[Vchat20]

I just have to make this rant here just to show my further increasing hatred for this curse of a vehicle.

So this past...sunday...we ran into a nice little bit of drama while on the road in regards to our '96 windstar. And it just proves how many horrible design flaws plague this vehicle.

So we had left to go on vacation this week. Had the whole van packed to the brim and had about 5 bikes strapped to the rear hatch and 5 people crammed in. Left from Warren, Ohio. Come up to the west side of cleveland on I-480 just outside of North Olmsted and had a major backup of cars. Come to find after the one guy slammed on his brakes and swerved right in front of us that someone lost a large mattress in the middle of the highway. Couldn't spot it in time and ran right over it, got caught and wedged on the drivers side between the two axles. Long story short we finally got it wiggled out and drove a few hundred feet before the thing started to overheat really bad. Some massive drama, paranoia, and antifreeze poured right down the drain, we find there's a coolant line running naked to the road right along the drivers side to the rear for the rear HVAC controls. When the mattress got stuck, we figure it ended up pulling it in the process, thus letting the whole coolant system drain out on the road till it was bone dry. To make things worse, we had the AC running, van was sitting still while we tried to pull the mattress out, and this was in 80-90 degree weather.

I would THINK, from a normal person's point of view with a decent IQ that having such a vital fluid line open to the road and SO close to it at that, calls for the designer to get his ass fired on the spot. And this is just the tip of the iceberg as far as design flaws on this vehicle is concerned:

- Drivetrain transplanted from a Taurus sedan (that right there introduces it's own SLEW of problems)
- Upper intake design problems in earlier years
- Sliding door contacts sending the chime/dome light into a hissy fit constantly unless fixed.
- etc..

Anyone got their own rants they wanna spill here about this curse?