Every so often, a new car gets blindsided by the competition. Traditionally, manufacturers have two options when this happens: They can spend proper money and resources on an emergency redesign to even the playing field or they can just keep on going and lose a few sales. However, Ford once proved that there is a third option: hedge your bets with a half-assed redesign.
Ford released the first-generation Windstar for 1995 and at the time, minivans with left sliding doors were a bit of an anomaly. Even the first-generation Mazda MPV with conventionally-hinged doors didn’t have a rear door on the driver’s side while the Windstar was in development. Ford, presumably to keep material and development costs lean, decided to stick with the status quo and release the Windstar with just one sliding door. That was all well and good except for one thing: Chrysler was the minivan king and it was about to drop a bombshell.
If you go to war against a king, you better pull out every stop. Likewise, if you wear a king hat and live in a king house, you best be constantly innovating, a bit like Chrysler did with the rounder, HS-generation minivans that debuted for the 1996 model year. Not only did these vans cost more to develop than any prior Chrysler product, they came packed with radical jellybean styling and a whole host of innovations. Easy-Out Roller Seats with inboard stanchions for reduced weight, dual-zone climate control, and the biggest game-changer of them all, an available sliding door on the driver’s side of the van.
Think about how many jellybean Chrysler minivans you’ve seen without a driver’s-side sliding door. If you only recall seeing a handful, there’s a good reason for that. During the van’s development, Chrysler asked minivan owners if they’d pay an extra $300 for a driver’s-side rear door. A full 85 percent of owners surveyed said yes. Ford was in trouble, and rather than completely redesign its minivan to have two sliding doors, Dearborn half-assed a solution so incredibly stupid, it’s a wonder it was approved at all.
Instead of redesigning every left-side panel on the Windstar from the front doors back, the structure underneath (getting the vehicle’s structure stiff enough with two big sliding closures is indeed a challenge), the glass, and the interior panels to accommodate a sliding door, Ford redesigned every left-side panel on the Windstar from the front doors back, the structure underneath, the glass, and the interior panels, but only to make the driver’s door longer. The Chicago Tribune, and apparently some folks internal to Ford, called it the “king door,” and it reportedly cost The Blue Oval $100 million in mid-’90s dollars to produce. Even Ford admitted it wasn’t exactly an ideal solution, telling the Tribune “In reality, this is a short-term measure, and long-term we have to do a fourth door as well.” Here’s how it was supposed to work.
Officially called the Family Entry System, a longer driver’s door combined with a coupe-style forward-tilting driver’s seat to theoretically enhance driver’s-side rear seat access while effectively turning the Windstar into a three-row Hyundai Veloster. There are just a few small problems here. The first is that it appears the forward-tilting driver’s seat was optional on lower Windstar trims, yet the longer door was standard. Talk about nickel-and-diming customers. The second is that a bigger door presents some minor issues. It couldn’t open at as wide of an angle a standard door and was a little bit heavier than the door on an early Windstar, meaning it could be a pain for those constrained to tight parking spaces.
In addition, think of all the headaches this must’ve caused up and down the supply chain. New stampings require new tooling, new glass requires glass repair shops to carry glazing for both earlier and later models, parts catalogs must be updated, new seats need to be certified, it’s just an immense amount of work for everyone involved. Best of all, it doesn’t just stop with assembly and repair shops. Once Windstars became thoroughly clapped-out, imagine the hassle of trying to find a replacement driver’s door at a self-service junkyard. It would just be the biggest smack in the face.
Thankfully, the Family Entry System was a very short-lived feature. It made its first appearance in early 1997 for the 1998 model year and in the autumn of 1998, Ford introduced a redesigned Windstar that featured sliding doors on both sides of the minivan. Needless to say, having dual sliding doors has been the minivan industry standard ever since. Still, it makes us wonder why Ford went to the vast expense of a longer driver’s door when it didn’t really solve much.
Lead photo credit: Ford
Man, those Chrysler vans aged well. Not condition-wise, they’re all rusty as shit now, but styling? Timeless. And I don’t use that term very often.
Correction: The 1996-2000 Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth minivan body code was NS, not HS. I was working for Chrysler Corp when these vans were in production, and I was also an owner of a lovely Candy Apple Red tricoat 1996 Caravan LE for a while. I always liked those NS minivans.
I will always remember our family’s 97 Windstar for the time the engine decide to go to lunch while driving up to northern Minnesota for vacation the summer of 2000. It was quite a scene to see a family with 4 kinds and all their stuff for a weeklong vacation sitting in a dealership while my parents hammered out a deal for a green Expedition. The dealer wanted to prep it before handing it over, but my Dad had them wait until we got back from vacation, preventing all the sand and grime from being immediately ground into the interior (it also gave us the chance to grab a few forgotten items from the sad, disabled van, left in the gate to get on vacation – my parents making the normally 2 day drive in one night!)
When starting my family in 2006, I bought my parents’ ’99 Windstar SE, and it treated me pretty well. The radio contacts for the sliding door speaker were weak (eventually fixed with a more powerful stereo, of all things), and when I sold it there was a check engine light which would only come on when it was below freezing. The transmission stranded me in South Carolina, but otherwise it was a good workhorse.
I always appreciated the rear windows. How do people survive in the back of a vehicle with poor ventilation???
This actually counts as the second time Ford half-assed an enhancement to their minivan offering in order to compete with Chrysler.
A few years earlier, in the late ’80s, Chrysler introduced the extended-wheelbase Grand Caravan and Grand Voyager. This innovation was immediately successful and rapidly became the new standard. So Ford of course had to introduce an extended version of the Aerostar. However, rather than extend the wheelbase, they just hung the extra length out back, giving the Aerostar EXT a rather schoolbus-like aesthetic.
In general I miss American minivans. The Windstar, and all its shortcomings, still give me a nostalgic rush whenever I see one. My family never owned one, but it was staple on 90’s roadways along with the Taurus.
I know a family that purchased a 98 Windstar with the “king door”. In use, it was very awkward as well. The only rear seat it benefitted was the seat immediately behind the driver’s seat. Third-row seating couldn’t take advantage of the opening.
My recollection is the Windstar was the bottom of the barrel for the local family hauler. I remember one household having one in my neighborhood, and they only bought Ford vehicles.
Chrysler dominated, but I remember more Aerostars, Astros, Nissan Quest/Mercury Villagers, and even the Previa and odd 4 regular door Odyssey/Isuzu thing. Hell, I saw more GM Dustbusters than the Windstars. Although the dustbusters were definitely second to last.
I really enjoy that body style of Caravan and I’d gladly own/daily one right this second. But my wife HAAAAATES them. She loves the 1gn and 2gn vans, but the 3gn she absolutely abhors. Luckily we still have a pretty mint 89 van, but I want a winter beater.
But I do remember my mom really wanting a 97 at the dealership brand new really bad. My dad didn’t want to be seen in a van of any type, so he steered her towards an Intrepid instead, which served the family well for 8 years and 140K miles until my brother killed it.
My old job had a beat to hell Windsor, and I remember groaning about how long the door seemed while in a packed parking lot, but I really had no idea this existed.
Not surprised that Ford missed the boat on this. Windstars were steaming piles. Relatives had one. They purchased the extended warranty, which they never do. After that warranty paid for transmission #4 they traded it on an Odyssey just after Honda sorted the Ody’s transmission issues.
Give Ford some credit for their creativity. They just convinced everyone to buy a tractor named Explorer instead.
Is that dumber than when VW said “nah, we won’t bring our existing van over, we’ll just slap some logos on decontented Chrysler vans, charge more than the higher spec Chrysler equivalent, and call it a day”?
Because VW is known for great decision-making and engineering…
They are well known for their cheating.
The tip/slide driver’s seat lived on at least one more year as an option on the low-trim 3-door ’99 Windstars (in the brochure anyway). It was odd as a single model year feature. Maybe they wanted it for the ’97 models and it was delayed, or they thought the ’99 would be delayed and needed a holdover.
The structural aspect was quite a hurdle – both Windstar and the unrelated Quest/Villager duo were redesigned for ’99 and both dropped down a peg in IIHS offset test results in their 2nd gen, though the Quest/Villager was more phoned in. Plus factor in piping for the rear A/C systems and lockout for the fuel door.
Also always thought it weird that Ford put a hand-operated parking brake on these too, considering the walk-through space used to be a benefit*. They weren’t the only minivan like that, but I think the only FWD van as such. Could have been a footwell space/crash safety reason, but seemed unusual for a larger domestic vehicle especially since the Taurus had a foot-operated brake.
* Ford also loved a fixed floor console in vans, so maybe they were ahead of their time?
Over $100 million in ca. 1997 (equivalent to over $184.5 million today) to buy an extra 6 inches of space, and it was only on the market for one model year. I have to assume they did not earn back the tooling & development costs.
I wondered about that, although Ford sold at least 190k of the things in ’98 alone, which makes the $100 million equal to a bit over $500 per car. Considering it was a mid-year ’97 launch, the amortization gets a little better than that. I think the bigger question is how many extra sales it actually earned them.
Should have used the system from the Renault Aventime
That Windstar is such an ugly duck-billed creature.
Much better looking than the Aerostar it replaced. But agree.
I have a Honda Odyssey and the sliding doors are constantly breaking. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve replaced the sliders. Even worse, they’re power sliding doors. I finally gave up and snipped the cables rather than buy another pair of actuators at $800 a pop.
They they thought the doors would at least outlast the transmission 😛
GM was first to market with a power sliding door, but still only powered the passenger side even after they added a driver’s side sliding door. Honda and Ford powered both doors first and it was another 2 years until GM did it too, just as Chrysler added power doors and a liftgate. Seems like every review of the GM ones complained about their reliability, guess they were trying to get the one side to work right before adding the other (but reviews complained about the Honda’s too).
By only powering the passenger side GM found a novel way to cut their power door failure rate in half…
I was working at Ford at the time and this was indeed a major screw-up by the company. Both the Windstar and the new Chrysler vans debuted at the Detroit Auto Show that year but the Windstar was first by a day or two. I remember talking to some Chrysler people and they had to laugh because they knew their product was so much better. Also, the story we heard at the time about the left side sliding door was that their own focus groups told them they didn’t need it. The customers were happy with what they had and didn’t see a need for the other door but Bob Lutz said screw that, were doing the left side door and the rest is history.
I can just imagine the giggles at Chrysler and the horror over at he Ford booth when Chrysler unveiled dual sliding doors. Both teams went out for drinks after, but for different reasons.
Windstar was ’94 as a ’95 model, a year ahead of the new Chryslers, so Ford had a year head start as the first ‘conventional’ big van. Still the same story, focus groups said they didn’t need it.
“Also, the story we heard at the time about the left side sliding door was that their own focus groups told them they didn’t need it. The customers were happy with what they had and didn’t see a need for the other door…”
This sounds like a rumor someone at Ford made up to make their people feel better and get them thinking Chryslers 4th door will be a failure.
I think it’s just as likely a rumor made up by Chrysler early in the development cycle to discourage others from making a driver’s side slider.
The problem with focus groups is that they are made up of people and people are dull and unimaginative. Then they are bombarded with stupid questions that they answer without thinking about. I was part of some survey as a kid about movies or tv and they asked vague questions like “Do you like movies with heroes?”. I got bored so I started answering randomly. I hope I fucked up whatever they were trying to do.
There’s another good point – focus groups are good at making otherwise creative people duller and less imaginative.
I always thought the better half-assed solution would have been half suicide doors, like pickups were starting to get. The King Door was a quarter-assed solution, at best.
Sympathy have suicide doors on a pickup or a complete pain in the ass in a tight parking space you end up clamshelled in.
Huh. I had no idea this even existed. It’s such a subtle thing I never noticed it before. But then, how often do you really study a Ford Windstar?
Only thing I ever knew about them was stay the hell away from the 3.8 V6 engine.
Oh, and that apropos that era, Ford used “GL” as a pretty uninspiring trim level designation.
My mother-in-law had an ‘01 Windstar with the dreaded 3.8. Trans went out at 60k, engine packed it in at 110k, and after it was fixed she quickly parted with it. Weirdly it wasn’t the first car they had with the 3.8…they had a Taurus and a Sable wagon, *both* of which had bad head gaskets. My father in law bleeds Ford blue, but his disgust for the 3.8 is well-founded.
>> Only thing I ever knew about them was stay the hell away from the 3.8 V6 engine.
Oh, hell, yes. I bought a used Ford Thunderbird with the same engine. Before I bought it, the engine had failed at about 10 miles short of the limit of the extra warranty that Ford gave these engines and been rebuilt at Ford’s expense.
The engine failed for me about 3 years later. All in all, it was cheap motoring for me (I didn’t pay much for the car), but not a good recommendation for the engine. It’s possible that it failed for me because of a bad rebuild: the engine started making horrible screeching noises: I assume some kind of ring failure, but I really don’t know and it wasn’t worth finding out. I did remove the accessory belt to ensure that the noise was really coming from the engine and, after that, scrapped the car.
I still DD my 2000 that cost $250 to purchase.
Yeah not a vehicle I spent any time investigating!
I wonder what “innovations” of today we will be eye-rolling in 30 years.
Massive screens everywhere, hopefully.
Hands free highway lane keeping?
Poor screen integration, probably. There are some cars (Cadillac) that are starting to incorporate screens into the dash and make them look more organic and elegant. The “rectangular tablet slapped on the console” look will probably look pretty silly.
I suspect big screens are here to stay, though I’m prepared to eat those words with some fava beans. Maybe a nice Chianti.
“Think about how many jellybean Chrysler minivans you’ve seen without a driver’s-side sliding door. If you only recall seeing a handful, there’s a good reason for that. During the van’s development, Chrysler asked minivan owners if they’d pay an extra $300 for a driver’s-side rear door. A full 85 percent of owners surveyed said yes.”
My Dad was one of those 15%. He was so cheap he didn’t even buy it new!
Great van though!
The AMC Pacer had this feature, but on the passenger door.
I remember my dad’s Windstar’s, I believe they were a ’98 and a ’97. Neither of which had a driver’s side rear door, nor did they have the coupe like diver’s seat. The beige one came first (pretty sure it was the 98), and it was a step above a base model. It then got traded in for the white one (the 97), and it was an LX which was pretty much fully loaded with “leather” seats, front and rear climate controls, overhead console, CD player, power front seats with lumbar (dad has a bad back), but no funky coupe like seat.
You left out one feature that was big (IMO as someone who had the old one, but on occasion drove the Jellybean as a loaner) the electric rear tilt out windows! Nothing vents the vapors of a freshly pooped diaper like opening the rear, tilt out window, and one front window.
Our family had a 1990 Grand Voyager and that had power rear vent windows. The buttons were up on the ceiling console. The middle windows still had the latch style pop out.
When my parents were buying our ’91 Grand Caravan they were pondering the secondary rear a/c system. The unicorn honest car salesman said don’t bother, just crack the vent windows in back and it will all flow through. He was right, and we never missed the rear a/c.
We had a ’98 Grand Voyager and the rear a/c had a quirk that bothered child me. Front control for the rear fan had 2 speed settings, while the rear switch had 3. Why not have 3 on the front control too?
Oh man, you remembered the only redeeming feature of the late 90s Windstar. Those windows were glorious; too bad they were attached to a Windstar.
On my parents’ Windstar they were always open because my dad perpetually hit the bottom row when trying to open the window.