Junkyard Find: 1998 Ford Windstar Ice Cream Truck
Is there anything sadder than a junked ice cream truck? For that matter, is there anything creepier than the Boogie Man Ice Cream truck? We saw this 1974 AM General FJ-8A ice cream truck in Los Angeles last winter, and now I’ve found this unwanted-as-a-stale- Choco-Taco Ford Windstar ice cream truck in Denver.
Yes, happy Colorado children (or maybe Kansas or Wyoming children; some cars at this yard come from those states) once chased this festive Windstar, seeking Bomb Pops, Big Neopolitans, and La Michoacana Tamarindo Paletas.
Now, however, rats and pigeons snack on waxy Eskimo Pie crypto-chocolate shards.
A minivan gets good fuel economy, but seems lacking in the space needed for serious ice-cream sales.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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I remember when the Windstar first came out ~ a Business Associate of mine ran right out and bought one to replace his old 1975 Econoline , he went on a great length about how great it was for a few months then I never heard about it again . Now after all these years , I begin to understand what may have happened to it . -Nate
The Windstars that seemed to last were the base Vulcan V6 powered models. The high zoot 3.8 V6's died early. OTOH, Quest/Villagers refuse to die. [I know they are Nissan, but built by UAW Ford workers] Ford was like 'OK here's your minivan, but get a real truck next time'.