2006 Ford Freestar Owners Manual – The North American minivan market is probably not increasing very much, but the number of market place-talk about challengers is. Cases: Honda’s Odyssey started to be the standard in 1999, the Kia Sedona arrived on in 2002 as an excellent benefit, the newest Nissan Journey contributes a dash of bold design formerly absent in vans, and the new Toyota Sienna boosts the stakes in refinement.
There are other people, of course, but the concept is obvious: If you’re planning to play in this video game, you’d greater be keeping some trumps. Discount rates, income-again incentives, and fleet sales ain’t sufficient. Behold the new Ford Freestar along with its Mercury version, the Monterey. Ford favors “all-new” as a descriptor, but the device-body bone was actually updated from the Ford Windstar, an also-jogged in the minivan derby. Aside from a 2.7-in .-increased roofline, the chassis and body dimensions are all but identical with all those of the outdated van, and the sheet metal doesn’t particularly stand for a startling departure. Ford marketing and advertising sorts say styling is a secondary trouble with minivans, which is plausible, but they also sensed a new brand was necessary to make certain consumers understand they’re beholding newness rather than recycle.
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This last-safety-was the Windstar’s most potent match. With leading scores (5 stars) from NHTSA for entrance and area effects, the Windstar lacked only the sought after “good” rating from the Insurance plan Institution for Road Safety for counteracting frontal-influence performance to be as very good as it receives in crashworthiness. Ford’s safety technicians assume the Freestar to maneuver the needle up the final notch, in addition to collecting max stars in the NHTSA reviews. In addition, they count on the vans to offer increased security in rollover crashes, with a new whole-span curtain airbag system (optional in the Freestar, normal in the Monterey). When method devices identify approaching inversion, the totes inflate and stay inflated for half a dozen moments, something new in indirect safety for vans. There’s also a smart front-passenger airbag program that governs deployment in accordance with the passenger’s excess weight, the range of the seat from the dash, and regardless of whether the seatbelt is buckled.
Discerning body-shell stiffening and the variety of decibel-diminishing changes accumulate at the scales. Ford represents suppress weight load as “up marginally,” which converts as more than 320 lbs, every listed figure both for base minivans. And also this, in convert, sops up performance, given that engine output is largely unaffected. The old 3.8-liter V-6 was scored for 200 horsepower and 240 lb-ft of torque. The new 3.9 produces 193 hp and 245 lb-ft, 90 % of it at 1500 rpm. No less than the recommended 4.2 (regular in the Monterey) is scored for 201 horsepower and 263 pound-toes. With a more heavy van, velocity feels quite purposeful, a word that is applicable to the Freestar’s dynamics. But absolutely predictable is true, way too, and with new all-disc brakes with regular Abdominal muscles, plus brake help, we anticipate seeing an improvement in quitting performance once we get a Freestar to a test track.