Ford's buying my van back

Dropped the van off at the local dealership Sunday evening for the front subframe recall (11S16) inspection and if it passed the repair of the rear axle recall issue (previous inspection said it was OK to keep driving). Well, got a call around 11 o'clock yesterday morning that the front subframe failed inspection and FoMoCo was offering over $5500 to buy back. Now this is a 2000 Windstar on it's second transmission, with 130k miles, rocker rust and already in need of about $1,000 worth of other maintenance (shocks, rear brakes, A/C fix, etc.) we're talking about here.

Needless to say after a quick check on KBB.com I agreed and we are now quickly van shopping!

Front subframe recall article - http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2011/01/ford-windstar-recalled-again-425000-models-affected-for-rusting-front-subframe.html

I work at a Ford dealership. Luckilly I'm in Texas. The northern states are getting HAMMERED by this recall. LOL

You're smart for letting them buy it back.

My small town Ford dealership easily has 30 Windstars sitting on the back lot waiting repair. At bigger dealerships that number is more like 75 units.

From last month:
http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/educate-me-on-05-minivans/32167/page1/

fastEddie wrote: Front subframe recall article - http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2011/01/ford-windstar-recalled-again-425000-models-affected-for-rusting-front-subframe.html

Taken from the comments in the link above...

Pete My 1999 Windstar has been in the Ford dealers compound since the end of October whilst they wait for replacement axle parts. I’ve been driving a rented 2010 Grand Caravan from Enterprise, with the bill ($1500 monthly) going to Ford. Total so far is more than $4500. We were not offered a buy-out because our van was considered low mileage. We have not received a sub-frame recall notice from Ford yet, but it’s possible they’ll be approaching $6000 to $8000 to repair a $2000 (if that) van.

This reminds of the Tacoma recall a couple years back. Dealers in the rusty states had hoardes of the things sitting there waiting to be crushed I guess.

Oh how I wish you guys could read the Ford Message Boards. LOL The Windstars are the bane of our existance in most northern states. Service lots with 100+ vans sitting in the back burried in snow. Then they won't start. Then they have more rust from the snow. Then they have ABS and Ck Eng lights on because of bad sensors or connections. Then they have the ones that aren't kept up by owners, freezing the blocks and popping expansion plugs out. LOL The list goes on & on & on...

Update - the dealer had my check within 48 hours but we waited until our 5-day rental was up to pick it up. Ended up buying a 2010 T&C Touring from the same dealer and pick it up this afternoon.

All in all a pretty positive experience. I was very happy with Ford's buyout offer, they got the money quickly, the local dealer was very easy to work with, friendly and low-pressure - and most importantly, my wife is happy with her new vehicle. And between the buyout and other cash we had saved for this purpose we ended up only financing less than 50% of the cost (3 years at 3.49%).

good luck with the chrysler, hopefully the problems are gone from the ones they've had in previous generations.