Yeah, don't mess with your wife's car...EVER!
I think Chrysler makes a pretty decent engine - they took some good tips from Mitsubishi, but I hope their new electronic automatics are better than their old ones. That A604 was in every 3.0L car they made and it was an absolute junk heap. Finicky and weak!
A neat thing I recently discovered is that the Aerostar is basically a truck with a van body. I guess every mechanical component from the Ranger and Explorer are swappable into (or out of) an Aerostar...I wonder what I could do with some time and money...???