The Ford Aerostar Has Faded Into Undeserving Obscurity
The humble minivan was one of the greatest automotive success stories of the 1980s. Affordable, efficient family transportation was a massively untapped market in America, and Lee Iacocca’s brilliant 1984 Plymouth Voyager and Dodge Caravan are often credited for saving the automaker from insolvency. Of course, Chrysler was by no means the first to envision a family van, nor was it the only Detroit automaker in the mid-’80s that recognized the potential for one.
Ford wasn’t on the verge of bankruptcy when the Aerostar appeared in 1986, but the vehicle’s importance to the Blue Oval was immense, and the van is often overlooked in the evolution of the American family vehicle.
While Chrysler built its Voyager and Caravan around the space-efficient, front-drive K-car platform, Ford stuck with a rear-drive chassis for the Aerostar van. The decision ultimately proved less innovative and well-suited for a family van (as GM also found out with its Chevy Astro/GMC Safari), but Ford’s engineering and design efforts provided a conceptual template that eventually bridged the gap between traditional trucks and longroof wagons. That work helped the Blue Oval jump-start the SUV-hungry 1990s, kicking off a high-riding craze that has all but extinguished the once-proud minivan from suburban garages.
(photo credit: Ford)
