Faults:

The only main problem I faced with this very reliable car was that at about 139000 miles, the transmission started to slip. I took it to the mechanic and a new main seal was required. After having the seal work done on it, the car is back to normal. Other than that I have had no problems with it and I plan to keep it as long as I can.

General Comments:

This is my second Ford Taurus. I priorly owned a 1992 Ford Taurus and put about 50 thousand miles on it without any problems at all. The Taurus is a car which is known to take heavy abuse. I have abused my 1996 Taurus a lot. The rear folding seat is very convenient and you can fit a lot of materials inside the car. I hauled a lot of material home in my car when I finished my basement. It is also a very strong car. I recently got in an accident where I was hit from the rear. The other persons car was totaled while my rear bumper had, but a few scratches. My son now drives this car and he loves it as it picks up speed very fast with its V6 sized engine. It also looks great.

Faults:

Replaced the ignition module at 140,000 miles to fix an erratic idle.

Replaced the water pump at 165,000 miles.

Replaced the oil pump and speed sensor at 168,000 miles.

Replaced inner tie rods at 179,000 miles.

Door ajar sensors have recently started to fail; dome/door light stays on.

Driver's door lock cylinder will not lock all doors when turned twice, but will unlock all doors when turned twice.

General Comments:

I received my Taurus in 2001 from a family member as an incentive to finish my degree. The car had 133K miles on the odometer. During my last semester we commuted 450+ miles a day for three winter months. Aside from oil changes every two weeks and filling up every day, the car gave me no problems. My uncle took good care of the car and now the car is still taking good care of me in 2004.

Also, the radio rocks, the air conditioning is cold and I can pack a lot of stuff in the trunk!

Faults:

-Head gasket blew at around 171,000

-Leaked anti freeze fluid along with blown head gasket

-Engine light coming on whenever it felt like it

-brake pads needed replacement

-rust above rear right wheel.

General Comments:

I purchased this car from my grandmother thinking I was getting a deal at $5,000. Holy smokes, I couldn't be more wrong. I hated Ford to begin with, but now I hate them with a passion. Putting a deck in this car is very annoying as it's an oval shaped console that requires a custom console plate to fit one in properly. It's horrible for fuel efficiency, the engine sounds very whiny and isn't a smooth ride at all. When the head gasket blew it leaked anti-freeze like mad, so it wasn't very fun driving home in -25c weather with no heat flowing through the car, but certainly more than enough heat coming from the engine as it was over heating. My mechanic said that had it not been minus 25c outside it would've fried for sure. I wish I had known about the recall for this engine otherwise I would've never paid for it in the first place. The repair/maintenance for this car was easily around 3000$ and only driving it for less than 25,000kms, so not being able to pay for the car itself due to repairs/maintenance I just decided to give it back to my grandma and let her sell it to somebody else. STAY AWAY FROM FORD.