The Ford Freestar is a solid, highly capable minivan that performs well and offers all the latest safety features. Though introduced as a new minivan with a new name for 2004, much of the Freestar s structure and design came from the Windstar it replaced. Windstar offered class-leading safety and solid performance for its time. But while the improvements that inspired the name change moved Ford s minivan closer to its competitors, they did not leapfrog it ahead of them. Ford says the Freestar is the highest quality minivan it has ever built. That contention is backed up by the J.D. Power and Associates research firm, which found Freestar s overall quality and mechanical quality better than most.