The Freestar! And the Freestar Wheel Covers

When I heard that Ford was coming out with a Freestar with OE Freestar Wheel Covers to cover the OEM Ford Freestar Rims on winter tires, I thought it was going to be something like a Mustang - but boy was I wrong. The Freestar is a van ! I never would’ve guessed ..

When the Freestar came out, Ford had no idea that Moms have such high expectations for minivans! I think they learned the hard way. When it came out, Ford had no idea that their sales were going to be so disappointing. The only thing that Ford should be really proud of is that when it came to the safety in this van, they did extremely well. The Freestar had received f i v e perfect stars in NHTSA frontal crash tests; so you know that Moms all over were thrilled about this.

The moms who bought the van with Factory Freestar Hubcaps were safe because of different features like standard stability control and optional side curtain airbags - but this wasn’t enough to sell it. It didn’t accelerate as fast as expected and wasted a lot of gas; which is something that no one wants with gas prices these days. It didn’t have very good handling and didn’t have a very impressive cabin .. so I guess I can see why its sales didn’t do as well as expected.

Even though it probably doesn’t matter much now, let’s just go over what the Freestar had and didn’t have. As faulty as it was, the Freestar was a seven-passenger minivan that was available in three trim levels: the SE, SEL, and the Limited Edition.

-The SE trim was pretty standard: it had the air conditioning, the power accessories, the factory hubcaps on the snow rims - and things like that.
-The SEL was the one that had the tri-zone air-conditioning, a power driver seat, and the second-row captain's chairs .. which is pretty intense for a minivan.
-Now the Limited Edition was what everyone wanted - I figure if they’re going to do something, might as well do it big. The Limited edition minivan had the chrome wheels, a leather upholster, and automatic climate control.

There were two different engines offered on the van: A 3.9-liter V6 was for the SE and it offered 93 horsepower and 240 pound-feet of torque; so, wouldn’t you say that’s a lot of torque just for a van? Both the SEL and Limited models had a 4.2-liter V6 that produced 201 horsepower and 263 lb-ft of torque.

When you first look at it, you’d think that the inside looks like it’s great; but when you start looking closer and closer, that’s not the case at all. The material looked nice but when you touched it, it wasn’t as nice as it looked; the leg room in the second row was extremely crapped - not to mention that the second row seats were extremely difficult to remove.

It just makes me wonder, if there was a van as faulty as this one, Ford must have some market directors that are really good and really convincing. From what I can tell, the only good things that came from the van are the Freestar Wheel Covers and Hub Caps. Sure it was something that Moms really wanted because of the grading the NHTSA gave it, but what about the gas and stuff? And how much room their kids were going to have if they have long legs and just so happen to sit in the back?