Faults:

A/C broke

Thermostat failed

Transmission broke.

General Comments:

Bought the car for decent transportation. it was very comfortable riding it. but you always have to ride with the fear of when it will break down. the reverse gear failed all of a sudden when I was trying to do a parallel parking in a busy city area!! Will sincerely suggest not to invest in Taurus before you do your homework.

Faults:

When I test drove it, the power rear windows worked fine. When I purchased it a few days later and brought it home, they no longer worked. The dealership didn't want to replace them, so I looked into having them done elsewhere. It was too much, so I sat in sweltering heat because the AC system had holes in it and I could not get it recharged and wasn't prepared to do a complete overhaul.

The water pump blew at 80,000 miles. Luckily, I had a friend who was very good with these things and we put the whole thing back together in the pouring rain.

Brakes needed to be replaced at about 90,000. Big deal. Tires were ready to pop at the 100,000 mark. Did I expect these items to last forever? No.

At 130,000 miles the head gasket was done for. The evening before I had the appointment to pay $1000 to get it fixed, I got rear-ended and the car was deemed totaled.

General Comments:

For the amount of driving that car did (over 60K in 2 years), I might not have gotten my money's worth (paid $6000 for it), but I don't feel like I was taken advantage of by Ford. It wasn't worth much when I was done with it (according to the check I received from the insurance company), but it totally served it's purpose.

I liked that it was roomy, without being too big of a car. I favor compact cars, but liked this one. I always had a full car of people -- friends and such for frequent roadtrips -- and no one was ever smooshed. It was also good as a family car and I purchased it for that intention. It was great for no matter what you were doing.

The trunk was a good size and unfortunately I abused that and it was always full of stuff and I never knew where anything was. But, I always had somewhere to put something. At the end of 2 years, I found half my wardrobe in it.

The car took me everywhere on the face of the earth and didn't really do much complaining until the head gasket issue. I think I put it through enough. I replaced it with a Honda Accord... a good buy as well.

Faults:

I have had three of these cars on all three I have had to replace:

Ignition Modules

Oxygen Sensors.

That's it.

General Comments:

As I read the reviews of a lot of people who have criticized the Ford Taurus, I felt it a duty to respond with my experiences with this car that have been generally been very positive.

I have no doubt that there are those who have had bad experiences with the Ford Taurus. However, in my case with three 1993 Ford Taurus station wagons, they have all been excellent cars. I did discover that the ignition module was a weakness and prone to premature failure. However, this is a cheap fix that can easily be done even by the mechanically challenged.

Especially coming under attack has been the transmission. I don't know, but perhaps due to the fact that I had the transmission fluid flushed on two occasions with each car might have contributed the longer life that I enjoyed. I have got 160,000, 190,000, and 174,000 miles on my cars respectively. On one, all I have is a small transmission leak. However, I must admit, many of these miles are highway miles. Still not bad.

In addition, the cosmetic components of the car have been durable despite rough treatment by my children.

The engine has been bullet proof. I have somewhat regularly changed the oil, but the cars nor the engines have in no way been pampered.

The cars also handle and drive well. It is not a BMW, but, it is not meant to be.

By way of comparison, I have had four GM cars consisting of, two 95 Auroras, one 89 Regency 98 with low miles and, a 96 Pontiac Grand Prix. All these cars, In total, I put on about 35,000 miles on these cars. I spent over 1,800 dollars on repair bills. I sold all of them except the Regency which now needs about $900.00 worth of transmission work.

On the Tauruses, I put on a total of around 240,000 miles. Total repair costs other than normal maintenance has been around $1200.00. A lot of that was diagnostic and incompetent repair services that led me to discover that all was wrong was the ignition module. If I had know what the problem was, you could halve this amount.

In conclusion, I would recommend the Taurus if it has low miles and you plan to regularly service the transmission.