You sit high in the saddle inside an Aerostar, with a commanding view of the road ahead. That's a trait that's helped lure millions of Americans into trucks, and it's appealing here.
Ford seats are generally pretty good, and the optional quad captain's chairs in our test van were particularly comfortable for lengthy excursions.
Roominess is another Aerostar strong suit. Second- and third-row legroom is good even in standard-length Aerostars, and it was excellent in our stretched tester - considerably better than the Windstar, for example, which is the current legroom leader among front-drive minivans. For family or carpool use, that's a very telling plus.
Another plus is the Aero-star's cargo capacity. With all its rear seats removed, there's a 139.3-ft. flat-floored cargo well back there, just a tad smaller than in the Windstar.
The extended Aerostar expands this volume potential considerably, to 167.7 cu. ft.
A downside to this part of the Aerostar story is seat removability. It takes a little wrestling to get the seats out of there, and it's a two-person job. The Windstar's seats are easier to extract, and the GM front-drive minivans - Chevrolet Lumina, Pontiac Trans Sport, Oldsmobile Silhouette - are the easiest of all.
Another quibble with the interior was the placement of the power-window switches - low in the door panels, making them a little awkward to operate. A bigger quibble, however, is how difficult it is to get to the engine. There's not much room under the hood, and it requires real dexterity to reach the engine through the little access panel that's just below the dashboard.
Unless you're a home mechanic, this won't affect you much. However, considering how high service-facility labor rates have become, it could affect your checking balance if something breaks.
The Aerostar's major safety features are good, but not quite state of the art. There's a driver's airbag, but a passenger's airbag will have to wait for a redesign.
This is something that wasn't on the planning schedule, because Ford expected to drop the Aerostar. It's back on again, obviously, but it'll be awhile, certainly no later than the 1998 model year. That's when federal standards will require dual airbags in all minivans.
Ford has added side-impact door beams for 1995, and there's also an integrated child safety seat option. Anti-lock braking, however, continues to be rear-wheel only, though it's standard for all models.
The Aerostar's ride quality isn't as smooth as the Windstar's. It feels more like a van than an automobile in this regard, al-though it's not what we'd call harsh, and it's thoroughly comfortable in freeway cruising.
Handling, however, is surprisingly good. Like all tall vehicles, there's body roll during cornering, but not as much as we've experienced in many other minivans. The Aerostar's relatively firm suspension and sturdy chassis lend a sense of control to all maneuvers.
Rear-wheel drive doesn't offer the kind of wet-weather traction you get with front-wheel drive, of course, but on dry pavement the Aerostar tracks through corners with more authority than its front-drive counterparts.
Our test van's 4.0-liter V6 pulled with a will, and we think it's a much better bet than the standard 3.0-liter. This is the same engine used in the Explorer sport/utility, and it has the kind of low-rpm muscle needed for hard work.
The V6 offered in the Astro and Safari has a little more grunt, and it can haul even heavier loads. But the distinctions in all-around driving are pretty subtle.