Faults:

Trunk lock cylinder faulty upon purchase. Replaced shortly after acquiring.

Check engine light on after 24000 miles. Under warranty, required sensor replacement.

Passenger seatbelt occasionally "sticks".

Front brakes replaced at 30000 miles.

Rotors turned at 50000 miles.

New tires at 59000 miles.

Trunk lock cylinder broken again at 66000 miles.

Heat shield loose and rattling at 66000 miles.

Check engine light on again at 66200.

At times, the car is unduly difficult to remove shifter from park.

General Comments:

Overall, this is a practical, efficient vehicle. I appreciate the added safety features in reference to juvenile passengers.

I feel this vehicle is prematurely requiring nickel and dime maintenance to ensure it's continued performance. Hopefully after the most recent issues are dealt with, this will cease to be the case.

Faults:

Had poor tires on it, Firestone's, replaced with TOYO's.

Otherwise, nothing.

General Comments:

The car has treated me well, I would only complain about the plastic bumpers, which most cars have now. 5 mph bump cost 1500.00 to fix. Good gas mileage, up to 30 at times, comfortable, adequate power. Rear visibility is a little poor. Seat belt retractor passenger side is sometimes sticky. Minor issues. Mostly a good car.

Faults:

No faults so far. All options still work well.

General Comments:

This car rides beautifully. The 3.0 Duratec is much more responsive than the 3.0 Vulcan, and is much smoother! It is very difficult to sense the speed at which you are driving because outside and engine noise is very well shielded.

Faults:

The Fan Motor for the Air Conditioning and Heating has burnt out twice. Both times they were replaced under warranty.

The front Brake Rotors and Brake Pads have been replaced three times because they were warpped and below specification due to Ford turning the rotors so frequently. The rotor turning intervals began the day after I purchased the car and was repeated approximately every 5,000 miles until the rotors went below specification.

The replacement intervals were at 10,000, 20,000 and 30,000 miles.

These were efforts, made by three different dealerships to resolve a front-end vibration issue that has been present since the date of purchase on 10/10/2001.

These were also replaced under warranty.

My Taurus is currently in the dealership (8 days and counting) for the same vibration issue that continues to return within approximately one week after each of the above mentioned Brake Rotor and Pad replacements.

The factory-installed-tires have been replaced three times due to marginal or poor tolerance ratings during radial-force-balance inspections.

The right-front axle has become loose at the point where the axle exits the transmission. Loose enough that you can move the entire axle assembly back and forth with a single thumb. This is currently being looked into by the dealership also.

General Comments:

Very spacious trunk.

Great Crash Test Safety Ratings.

Faults:

Front end knocking from sway bar ends.

More front end knocking from loose bolt.

Rack in rack and pinion steering had to be replaced at 45,000. Thank goodness for the extended warranty.

Mysterious high pitched noise heard from drivers side under car somewhere.

Rear window squeaks very badly when rolled up or down.

Transmission shifts hard at times.

General Comments:

I bought this car used and I am wondering if the front suspension problems had to do with a previous owner getting in an accident or "four-wheeling". It seems highly unusual for it to have so many suspension issues at around 40,000 miles.

The SE wagon is huge and I love it. I can fill up 2 carts of groceries at Costco and still have room for more in the car.

I previously owned a 2000 Taurus sedan which was a nightmare. It had an "FFV" or Flexible Fuel Vehicle engine and had a lot of fuel system problems. This one is a regular engine and I am hoping that it will be better.

If you buy a Taurus, make sure you get the longest extended warranty possible, you will need it.