Same air bags, anti-lock brakes, passive restraints, and insurance coverage as the Aerostar. Nothing changed at the insurance office except the VIN number, just the Aerostar isn't worth 5% of what the Explorer is worth, so the pay-off will be a lot bigger if I wreck it. For that, I get a refund.

You had full coverage on a 1996 Windstar?

 

You had full coverage on a 1996 Windstar?

For the umpteenth time, it's an Aerostar.
I don't even know what, "Full Coverage" means. I just know I didn't change any of the coverage and I got a lower price.
State minimum plus Collision and Comprehensive, if that means anything.

No flood insurance, theft of CD's, Special Electronics Package, or a bunch of of other options.

 

That's a nice looking wagon you got there... the interior looks so impeccable that I can't imagine it smelling of dog!

 

That's a nice looking wagon you got there... the interior looks so impeccable that I can't imagine it smelling of dog!

The interior looks impeccable because I scrubbed the walls and carpet for four days, blew a pint of Febreeze in there, and 3 weeks later, it smelled again. Then I took all the seats out, and the carpeting, and the center console. I put the carpeting on the concrete, soaped it down and danced on it for 45 minutes. Rinse, let it dry in the laundry room for 5 days, and put it back in. Now it smells like a new car! Mmmm...leather seats.

I live alone, so I almost never have anyone with me in a car. Decision: two seats installed.
Rarely, I will have my nephew and his wife with me. There is plenty of room for the nephew to lay down in the back with the rear air conditioner running.
If that isn't the right thing to do, I still have the other 5 seats in the spare bedroom.
Plenty of room for tools, lumber, a water heater, a whole central air conditioner...I think I love this car.
It's a monster, but I don't drive much, so the price of gas won't bother me.
If I do put some serious miles on it, it will be because I'm working for money far in excess of the price of gasoline.
No more driving all over the county trying to run a full time air conditioning business.
No more being the go-to guy for my (dead) business partner.
I am so retired that I have to use lawn mowing for exercise.
And I have this big, beautiful, status symbol of a car, for a third of the retail price.
Today is just too good!

 

# = octothorpe

Oh John, I was feeling well until I read your post and peeked into Wikipedia!

I believed they were all the same... Now I know they are not! Peace of mind is gone...

 

The interior looks impeccable because I scrubbed the walls and carpet for four days, blew a pint of Febreeze in there, and 3 weeks later, it smelled again. Then I took all the seats out, and the carpeting, and the center console. I put the carpeting on the concrete, soaped it down and danced on it for 45 minutes. Rinse, let it dry in the laundry room for 5 days, and put it back in. Now it smells like a new car! Mmmm...leather seats.

I live alone, so I almost never have anyone with me in a car. Decision: two seats installed.
Rarely, I will have my nephew and his wife with me. There is plenty of room for the nephew to lay down in the back with the rear air conditioner running.
If that isn't the right thing to do, I still have the other 5 seats in the spare bedroom.
Plenty of room for tools, lumber, a water heater, a whole central air conditioner...I think I love this car.
It's a monster, but I don't drive much, so the price of gas won't bother me.
If I do put some serious miles on it, it will be because I'm working for money far in excess of the price of gasoline.
No more driving all over the county trying to run a full time air conditioning business.
No more being the go-to guy for my (dead) business partner.
I am so retired that I have to use lawn mowing for exercise.
And I have this big, beautiful, status symbol of a car, for a third of the retail price.
Today is just too good!

Hola Número 12:

For the much you seem to complain about that car, your last sentence shows how much you enjoy the whole thing. Congratulations!!

 

For the much you seem to complain about that car, your last sentence shows how much you enjoy the whole thing. Congratulations!!

I worked hard to resurrect that car because I thought it was worth the effort. I learned dozens of things, some of them good and some of them bad. There's a good engine and transmission in that beast and a 4 wheel drive suspension far stronger than any car I have worked on before. The paint job is still good, the interior was salvageable, and it has dual air conditioning in Florida. The worst part is the butt load of useless accessories, of which half don't work. That doesn't bother me. They were useless in the first place. The sheer number of them frightened me because I didn't know if they were important to the functional parts. I've been working on it for 5 months, and I'm still reading the books to find out about buttons that seem to go nowhere. One by one, I eliminate them as worries...or just eliminate them.

It's kind of like a Christmas tree with broken ornaments. It's still a good, sturdy tree after you strip off the useless decorations.

 

@#12

Did you get the alldata cd or subscription for your vehicle? That definitely covers all the diagrams and tech notes.

 

I started with a CD, but it refused to register as a CD the second time I went to read it.
I tried 4 different CD readers. No results.
Then I bought paper copies of the wiring diagrams and the 2 volume shop manual.
That's about 900 pages, and they can't refuse to load into my computer.
I checked the Recalls and the Internet. The worst problems with this model are a timing chain, the thermostat housing, and a plastic panel in the back door that always cracks. Our Father Who Art in Detroit takes no responsibility for those known problems or the several microprocessors that fail.

 

I always thought he was proclaiming that he was #1 but fat fingered the keyboard.

I thought about the fat finger too, but I assumed he was proclaiming to be the assistant of Dr. Evil.

 

I started with a CD, but it refused to register as a CD the second time I went to read it.
I tried 4 different CD readers. No results.
Then I bought paper copies of the wiring diagrams and the 2 volume shop manual.
That's about 900 pages, and they can't refuse to load into my computer.....

I consider myself somewhat technically competent, but one thing I can't get away from is hard copies of reference material. I have PDFs of lots of things on my computer for casual reference, but when I really want to study and try to absorb the material, I need a hard copy.

 

I have PDFs of lots of things on my computer for casual reference, but when I really want to study and try to absorb the material, I need a hard copy.

Yes. Same here.

Actually browsing a document or going quickly back and forth between two or three paragraphs in different pages is way much easier in hard print copies.

 

I thought about the fat finger too, but I assumed he was proclaiming to be the assistant of Dr. Evil.

C'mon guys. We've been through this before. I was number 32 QC inspector at 3 completely different corporations, so I just promoted myself to number twelve when I joined this website.

when I really want to study and try to absorb the material, I need a hard copy.

And when the wiring diagram shows both dome lights on the same wire, but one of them never shuts off, I can mark that on the paper page and carry it out to the car.

 

Actually browsing a document or going quickly back and forth between two or three paragraphs in different pages is way much easier in hard print copies.

Even using a Kindle or other E-book type device is a pain for me. Whether it is a technical book or something for pleasure reading.

 

I'm surprised that nobody has styled themselves as:

000.000.000.000

The minimum IPv4 address.

 

It's your's!

 

It's your's!

's not my style.