2006 Ford Freestar

As little as I care for minivans, I must admit owning the freestar has been painless. Made for all families whether living in urban, suburban, or rural areas this all round vehicle is sturdy and reliable. Handles well even in rain or snow. The van has plenty of pep to make it up mountains even towing a small trailer. The brakes are a little too loose for my style and it doesn't stop as quickly as some vehicles making it a little stressful in traffic.

The interior is roomy, though the seats could be better, they tend to stain and hold an indent (such as from a car seat). There is plenty of seating, for up to 8 people, and many of the seats have car seat hooks, even in third row. The seats easily fold up and store away into the floor for more trunk space, though the trunk itself is large and sinks down leaving plenty of room for up to 3 strollers. Also a well loved seating plus is that the third row not only folds away but can be flipped back, a great feature for tailgaters. So far so good when it comes to the Freestar's body. There have been no signs of rust or fading though it has only been around since '04. The interior has not worn out or become thread bare, thought the paint on the radio buttons has worn off. The vehicle we own has never needed any repairs. With just over 60,000 miles on it we have only needed to replace the tires once. Regular maintenance of oil changes and tune ups costs a bit. Doing the work myself lands us paying between $80-$120 a shot mattering on if I am flushing the system or not. The work is a must though, if not done every 3 months the gas mileage drops from an average of 24 MPG to about 18.

Now the Freestar is basically a flexi-fuel version of the Windstar. For all of my misgivings about MPG and performance using alternative fuels this van has given me only confidence in Ford's system. Switching between fuels has been no trouble at all, the mileage does drop but only about 2 MPG which at the pump doesn't even dent the difference savings wise, seeing as this van has a very large 27 gallon tank that is expensive to fill. No performance changes have arisen or become noticeable, but the down side is that finding the alternative fuel is hard. There are not many stations that offer it. Overall, it is a strong reliable van that has never given me a problem. One thing to think about is that it does not retain it's value. If you buy this van, get the gap insurance and try to buy out right or you'll owe more then it's worth within a year or two.