1999 Ford Taurus XL from North America
Summary:
Hell on wheels!
Faults:
Everything! Do not buy a Ford, unless you love throwing away money! I thought that Ford had changed its ways. I was wrong.
- Front motor mount... 3 times.
- Rear motor mount... 4 times.
- High pressure power steering hose (which almost never breaks on any other automobile).
- Power steering pump, which got noisy after the above line broke.
- Both inner CV joints have caused tremendous vibration in the car and had to be repaired.
- Air conditioner compressor.
- High pressure air conditioner line... Not leaking O-rings. The line actually blew up.
- Brake rotors had to be repaired several times due to warping and then replaced.
- Head gaskets which I didn't repair. I had another problem which necessitated engine replacement before I could repair the gaskets.
- Both outer and both inner tie rod ends.
- The wiper motor currently 'parks' the wipers up instead of down. At least they still work.
- Water pump.
- Alternator - 3 times.
- Stereo deck - The car came with a Ford 'Premium' sound system. Right!
- Some sort of vacuum sensor that deals with gas fumes was defective.
- When first driving in cold weather, there is a very bad squeaking from the right front.
- When driving on the highway over 60 mph, there is a 'catch' when making a slight wheel turn to the left that nobody can figure out.
- Throttle position sensor went out (the day I took it home).
- Fuel gauge sending unit never worked (read full or empty, nothing in-between).
- 3 fuel injector went bad ($1500).
- 2 water pumps.
- 2 new rotors (recalled) replaced twice because the dealer didn't adjust the back brakes, and it fried the new set of rotors.
- 1 Heater core ($600).
- Alignment couldn't be set to specs. in the rear.
- Trunk leaked (a result of the tail light gaskets being dirty, removing tail lights and cleaning gaskets remedied this problem)
- Transmission leaked and then died (2 twice after only 10000 miles each time).
- Power steering hose ruptured.
- Power steering pump leaked like a river.
- Oil leaks.
- Dead radiator fan.
General Comments:
In case you have had HEAD GASKET trouble like we did, we learned that Ford recently (Feb 2000) announced a refund for head gasket repairs - this applies only to some '94 and '95 model year Taurus/Sables with the 3.8L engine (like ours, only they didn't include our model year - despite the fact that it was the same engine and same problem!). Typical of Ford, from what I can tell, but hopefully this will help you!
Ford is offering an extended warranty on more than 700-thousand vehicles with this problem (gee, I wonder why it took them until the year 2000 to know there was a head gasket problem, when I had this problem on a 1990 Taurus???). If you are affected by this warranty, Ford is supposed to send you a recall notice, but I would not trust them - you might wish to see the dealer on your own and ask about this... As I understand it, if you've paid for a repair to the head gasket, Ford will reimburse you, or you can choose a 4-thousand dollar credit toward the lease or purchase of a new Ford vehicle (WHY on earth you would want another Ford is beyond me though...)
One last note for the reader: I have a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, and a Master's Degree in Engineering Management. Although I do not design cars, I do know design, and I do know how to design quality in to a product (like Nissan did on my Datsun 310). I say this because, as a reader, you should know that I am more than a novice at understanding technical issues - I know how to maintain cars, I know what to expect in car troubles, and I've owned enough cars in my life to assert that this is the worst car we have ever owned.
To those who might feel that my expectations are too high - let me point to my 1981 Datsun, and my 1996 Nissan S, my folks' 1979 Honda Accord and their 2000 Honda Civic, my brother's VW Passat - THESE are quality cars, designed well, and they rarely break down... If you think my expectations of what a car should be are too high, then I would suggest that your expectations are too low...
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No
Review Date: 23rd August, 2003
4th Dec 2006, 12:39
I have a 1991 Taurus with 149,000 trouble free miles - until recently, when the heater stopped working. This is not the heater core or radiator, which are hot and pressurized, but some switching stuff behind the dashboard.
I consider 149k with zero engine work or trans work to be pretty good compared to my other cars. I just bought a low-miles 1999 Taurus and hope to reach 150k with this, too.