Hope they got some money out of that Windstar. Ford had a recall for 98-03 models where they bought back a lot of the Windstars in rust-prone areas. The rear axle could snap due to corrosion and cause loss of control. There was another recall that had to do with corrosion but I forget what it was.
That was around 2010-ish. I was working for a company that had a 2003 Windstar with about 200k. This was in southern Illinois which isn't all that rust prone. When we received the recall letter, we took the van into the Ford dealer and they deemed it unrepairable and offered us $6500 for it. Easy decision. If the axle was that bad in a climate that really doesn't receive all that much snow/salt (right outside St. Louis), I hate to think how bad Windstars had it that faced real winters and road salt.