It’s funny how Bring A Trailer started as a site for slightly ropey project cars and ended up as the premier digital auction site for some of the car world’s fanciest specimens. It’s certainly a shift that paid off, but every so often, something needs to come around and sort of lower property values a bit. A Ford Freestar just sold on the auction platform predominantly focused on collector cars, and I’d argue it’s actually a perfect fit. Hear me out.
If you ended up memory-holing the Freestar, I don’t blame you. Not only was it effectively the third generation of the dubious Windstar minivan, it also came from the era when Ford decided all of its cars’ names needed to start with the letter F. This resulted in vague branding soup like the Ford Five Hundred replacing the Taurus, and the unusual Ford Freestyle crossover. At face value, the sort of bargain-bin minivan you could’ve rented from Rent-A-Wreck back in 2004 doesn’t seem like an obvious candidate for a collector car auction platform, but when was the last time you saw a Freestar?
Granted, I live in a land of road salt and slush, but I genuinely can’t remember the last time I saw an example of Ford’s last-ditch minivan. I’m likely not alone, as a cursory glance at Autotrader reveals just 24 Freestars for sale on the site at the time of writing. While there are almost certainly more kicking about Facebook Marketplace, finding a well-kept example of this minivan could be challenging indeed.
It probably doesn’t help that minivans often lead hard lives, full of vomit and French fries and being loaded to the gills. It’s a thankless task, carrying a brood around to dance recitals, football games, and other extracurriculars. Not to mention that if a minivan survives long enough that the children who grew up in it are learning to drive, it often becomes the whipping post for garage threshold smacks and close encounters with curbs.
Of course, the Freestar wasn’t without its problems. From a recall over failing torque converters to a recall over third-row seat mount corrosion, a variety of common issues hastened the end of many an example. It wasn’t the greatest minivan Ford had ever put its badge on, but that doesn’t mean we should write it off completely. After all, it would be a tragedy if a car were to go extinct. Someone, somewhere has to reasonably preserve at least one example for historical sake, right?
That brings us neatly on to this particular Freestar. It may be a first-year 2004 model, but it’s only done a reasonable 71,000 miles. They don’t look to be brutal miles either, because the cabin is remarkably nice. Sure, the cargo area has a couple of stains, but the rest of the carpets look certified pre-owned-ready. Besides, the Freestar gained a fold-away third row seat over its Windstar predecessor, so all you’d need to do to hide the cargo area stains is drop the wayback.
What’s more, this is a Freestar Limited, which means it sits right at the top of the range and comes with the requisite toys. Stuff like three-zone climate control with automatic temperature control up front, leather seats, a six-disc CD changer, power sliding doors, and the critical addition of a 4.2-liter V6. Not quite as large as the one in the Chevrolet Astro and GMC Safari, but still a whopper of an engine for a minivan.
See, the standard engine in the Freestar was more or less the same sort of 3.9-liter Essex V6 found in late New Edge Mustangs. With 193 horsepower and 240 lb.-ft. of torque, it was sufficient if unremarkable. However, adding roughly 300 cubic centimeters of displacement turned up the wick nicely to 201 horsepower and 265 lb.-ft. of torque. It’s that latter figure which could be felt around town.
Plus, this particular Freestar is outfitted with the single thing any child in the 2000s wanted in their family car more than anything else—a DVD player with a screen that flips down from the headliner. Sure, the LCD display is laughably tiny by today’s standards, and there are some fundamental flaws with optical media, but this was the height of family luxury 22 years ago. When the batteries in the Nintendo Game Boy Advance SPs died, the whole family could watch “Finding Nemo” together. Well, not the parents because they were in the front seats, but you catch my drift.
Whether it was nostalgia, preservation, or simply the need for a set of wheels that made this Freestar sell for $6,350 on Bring A Trailer, that somehow feels like the right platform for it. It’s a reasonably well-preserved artifact from a time that objectively wasn’t great, but still offers a sense of nostalgia. Hopefully, this van will continue to survive in surprisingly good shape, because even though a car can be flawed and not particularly well-received in its day, someone has to keep them on the road.
Top graphic image: Bring A Trailer
We’re reaching 30 but a college friend of mine’s parents had a Freestar as of three-four years ago but it’s been a while since I drove by their place.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s still around. But I think that’s the only one I’ve seen in a long time. A first gen Mercury Villager did catch my eye recently though.
My father in-law loved his Freestar. It was white with graphics on the side and a spoiler.
It’s sole purpose was to haul computer parts for his store. Compared to his Saturn wagon, it could haul SO much more.
Actually, that may have been a Windstar. Damn, a lot of Fords looked the same around those years.
“Freestar” is a Windstar with Ford’s stupid “F-name” convention applied. My brain just translates for me.
So… It F-bombed?
YES!
Sorry but no. My kids were all little in this timeframe and all our friends were raising kids as well so there were several of these in our friend group. We also got stuck with a couple on vacations as rentals. It was a vehicle that was on the low end of mediocre when it was first introduced as the Windstar and the subsequent refreshes/updates were not enven enough to keep it marginally competitive, never mind desireable. The engine was a chronic groaner and horribly thirsty to boot, the suspension was adequate I suppose since it kept the wheels on but nothing beyond that. The exterior was about as booring and uninspired as it was possible to be and the interior was a nothing but a collection of crappy imitation leather and hard plastic with flash seams visible everywhere that squeaked and rattle constantly even if you were driving on the smoothest road on the planet. Add to this Ford’s reputation of ‘Quality is Job 36’ and no, just no. No, no, no. Consign this heap of crap to the dustbin of history and move on.
We had a Windstar for a short time, I think a ’99. I remember they didn’t have one on the lot in the spec my dad wanted, but they said they could get one in a couple weeks. I couple months went by before it finally showed up. It was so much newer than our ’90 Caravan that it super exciting.
It had some issues and went back for a lot of warranty work. We probably didn’t have it for more than a year when we got rid of it. Dual sliding doors were just becoming popular and he knew that was going to effect resale, so he traded it in for a Grand Voyager while it was actually running.
The only memory of the Freestar I have is when we got one as a loaner when our 2004 Explorer went to the dealer for a warranty repair. This was in 2006?
The Freestar was a 4.2L. It was much slower and nearly as thirsty as the 4.6L in our Explorer. I hated the way it drove and the interior rattled terribly.
I was more than happy to hand that turd back to the dealership after the Explorer was fixed.
Ford should bring back the minivan. But they should bring back the Aerostar and keep it RWD and with the super boxy proportions.
So… a Ford Transit?
The Aerostar ranged from (and these are for brand new examples) “Corolla Cross” to “Sorento” in length depending on the model so pretty much they’re asking for a RWD Transit Connect.
A van-ified Ford Everest would be a closer fit.
The Transit is the modern equivalent to the Econoline, even though both have existed at the same time.
An Econoline was RWD and very boxy, but it was not an Aerostar.
I’m shocked that the Transit is not more popular than it is. It seems like an excellent application of space!
Aerostar was a mid-sizer… the Transit is a full-sizer.
Regular car reviews should make a video. Perfect car for band practice, Rita’s Italian ice, and shenanigans while parents are out of town. Real fart.
RCR has really fallen off, imo. I feel like the reviews have lost their spark.
I think he’s more pre-occupied with his other hobby.
Nothing wrong with it, but ever since that was something he shared, that’s about when I felt the same as you do. There’s been a good video here or there though.
What’s his other hobby?
Being a furry, I thought?
Could 100% be wrong though and look like a douche. If I don’t already lol
His endless obsession with penis, masturbation, semen, and mastubation really overpowers his car reviews.
I’m just not the target audience.
I like unrestricted comedy, but the weirdo vibes are too strong.
I mean, that’s him though. Literally!
His old stuff tended to be better. Except the Hellcat/Demon videos. Bad takes right there.
I’m sure part of it is just me getting older lol.. I used to be able to be entertained by that stuff, but it got old.
What I really enjoyed about the channel were Mr Regular’s takes on certain things which were relatable to a car nerd like myself, and of course the songs.
That dashboard is from the golden age of dashboards. No screens, yet not cluttered with buttons. We have strayed far from God’s grace.
My ex had one. Complete junk. These could go extinct and wouldn’t be missed.
a bland as fuck minivan that I don’t remember ever seeing on the road. Bring a trailer, really? lol
Wouldn’t the top model be the AWD version with a cvt, traction control etc, and a towing capacity of 0 pounds?
Mercedes transmission I think, with incredible ability on ice, and lifespan of a humming bird.
The Freestar never got AWD. The Freestyle did, that underpowered psudo SUV/wagon/minivan that replaced this. And yes, that one had the crappy, failure prone CVT, not sure if it was Mercedes though, I don’t recall that.
Failure prone CVT? My old uncle still has his Freestyle, probably over 500,000 miles at this point, and he might have finally replaced the CVT by this point in time if I remember correctly. He’s still driving and putting too damn much money into it, as the last time I hung out with him, he had the thing in a body shop trying to get a door fixed and the whole thing repainted. In NY, believe it or not.
Wow, that one must be a Unicorn! I see them at local pull a part occasionally and they will be pristine…no body damage, great interior. Generally a bad CVT. Sad.
When Ford changed it to the TaurusX, they went with the 6 spd auto, the newer 3.5L engine and ditched the Haldex AWD system for Fords own AWD system.
There were a couple of people trying to figure out how to adapt a regular transmission to it, but since everything was computer controlled, couldn’t work it out.
My understanding of this was when the Freestyle first came out, the 3.0 Duratec was the only engine that Ford had for it (wether it was the only one that fit or maybe due to production constraints I don’t know) and it was pretty marginal power wise for an AWD vehicle this size at only about 200hp. For decided a CVT would maximize the power delivery/economy balance best. From what I had heard, the generally over matched 3.0 meant that to get the most out of it you really had to work the engine hard which ended up in turn working, or in many cases, overworking the CVT, hence the failure rate. If the driver was more sedate it was probably possible the CVT would last longer. As noted above, the 3.5 and 6speed was a major improvement to this vehicle but probably came too late.
Makes sense. We live in a hilly area, so need more torque to haul a heavy vehicle up the hills. We never got anywhere near the supposed 25mpg rating, even on pure hwy trips.
I’d heard that the Freestyle was originally to get the new 3.5l, but it was not ready in time, so went with the Duratech 3.0. It could have used more juice. Never drove the later TaurusX to compare. They value engineered a lot of things when switching to TaurusX.
It really is!
I’m impressed.
The zero pounds towing capacity is a hint.
The CVT was Volvo based, but not exactly same…only made for 3 yrs. We had a 2006 Freestyle. Loved it, except the CVT crapped out around 175k and it was extremely expensive to replace, that, and the variable speed A/C compressor got to where it would only cool above 2k rpm. Quite versatile vehicle. It had replaced a 98 Windstar with failing trans.
We had drove a FreeStar once as a loaner. It had a more ‘euro’ style handling, but didn’t like it otherwise for some reason.
Wasn’t my car, but my understanding was they made a front wheel drive and and the AWD version.
I had never seen one before, that I recall.
Fix was generally to convert to a fwd transmission, so forums said.
First thing I did when my friend got his was look up the transmission. It was an $8000 part!
He loved it while it ran.
My dad had one, first car I ever drove. Also happened to be one of the initial complaint vehicles that triggered the rear seat latch recall campaign. My dad was going to fix the rust in the rear wheel well and noticed it was worse that he had thought and after digging in further he noticed the latch was pretty much welded to rust. He was documenting the full repair with pictures for his own records and after he did the repair he submitted the complaint to the NHSTA. He discussed it all with them and a few months later in came the recall announcement and he was then forced to take it into a dealership for the recall just to prove it had been fixed already.
It was also the 4.2 V6 and we had made a cold air intake and a catback exhaust for it, it actually sounded pretty damn good.
This is the best story about the Ford Freestar ever told.
Someone must want it for some reason. Can’t be a normal reason but it’s clean I suppose. I bet they can be found in Florida or south Carolina in similar condition with an old person that had it.
My uncle worked for Ford as did his family right back to Henry. He only ever owned fords. He had conversion vans then got an aero star and a Windstar. He couldn’t take a freestar so he bought a focus instead.
What a strange time for mini vans trying to make them crossovers. I always thought the uplander et al were the strangest. Especially the Saturn version.
As a normal* person who’s job requires a van or SUV, 6 grand for a running vehicle with only 71k miles is incredibly tempting if I needed one.
Go buy a Highlander hybrid half the cost and won’t drop a transmission or the rear end out. If I recall transmissions liked to go on those about 85k. With a litney of other issues the low mileage for age doesn’t mean trouble free at all.
The cheapest one 367 miles away from me is a 2009 with 252,000 miles on it at $4k and 1 accident.
Honestly not a bad price but that’s alot of miles on a used car even if it’s a Toyota.
You can normally find the first gen 06-07 with 180k – 230k for about 3k to 4k. I’ve bought a few like that. And a couple from the salvage auction for about $1k to $1500 after fees and everything. I’ve boughten parts cars for like $500. Sometimes you can even find the limited with under 150k for about $4k. The first gen goes regularly go to 400k. The second normally make it well over 300k.
Ah, the Uplander. It announced its cheapness every time you activated a blinker; even the clicking sounded extra tinny. When we went to Disney, we had one of about 10,000 white Uplanders lugging families around Orlando. By the last day, I learned to just hit the button on the fob and follow the sound of the horn to find it in the parking lot.
I can remember going into Chevy and Saturn dealers when they were being sold there was always some lady with a kid in stroller and a kid running free looking at one. I’m not sure if they were just cross shopping but they looked like they meant business. But I never really saw them other then postal ones or what appears to be rental ones. Maybe a few times in mall parking lots but they have truly disappeared if they were ever really around other then rental and fleet vehicles.
Perfect buy for a movie prop company.
If the story setting is about 20 years or so ago, you’ll want period correct vehicles and some, as mundane as they may be, would need to be in good running order and look new enough.
With a couple retrofits, this Free-but-actually-windy-Star could even “star” in movies happening a few years earlier as it seems like a lazy facelift that pretty much only involved a grille and updated headlights?
“With a couple retrofits, this Free-but-actually-windy-Star could even “star” in movies happening a few years earlier as it seems like a lazy facelift that pretty much only involved a grille and updated headlights?”
That’s just way too common in movies and tv shows. I’m way to critical about that, but I just can’t help noticing non-period correct vehicles by up to a decade.
While I never drove a Freestar, I did rent a couple of Winstars and I owned a 2005 Ford F150 which had most of the same switchgear and a lot of the mid 00’s ford gremlins (4 window regulators in 3 years, transmission replacement etc). So I have a little experience. I remember the Winstars being bigger and more comfortable then the Dodge and Plymouth minivans I was renting at the same time. I remember them having a nice interior design. But as mentioned, that F150 runed me on Ford forever and I haven’t looked back.
That’s seems like a good deal for a well preserved example of a crappy car.
I love vans. I’ve made many a comment reflecting this, especially of late.
This Windstar/Freestar always left me cold. Granted, so does most of this era of Ford.
Mechanically, not a good chapter for Ford, but I did like the styling of the Freestar and Ford Five Hundreds. Something about the grills and general proportions of the rest of the body just looked “right.” Too bad their handsomeness was only skin deep. At least on the Freestar. I seem to recall the later Taurus/Five Hundred being based on a Volvo S80 chassis. Is that right?
See, I found this generation of Taurus to be soooooo boring. But I’m also a weirdo who preferred all things oval. So you know, take my opinion with a grain of salt (I didn’t love ovals Taurus, but I did love the more toned down Contour, to be clear).
I’m not sure about the platform, but I do know that Ford leaned heavily into platform sharing during this time where they and GM seemed inclined to own everything.
The oval Taurus almost made me wretch the first time I saw it, but I did like the Contours. I was pulling for them back then. A customer took me out to lunch in his 2nd gen V6/5M Contour, and I could see owning one at some point. But they were discontinued before I got to that point.
I’m not entirely sure, but I think that the Freestar was part of the massive recall for Windstars and rear-suspension completely rusting into oblivion…most were bought back. I remember driving by Tasca Ford in Seekonk, MA and seeing a vacant lot full of Windstars…that is only second to the lot near the TF Green Airport that was packed to the rafters with VW’s that were bought back…
WTF was Ford smoking going from a 3.8L V6 to a 3.9L to then a 4.0L.
as far as I know the 3.9 and 4.2 were improved versions of the 3.8, specially by the fact they never had HG issues. The 4.2 had already been going for a few years in Econolines and F150s but the 3.9 was short lived. They also showed the cost downs by switching from a cast iron intake to a plastic unit.
Then there’s the cornucopia of engines they were shoving into the Ranger/Explorer through the 90’s.
The amount of minivan related content here recently has brought a lot of joy. Thank you.
It’s like they don’t want me to have a life outside of this place.
Retiree vehicle.
“What if we want to take the grandkids out for icecream?”
My dad bought a minivan at the first sign of a grandkid.
I think we’re narrowing down the Freestar demographic here. I see one every day at a senior housing development around the block. It runs but isn’t a looker… the color goes from pink to grey to burgundy as the clearcoat slowly flakes off from the top.
That’s funny because it’s true. My parents bought a 2000 Windstar when we had our 2nd kid as the Taurus was too small they said. And then came along another kid so it worked out, they put 200k miles on it but the last 50k miles were pretty rough. Only one replacement transmission though.
Hopefully it sold with an extra transmission included.
I saw one here in God’s Waiting Room about six months ago – and it was in mint condition. A couple of Cryptkeepers were driving it, of course. How it survived this long is a minor miracle. The best Wednesday car they ever built and/or somebody had a Ford mechanic for a kid.
My grandparents had a pair of Windturds, a first year ’95 and an ’03, both loaded Limiteds. The ’03 got cars for clunkers’d – and it was a deserving end for that piece of utter dogshit. The ’95 was worse… Shame Ford couldn’t get their shit together, because that ’95 was so much nicer than a Chrysler van it wasn’t even funny. But it blew up in every possible way, constantly. The ’03 was only marginally better.
so true, my aunt had a 95 Windstar LX which happened to be a very early 4/94 build. It was so nice inside, it even had the digital cluster and a JBL sound system with subwoofer. The van was mint, she was the 2nd owner and the previous owners were an elderly couple so I guess the miles were very easy on it. But of course it blew its AX4S transmission al 180K and nobody wanted a 15 yr old mint, non-op van so it met the crusher.
The old man’s had all that too. It was one of the very first ones in the state. And it drove like a silk-wrapped bowling ball. But by 80K it was on it’s THIRD transmission, second steering rack, second or third blown head gasket, etc. I wasn’t living at home by then, so I didn’t get all the updates. The astounding thing is that he liked the thing enough to buy ANOTHER ONE! Got the dealer to toss in a full-zoot extended warranty though. And it needed it, as it had all the same issues as the first one while being not as nice, they had cost-cut a lot of detaily things by ’03. That was the last Ford he ever even considered buying.
You reminded me that our ’99 Windstar did have a nice interior. It also dropped the transmission. I think it was closer to 120K miles. In our case, it was worth fixing. It just evened-out the previous 5 years that required only minimal maintenance.
Another aunt had a 2000 SEL, in this same shade of green/gold and it did the same at 107K.
The 95 might have been on its 2nd or 3rd transmission, though, as my aunt got it used. But it looked so mint she thought it was going to be ok.
180K is rare on an AXOD/AX4S/AX4N
Ford’s parts bin instrument panel of that time period that it put in everything (my ’10 Focus has a version of it) is actually pretty decent – everything’s big and easy to read. Ford definitely hit the sweet spot.
All of Ford’s cars had to start with F, and all their SUVs had to start with E, a holdover we’re still seeing—EcoSport, Escape, Edge, Explorer, Expedition, Excursion…
And it sadly changed the Econoline to E-150, a Miata-like change that made nobody happy.
Through the early 2000s they were E-150 Econoline (cargo) and E-150 Club Wagon (passenger), then in 2003 or so Ford dropped the Econoline and Club Wagon suffixes.
Was there an Excrement version?
Shit, I hope not.
I know some people who say all Fords are the excrement version
Leadership in large companies often make decisions to justify their high salaries when they really don’t know what they are doing. This was definitely a downer in Ford’s history.
Edit: I just noticed that they did the same thing with the Mercury brand, changing all of the models to “M”-names. No wonder I don’t remember any of them. And I used-to like Mercury as a brand.
Fuck BAT they left their roots. Why doesn’t anyone start a new site for projects and tell BAT to admit scammer and overpriced cars