The Windstar Guy

Windstar Guy

Decision Time
Time to decide - New or used?
Climb in
Passengers and stuff
Buckle up
Safety - Is it really first?
Go, Stop, Go!
Performance
Bucket and Sponge
External Affairs
Maintain your cool
Repairs and Maintenance
Doodahs and Gewgahs
Optional Equipment
Windstar Gal
The Windstar Gal
Visit Ford of Canada
Ford of Canada
Take me back home
Take me home

Climb in!
www.geocities.com/windstarguy
The Club steering wheel lock, essential equipment in Vancouver.
This is a VERY wide door opening

In the Driver's Seat
The interior of the Windstar is very well designed. Slip behind the wheel, adjust the comfortable seat, place your hands on the wheel, and you immediately get a good impression. At 6'3", I run into two common problems with vehicles in general; 1) the headliner is often too low, so I have to crunch down to see traffic lights, and 2) the top of the steering wheel obscures the top half of the speedometer. No such problem with the Windstar. Visibility is excellent and I can see all the controls and gauges easily - no tilt steering wheel required! Kudos to the design team for getting it just right.

The bucket seats are comfortable, but the Windstar Gal has a problem seeing around the one-piece seats. Earlier Windstar's did not have the one-piece solid seat design.

The controls are generally easy to find and use. The gauges include a speedometer with odometer, fuel gauge, and heat (engine temperature) gauge. I would prefer a single volume knob with detents on the cassette deck rather than the left/right rocker switch, but at least it's contoured so you can find it without taking your eyes off the road.

The rear wiper controls are almost hidden behind the cups in the front cup holder and cups (which is always in the open position with us), but at least they're not used that often. Heater controls are simple to use, and the air conditioning compressor kicks in for most of the air control settings. On the floor, there is lots of room for your feet, and a comfortable left foot "dead pedal" is provided.

The Front Passenger Seat
The best seat in the house! What a view! Lots of glass! Power door lock! The curvy dash layout solves the problem of having acres of dash top between you and the sloped windshield base. The door panels are curved to meet the dash in a tasteful fusion of form and function. Adjustable seat/shoulder belt height is a nice feature.

The Back Seat(s)
Comfortable, lots of leg room, adjustable headrests, a cup holder or two, stereo speakers in the rear, nice upholstery material - are you getting the impression that we really like the Windstar's interior? The middle windows don't open, so front seat passengers need to point the center air vents straight back and/or open the front windows to keep it from getting a little too stuffy in the back. I'm not sure why the middle windows were designed that way; I suppose it would have something to do with cost and esthetics.

Storage
There's a generous amount of room behind the third row of seats. My only request would be for one more storage hatch in the side somewhere. I like to travel with jumper cables, bungee cords, first aid kit, flashlight, a rag or two, and there isn't enough room in the back pocket for all that stuff, so some of it has to be stored up in the big pocket behind the driver.

Decision time
Agonizing over the big decisions - new, used, buy, lease? We did, too.

Buckle up
How safe is the Windstar?

Go! Stop! Go!
Windstar 3.0L performance

Bucket and sponge
The Windstar exterior gets the once over

Maintain your cool
Repairs and maintenance issues

Doodahs and Gewgahs
When standard equipment is just not enough

The Windstar Gal
Girl talk

Windstar News
What's next for the Windstar?

Why do we need a minivan?
The Malarkeys


content copyright The Windstar Guy. We have made a reasonable effort to be accurate when mentioning specifications, but we suggest you contact Ford for full technical information. This site is not an official Ford site.

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