[OAC_Sparky]

habmann,Jan 4 2007, 08:22 PM Wrote:I think for ford this has been along time coming. Ford has always seemed to be one step behind everyone else when it came to adding new features to their minivan line, it started with the windstar and continued with the freestar.

And I really hope they change the name of their 7 person vehicle, fairlane just doesn't work for a vehicle like that.
[right][snapback]222307[/snapback][/right]

Actually, that is only partially true. When the Windstar debuted it was entirely new entirely ahead of its competition, the ONLY competition (Chrysler) by 6 months, while the Caravan was still in its first generation.

That's why we were making around 250,000 of them a year at one every 40 seconds.

What killed the Windstar was twofold. One being failing to keep ahead of the competition, the other being tranny and engine problems (not relating to assembly) and subsequently mishandling the issue when it became apparent.

The Freestar had the opportunity to surge ahead of the competition again, a whole reskin, and a slew of extra features were planned, which in turn were scrapped in light of the money that Ford was losing in the Explorer tire recall. The Freestar was built on an almost completely different chassis, but nobody took notice because externally it appeared the same.

Too little, too late.