Faults:

Vibration from the front end.

Lug nuts snap off and the wheel loosens in its own.

Rear lower flaring on both sides blew off with each rear flat tire.

Rear windows do not work.

Radio is broken.

Brake lights blow fuses ('fixed' 6 times).

General Comments:

Dangerous front end vibration for the last 70k miles. Dealer ignores the problem and keeps saying rotors, even though they have been replaced 3 times. The history of problems is well known with this car, yet dealers pretend they are surprised! VERY noisy car on the highway.

Faults:

Starter went bad at 88,000 miles.

Head gasket blew at 89,000 miles.

Leather seats a little worn from lack of maintenance.

General Comments:

A nice car with one major fault. The head gaskets on the 3.8 liter engines have a tendency to blow, and once they do a new engine is only alternative. This I heard from two independent mechanics, and the local Ford dealership. The aluminum heads on these engines have a problem with sealing with new gaskets. Even the Ford dealership was unable to get a Ford engine, they would have used a Jasper re-manufactured engine.

Otherwise there were no major problems.

Comfortable to drive.

Good interior and cargo space, yet small enough to park easily.

If not for the engine, I would still have this car.

Faults:

The radiator hose broke within 2 weeks of purchase.

Power steering fluid reservior and hose broke.

Both front axle are shot at 75000 miles, requires about $450 to replace.

Cassette player broke.

The air conditioner/heater vans are squeaky.

One of the power locks is nonfunctional.

General Comments:

The most attractive feature of the Taurus Wagon would have to be the van like cargo space. With the rear seats folded down, the space is phenomenal.

The number of people you can carry is an amazing 8, that is if you can care about cramping a bit. The two fold out seats that faces towards the back is interesting, but not comfortable.

The accelertion from the 3.0 liter is certainly enough, yet it whines a little during high RPMs. Avoid extreme acceleration at all costs because the engine mounts are really flimsy and easy to tear off.

The car is a good city driver, with decent gas efficiency for a car at 3000+ pounds. On highway, the wind noise is tolerable, yet the car shakes above 70 which scares me. One odd thing is that the speedometer only goes up to 85mph, go figure.

The features of the standard model is plentiful like the driver power seats and A/C, etc, but all lacks the refinement of cars like the Camry.

Overall, it's an high-maintenance car with much left to be desired.

Faults:

My heating core gave me some problems, but it wasn't Ford's fault. I got the car extra cheap because of having a broken heating core, but got it replaced. But the replacement was faulty.

The Check Engine light frequently comes on for no reason, and there are no problems with the engine. I suppose this is a bad fuse or something.

Only other thing is the wipers. They work fine, except for the fastest one, where it doesn't do anything.

General Comments:

This is a great first car. It's very comfortable, safe, reliable, and fuel-efficient.

I would recommend this car to anyone who is looking for a reasonably-priced family car or even a first time car. There are a very few problems with mine. Though it is plain, it's better-looking than most hatchbacks!