Faults:

My parents gave me the car in August 2008 after they bought it in November 2002, and I've driven it ever since 2008 as my first car (right now it's December 12, 2009).

Since I've been the primary driver, I think I've had to replace a couple of brake lines, two brake pads (regular maintenance), plug wires (40 bucks, no big deal), bi-passed the transmission cooling lines with a bolt-up cooler, a tie-rod end (again, no big deal), fixed a section of exhaust, replaced the steering rack (biggest ouch-ie so far), bought a set of alloy rims with summer tires on them for 100 bucks off kijiji as a summer set, and I think after all that, I've spent about two grand.

However the car is almost 15 years old. I've also done my own body work to the rocker panels over the past couple years, just grinding away rust and spraying cans of primer and paint over it. I'm getting pretty good at it =P But again, 14 year old Mercury Sable/Ford Taurus, no surprise there.

General Comments:

Right now the car has 251,100 kilometers on the odometer. However I know there's a discrepancy in the odometer, and I've calculated that it's short by about 3.4% so it has closer to 260,000 kilometers if the discrepancy was there since it first got on the road.

Anyway, I think the majority of the repairs the car has needed has come since I owned it, but at least Ford/Mercury parts aren't all that expensive. But that's just what owning an old car is like. I've spent about 2,000 dollars fixing stuff over the last 16 months. Mind you, about 1,700 of that is stuff I know I'm not going to have to fix again, going from experience of two previous Ford Taurus (1990 and 1993) that my parents have also owned.

Really the biggest asterisk on that repair list is the steering rack. It cost me about 630 dollars with labor. The previous two Taurus' that my parents drove had a leak in the steering rack somewhere after 230,000 kilometers. But a 5 dollar bottle of power steering fluid sealer fixed it. I just got unlucky I guess, and after a few months of driving around topping up the fluid once in a while, it finally started leaking like a faucet, and I had to give in and replace it.

But I'll hand it to Ford. That 3.0 liter V6 Vulcan motor (unlike it's 3.8 liter counterpart) is bullet proof. It doesn't seem to matter how cold it gets, that motor starts up every time. I also keep my fuel receipts and track my gas mileage. Normally my fuel mileage is around 32-34 miles per gallon in Canada (American miles per gallon is different because gallons in America are 3.8 litres where it's 4.5 in Canada) which for a car it's size is very respectable.

And of all the cars I've been behind the wheel of, I doubt I'll ever get behind the wheel of something as easy to drive as a Taurus/Sable. There has never been any stick in the throttle or brake pedals, and the power steering is set up quite comfortably so it doesn't over/understeer. Very smooth and easy car to drive.

The car has been undercoated I think 7 times, and the floor and body is in quite good shape. I've gotten a few compliments from my mechanics about the good condition the body is in xD.

Faults:

What's gone wrong with the Sable? The first problem was the transmission. It had to be replaced when the vehicle had approximately 100,000 miles on it. Cost: $2,500.00.

The radiator had to be replaced in 2003 and Mercury picked up some of the cost of that.

The alternator was problematic from time to time. The quick and easy fix was smacking the underside of the engine compartment with a long handled shovel or a rubber mallet. After owning the car for 12 years, driving it for about 195,000 miles and dealing with it a dozen times, I finally broke down and had a used alternator installed for about $300.00 to $400.00 (??)

At around 205,000 miles, the water pump broke and had to have it replaced. That too was somewhere in the range of $300.00 to $400.00. (??)

The last time I took it into the shop to get some work done on it, specifically to get it ready to pass state inspection, my regular mechanic told me the motor mounts are broken, the brake lines are going, and there is some rust around the chassis. He was amazed my car still had Original Equipment throughout much of the vehicle.

General Comments:

General comments? I've owned the car since it had approximately 30,000 miles on it. It just turned over 227,000. For major repairs I have paid less than $5,000.00 in thirteen years.

The standard advice is to change the oil every 5,000 to 7,000 miles. This Ford product has been driven 20,000 to 30,000 miles between many oil changes. Occasionally I have treated the car to an oil change after driving it for 10,000 miles, but that has been the exception rather than the rule. There have been times when I decided to check the oil dip stick and found there was NO oil on it. This is one tough engine Ford built!

The car handles very nicely, it's rather quiet inside, and the driver's seat is still in good shape, after 227,000 miles.

The body has held up well, and the original paint is still like new.