Minivans. Washington Heights, a predominantly Puerto Rican and Dominican neighborhood in uptown Manhattan, is full of them. I’ve featured the disproportionately large number of Nissan Quests and Mercury Villagers in my old ‘hood but they’re not the only vans. From Buick Terrazas to Mercury Montereys, from first-generation Plymouth Voyagers to GMC Safaris, Washington Heights is a veritable Minivan Land. Because of this, it makes photographic pairings like this very easy to find.
Summer is over now but I can’t look at this picture without remembering summer in the Heights. The season is always marked by two things: fire hydrants being opened for kids to play in, and minivans parked by the curb at night with their sliding door open and stereo blaring lively Latin music. People will pull up a patio chair and sit by their mobile club. I don’t know why minivans are so popular in my old ‘hood but I don’t mind one bit. Bienvenido a la tierra de los minivans.
Photographed June 2017 in Washington Heights, Manhattan.
Not just any Windstar, but one of the early 3 door Windstars! The extra-length King Door showed up in January of 1997 so this is definitely older than that. Could this be the oldest functional Windstar in the entirety of the United States?
I am also going to admit that I always liked those early Mazda MPVs. Was this the only RWD minivan sold here other than the Astro and Aerostar?
No – the Toyota Van, the Nissan Vanette, the Toyota Previa, the Volkswagen Vanagon (and Transporter/Kombi), and the Mitsubishi Van/Wagon were all rear wheel drive (unless you got optional 4WD/AWD available on some of them).
Previa was another RWD entry, that and the old Toyota vans and short lived Mitsubishi L300 (Delica) that were very niche and mostly sold on the west coast.
My family owned the first and last year of 1st gen MPVs (’89 and ’98), the ’89 seemed roomier and better screwed together overall. The ’98 had gained a lot of weight without much of an upgrade in power, 155hp from a V6 in 1998 was kind of weak. The ’89 was one of the rare 2.6L 4 cylinders, and no it was not a Mtisubishi engine like many assume, but Mazda’s own development, and quite a good motor actually.
We sold off our ’98 but my brother still has the ’89 as a shop truck and mountain bike hauler. At 245k now. Rusty but mechanically ready to drive across country. He recently threw in a lower mileage used transmission ($300) and replaced the head a while back, I don’t recall if he re-ringed it or not as well.
My brother’s ’89 has probably seen more offroad use than most BOF SUVs here in the US
Great picture… I’ve never seen a minivan fording a stream before!
Love this! I recently parted ways with my gen 2 Caravan at 255K which served the same purpose. Kayak/MTB hauler in summer, mobile ski chalet in winter. I got a lot of grief as a single 30 something with a minivan as a second car, until my friends saw its capabilities.
Amazing — I saw this similar paring just last week here in Virginia. The MPV in this case is a 4WD 1998 model, with “All Sport” trim.
Maybe Ford and Mazda minivans like to associate together? They’re almost equally forgotten these days.
Even when newer, the first generation MPV seemed to have had a heavily Asian and Indian customer base around here — not sure if this was true nationwide. This example was parked at a Korean-owned service station, which is probably not a coincidence.
Typical saggy butt on that Allsport. Almost all of them were optioned with self-leveling rear air suspension, first a line would leak, then the compressor would burn itself out from running too long. On our ’98, we upgraded to the stiffer OE non-air spring coil springs, and switched to cheap monroe air shocks while retaining the original lines and (still working) compressor.
We bought our ’98 Allsport ES off lease in 2001, right before 9/11 as I recall. Loaded up with every single possible option, it was the nicest car we’d ever bought. We specifically were looking for an MPV Allsport, having had a positive experience with our ’89 RWD 2.6L MPV for the last several years as a family car. But we wanted 4wd to get up our hill in the winter.
We kept our ’98 until last year, it had cycled from family car, to my mom’s daily driver, to my hand-me-down when I initially moved to Indiana, then back to third car status as farm and sailboat hauler. Rust was getting the best of it by the end, we sold it on craigslist to some older folks that needed a cheap three row AWD vehicle to haul grand kids around town in.
William, thank you for posting this in November rather than during one of the warmer months. It still invokes a pang of homesickness, but knowing the weather that’s just around the corner there I can deal with it. I lived for 5 years on West 139th between Broadway and Riverside, and for some time just off 181st on Col. Robert McGaw Place. Of all of the locales I’ve ever lived in, this area has the warmest place in my heart. What a fun, vibrant, diverse, energized place! Your Quest/Villager post a while back was spot-on, and I’d take it a step further by noting that many of those vans were seemingly replaced in recent years by the Nissan Murano and Rogue. I can’t say why folks up that way have such a bias toward Nissan vehicles, but The Heights is chock full of them.
I have such fond memories of living there in the summer, when whole blocks, people of all ages would spill out onto the side streets on Sunday afternoon, with music cranking, games of dominoes in constant rotation, and of course the food and drink. One of the most vivid memories I have of living there was July 4th weekend in 2009. Just a few short days after the death of Michael Jackson, the weather was beautiful. I was never a big fan of MJ, but his music was echoing up and down every street that weekend as the fireworks flashed over the Hudson and people danced on every sidewalk and rooftop. Such an awesome neighborhood. I still have close friends who live at 151st and 8th, and whenever I visit I make a point of blocking out one sunny afternoon just to walk the old ‘hood and breath it all in.
Broadway in the 230’s for me has been a pretty good place for sightings over the years. There are several used car lots in the neighborhood that sometimes have older models. Saw what looked to be a very clean ’47 Special DeLuxe at one of these lots not long ago. Don’t pay much attention to cars from the 80’s and up myself though. There are many interesting and pricey ones around this neighborhood. Many folks from tony places like Riverdale have cars, but, don’t drive much. I figure some wind up here. People here take good care of their cars and parking damage is generally not so bad as you might expect.
Semi-CC-effect: I saw an Aerostar AND an MPV on the road today coming home from work. Not next to each other, but still traveling on the same road in the same direction. I also saw a few Astros & Safaris on the road as well, still being very much loved for the vans they are. ONE of them was even an ’03-’05 model b/c it had the 6-lug rims from the Silverado & Sierra. Besides the Transit, I would otherwise choose one of late-model Astros as my secondary vehicle, except: 1) the tight engine compartment & 2) the abysmal crash test score from the IIHS. It’s also hard to find one that hasn’t been beat up on (as with several other discontinued vehicles), but at least there’s still enough of a fanbase to maintain availability of parts.
These older MPVs were quite popular though the ranks are thinning now blown headgaskets and rust being more expensive to fix than a replacement van, theres a diesel MPV a couple of blocks away that seems to keep going same engine as the Ford Courier/ Mazda B pickup it will likely go forever as a kid hauler.
I owned a ‘97 Windstar, bought new in November of’96. A comfortable vehicle for traveling with the family. We put a little over 105k miles on it before the 3.8 showed the classic signs (I later learned) of head gasket failure… that the Ford dealer couldn’t figure out. Got rid of it, replaced it with a new ‘01 Highlander that – with 232k miles – we still use as our Home Depot hauler/ grocery getter.
First generation Highlanders have got to be one of the last of Toyota’s classic over-engineering efforts. They wear like iron! I’d love to scoop one up but the resale is just too much (as a shopper).