1992 Ford Taurus L 3.0 from North America
Summary:
Safety blessing, reliability nightmare...
Faults:
The car is on it's sixth transmission since I bought it; the transmission went out the first time a month after I bought it. I took it to the dealership and had it replaced with a new one and (thank goodess) got an extended warranty on the replacement. It went out once a month for the next four months, and each time I took it back and had it replaced again for free, as per my warranty. After the fifth time, I was fed up with the dealership, and I sucked up the payment and had it replaced by another company with a custom rebuilt transmission, and it still has problems.
In addition, the car developed a problem of totally dying while making left-hand turns, which I found out was linked to a recall only after I was in an accident after the car died while I was turning.
Also, the window motors have all been replaced, the liftgate (I have a wagon) was rewired when it refused to open, the cassette player died, and the air conditioning system has been replaced twice.
General Comments:
It's the least reliable car my family has ever owned, and we were lucky to have a functional Nissan to drive when this one was in the shop.
The one positive thing we have to say for the car is that despite the fact that there was a safety hazard built into the car that caused us to have an accident in it, when we were hit by a stretch limousine going 45 while we were making a left hand turn, we all walked away without a scratch. This is the safest car I've ever seen.
Its best safety feature, however, still remains that it is a poorly built car, as I have found it is difficult to have a serious accident while sitting in your driveway cursing the car because it won't start.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No
Review Date: 13th December, 2000
16th Jul 2001, 00:14
I have had at least 6 Fords since I began driving about 24 years ago. All of them were used, except in 1986 when my wife and I bought a brand new Escort wagon. All were very reliable to me, and my 1992 Taurus wagon is no exception, considering when we bought it in 1997, it "only" had 97,000 miles on it. Now it is almost ready to turn over 156,000 miles, and the only major problem we ever had was the mass airflow sensor give out at about 130,000 miles. (one day down and 300 dollars later) I am very pleased with Fords products. By the way, I have had less trouble with all my Fords combined than my Dad has had with 2 Toyotas.