Ford Aerostar

For the twin-engine private aircraft, see Piper Aerostar.

The Ford Aerostar was Ford's first minivan, and was introduced as a 1986 model in summer 1985. The Aerostar was unique since it combined the trucklike rear-wheel drive and towing capacity of the Chevrolet Astro/GMC Safari with car-like user-friendliness of the Dodge Caravan/Plymouth Voyager. The Aerostar is often referred to as a "midivan" along with the RWD GM vans, due to its being larger than Chrysler's minvans but smaller than a traditional full-size van. Like Chrysler's minivans, the Aerostar was exported to Europe in small numbers, which is why the rear license surround is sized for European number plates instead of American ones.

The Aerostar was dropped after the 1997 model year after being replaced by the Windstar in the 1995 model year and being sold alongside it for 1995-97. Until its 1997 cancellation, over 100,000 Aerostars were sold each year, outselling competition from GM every year after 1990, placing Ford in second place in minivan sales (at the time). The Aerostar was produced at Ford's St. Louis, Missouri assembly plant, which built the Ford Explorer, Mercury Mountaineer, and Lincoln Aviator. This assembly plant is now closed.

The Aerostar was Motor Trend magazine's Truck of the Year for 1990.[1]

Unlike the front-wheel drive Chrysler minivans and their later clones, the Aerostar was designed as a rear-wheel drive vehicle. This compromised interior space somewhat (the interior floor was higher) but provided superior towing ability as well as increased traction when loaded.

The Aerostar differed from other minivans of its time because it was built on neither a car platform or a truck platform. The official designation for the Aerostar is VN1, which was also the first American Ford to get an alphanumeric platform designation (as opposed to "Fox" or "Panther") This design was developed because the designers in Ford's truck office were unfamiliar and uncomfortable with unibody construction, and essentially designed the frame rails into the Aerostar's unibody (this construction was also used on the Chevrolet/GMC G-Series vans, the second generation Jeep Cherokee), and today's Honda Ridgeline pickup. The aerodynamic sloped-nosed styling resembled the Ford Taurus introduced alongside it for 1986. An early commercial ad campaign compared the side profile of the Aerostar to that of the NASA Space Shuttle. For much of its later life, the Aerostar would be marketed as part of Ford's light-truck lineup.