Anyone work at a ford dealership?

[DrewC]

Got an interesting situation brewing up.

My wife's grandfather passed away a few weeks ago, and we inherited his 2003 Ford Windstar.

You might remember we moved to Colorado about a month ago. I just came back this week to pick up the van as well as bring my remaining items out of the storage locker to CO.

My friend informed me windstars are deathtraps due to rusting subframes and rear axles. so I decided to go check it out.
Sure enough, my rear axle has a 2ft crack splitting it apart. It freaked me out. Majorly.

Now I'm sure as heck not going to drive it back to CO as-is. And from what I can tell, people that opted for repairs were out of a car for months at a time while Ford Motor Co footed the rental car bill.

Oftentimes they'd outright buy the car back just to get the deathtrap off the road.
Mine is in great condition otherwise, the guy was 94 and barely drove it and was an Oklahoma car before then.

I have the title signed over to me. Should I forget about registering it and let the executor of his will (my father in law) deal with Ford, or what?

I can book a southwest ticket back to CO and figure out my belongings later, but it looks like regardless I won't be driving this Van back.
Anyone work at a dealership? Familiar with this recall?

Thanks
-Drew

[TTaM]

Is the van in MN then? The recall would not apply to an OK car, they only recalled them in the rust belt.

I would just call your nearest Ford dealer. I definately would not drive the car. The dealer will tow it in to their lot, and it will sit there for months. Ford should provide you a rental while it is there, while they figure out if they are going to buy you out or fix it.

This was a big deal last year. It was near impossible to rent a minivan because of the demand from Ford. At one point Superior Brookdale Ford had over 50 minivans just sitting there.

[DrewC]

The car is registered in SD but is here in MN now. My grandpa is friendly with apple valley ford so we'll see what they say to him. Sucks I was supposed to drive back Thursday morning.

Can't believe how rusty a 2003 can be underneath. It's scary.

[toasted]

Drive back in their rental.

[shawn o]

Most American made cars seem to get terrible rust after less than 10 years. Not just service rust either, I'm talking massive fender and rear quarter holes.

[Topher]

Most American made cars seem to get terrible rust after less than 10 years. Not just service rust either, I'm talking massive fender and rear quarter holes.

Source?

[DrewC]

Here it is. Now that I'm back at a computer you can see a 9yr old Oklahoma/SD (8yrs/1yr) car's rusted rear beam.

yikes..


I dropped it off at tousley. it's only a stonesthrow away compared to apple valley. Supposedly I'll hear from them by 2pm tomorrow. They didn't have any rentals for me to take, and apparently aren't doing buybacks anymore (or so they say). I guess we'll see.

[hamradio]

well, that's mildly terrifying to know those are driving alongside me.

[DrewC]

yeah, imagine if this had been a MN car it's whole life.

[Hart]

Hopefully Tousley doesn't jerk you around too much

[palmer]

Holy crap.

I still see a fair amount of those things.

[hamradio]

they've got box flares, too.

[DrewC]

yeah. start looking under rear bumpers and start saving lives...

[palmer]

they've got box flares, too.

Fuck yeah, I'm going to stick that shit on my 911.

[hamradio]

racevan.