positively on the Freestar. The 'red circles' have so much sample bias in them, as well as statistical nonsense-methodology that my head explodes.
Good info about the shifting. This is the slowest darn van to engage that I've ever driven. Put it in drive, wait 2 seconds for the soft clunk, then go. I always do that. But I bought it used at 50,000 so maybe the guy(s) who drove it 50,000 miles before me never waited. Well, now that I have this newly rebuilt tranny and torque converter, you better believe I'm pickier than ever making sure not to move until it engages. The one time I was in a hurry and I hit the gas too soon, it was a harsh "clunk" and "wham." I believe your mechanic 100 percent correct when he says doing that over and over can have a negative impact. But the better question is, why is this dang tranny so slow to engage? Annoying, especially when backing onto a busy road and having to sit there 2 seconds for full engagement.
Actually, Consumer Reports doesn't test anything with respect to auto reliability--they use responses to customer surveys.
The holes that can be driven through their methodology is big enough to drive, well, a Freestar though...
I find MSN's reliability rating to be a lot more useful. For what it's worth, they seem to report positively on the Freestar. The 'red circles' have so much sample bias in them, as well as statistical nonsense-methodology that my head explodes.
The Whirlpool Washer & Dryer I bought 8 years ago recieved rather poor ratings; I realized this after my purchase. 8 years later I have only had to replace the $8 agitator dogs twice taking about 5 minutes each; other than this it works as strong as the day I purchased it.
Interesting enough the lady at the Brand Source appliance store mentioned that most people rather replace the entire washer and dryer to match than fix this; hmmmmmmmm, I wonder if this perspective has anything to do with poor ratings regardless of manufacturer? I doubt it is this one thing alone but biases are present; in this case the bias could be due to a lack of even the most basic mechanical intellect.
Besides this, its not just problems that count when it comes to a company but how they address it; Ford has always fixed even the sillyest of issues I have so much as asked about without question. If there are a substantial enough numer of issues arising with various models they will recall and fix promptly often after warrantees expire; I know this isn't unique to Ford alone but I would much rather buy from a company that stands behind their products.
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God Bless America!!
2008 Ford Fusion
2005 Ford Freestar
1988 Ford Ranger
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