Taurus

ick... those 97 [i think] taurus's on up are SO ugly... i don't know about the newest ones, i forgot what they look like, but the slightly older ones are horrible, especially w/ that bumpy excuse for a spoiler they have on the back. Anyone argree?

They look like a fish from the front.

I just plain don't like Ford, except the Cobra R of course.

yeah, too fake. I don't care for Fords either, but you have to admit the GT90 & Indigo are pretty neat.

Come to think of it, Ford's only cars that I like are produced in limited quantites or are Concepts. Wierd.

I don't think ford has ever been that great of a car manufacturer. I think there specialty is in trucks.

Yeah, Ford trucks are great. I think the Ranger looks really good with a lift kit and muddin' tires.

the trucks are the only OK things, like the Escape & explorer LOOK pretty cool, but I don't think they are reliable and all that stuff

I like Ford's full-size SUVs, even though they are road-rhinos, you can substitute a Ford Ecursion door with a Barn door if the problem occurs.

I'm currently working as a mechanic for a local Ford dealer on a co-op work term for school. Basically anythign with a V6, 3.0 or 3.8 is unrelieable, the engine anyway. The eight cylinder models are pretty good. They've really come a long way reliablility wise. I'm starting to see more and more electronics problems though.

Don't worry though, they'll never catch up to the Europeans when it comes to making a car.

I like some fords. I loved the indigo concept, and I like 'stangs and their trucks (like, Lightning and Harly F-15)

We have a pink Taurus!!

it 96 on up, cuz our is a 96 POS.

Originally posted by Chris
We have a pink Taurus!!

:hehehe::hehehe:

j/k :D:D

Taurus's are the Bread and Butter for Ford - they HAVE to break down often, to ensure all the co-op studends have jobs for fixing them ;)!

All kidding aside - I don't think much of Fords lineup myself, EXCEPT anything with a V8 - the Entire Lincoln line, Ford Trucks, and of course - the Vic platform :).

Sup I am new here.
I'm not a big fan of the Taurus, but I will stand up for it and say that it is a good car. I used to have a 92 Taurus(hey it was free and I will take a free car whatever it is), and I treated it very badly, because I really didn't care about it. I got it with 55,000 miles, and drove it very hard. I changed the oil once every 10,000 miles, and never had a single problem with it. My parents got rid of it when it had 150,000 miles on it, when I bought my cougar. That thing was a tank too. Some chick rear ended me, and totaled her civic, and I didn't even have to replace my bumper only $3.50 damage(cost of the can of paint for the scratch on my bumper).
Oh my Taurus, I developed an attachment to that car b/c of all the memories I have in it.

Car reliablity these days is all luck. The least reliable car my family has ever had is my sisters 1996 Accord with 70,000 miles on it. My sister takes good care of it, but continues to have nothing but problems with it.
The accord I understand is a great car, but reliability is all luck.

Originally posted by Porsche

Come to think of it, Ford's only cars that I like are produced in limited quantites or are Concepts. Wierd.

Pretty much. I also like the Shelby cars that were done, but at that pont they aren't really Fords anyhow.

Ford's styling may not be the best, but at least it isn't bland. Ford drug the whole auto industry out of the monsterous slump it was in when the Taurus was introduced.

The Taurus has always had transmission problems. The problems have been minimized as the years went on, but are still existant.

I have worked on many a Taurus with over 200,000 miles on it, with no overhaul on the motor.

I'll be glad to match the 3.8L V6 mile for mile against most other V-6's on the market.. not only will it last as long, but it will also get another 10mpg over it's nearest competitor.

The 3.0L SHO motor is absolutely amazing in all aspects, power, smoothness, longevity, etc..

As with any vehicle it depends on what maintainance is done, and how it is driven... Hell I guarantee I could ruin a M3 in less than 50,000 miles, then proclaim it a POS.

Ford may not build a lot of it's cars to Honda's or other manufacturers specs, but when a Civic costs almost as much as a Taurus, but is to compete with the Escort that is thousands less seems like a pretty unfair comparison. The 91 and newer Escorts are no speed demon, but they are inexpensive, reliable modes of transportation...... just what they were designed to be. And to top it off, most of them are still cruising along with more than 100,000 miles on their clock.

96 or newer Taurus' only have 3.0L V6's.

You are correct Chris (you knew that). I was referring to all Taurus'. Some was a rebuttal to the mechanic in previous thread dis'n the 3.8L motor.

Sorry for the confusion.

The 3.8 will last forever as long as the head gasket doesn't go or is replaced at the first sign of trouble. I've literally seen TONS of 3.8's needing new head gaskets.

Escorts run forever. Mine has about 110,000 miles on it right now with absolutely no motor work (except maintenence like oil) done, and it doesn't need any.

One thing I always thought was odd... The backend of the previous Taurus seems conceptually related to the RX-7. The vague idea seems to be shared. A blob on each side with a bridge between the two. Take a look:

http://www.baff.nu/bilder/ford_taurus_ffv_bak_stor.jpg

http://www.terato.com/cars/image/rx7.JPG

Is it just me?

I think if you look at most cars today you will find similarities like that. I doubt that one was inteded however. Also at least they had the balls to take a chance on a design like that. Not many other companies would. Ford is not the typical copy cat designer. The backend had always been my least favorite part of the car, while the only part I liked were the doors. However the RX-7 is one of my favorite cars around. Do the car companies not understand that if they put the amount of R&D into the Rotary as they did in the reciprocating engine, it would be several times as good. And even though they are small engines(the ones for cars not for buses and such), it doesn't sound like a crotch rocket.
Peace

Originally posted by Cannabis
Ford is not the typical copy cat designer.But by this time, weren't Ford and Mazda sharing some design shops? It's not stealing if they re-use their own ideas. ;)

Yes that is true, but I don't see Mazda helping with the Taurus. They would give it a half decent suspension if they did. As the suspension is the only problem that I think there has ever been with the Taurus. To much body roll even for a ride oriented sedan, and nosedive under breaking. Other than that they are perfect cars. The 3.0 is bullet proof.

Originally posted by jay@af
http://www.baff.nu/bilder/ford_taurus_ffv_bak_stor.jpg


That's not a Taurus. That's a Ford Etanol Även På Bensin :D:D

When I got my 89 Sable, it was in sad shape. It ran, but overheated, and that's why they gave it to me free. The radiator had a hole in it the size of a 20 guage slug. I replaced the radiator, put in new head gaskets, and sent it down the road. The car at that point had 130,000 miles on it. When the people who gave it to me found all the service records, I started looking through them, they were all there as near as I could tell, clear down to new tire receipts. The strange part was the only oil change receipt I found was at 60,000 miles. So it was no surprise when the lower end started rattling 25,000 miles later (155,000 miles) shortly after that the tranny went. I dropped the whole subframe, motor, tranny, steering rack, all in one clean shot. If you ever need to get a motor, or tranny out of a Taurus, drop the subframe. I had everything sitting in my face in just over an hour. Anyway, I had the tranny rebuilt (not my forte') and I rebuilt the motor. Miraclesly, the cylnders still had cross hatch in them, and no discernable ridge top or bottom. I mic'd out the rings and they were well within specs too! Sent the crank in an had it turned, put a new oil pump, bearings, seals, and timing chain. While I was at it, I replaced both O2 sensors, punched the cat, replaced the rack and pinion unit (it leaked like a siv). Put KYB struts on the front and rear, and replaced the sway bar bushings in the front. I put quality 60 series tires on the stock rims. That car drove great, had good power, no nose dive, no lean, and got 26 mpg in all around driving... not bad for a station wagon!! We sold it to the dealer 95,000 miles later (no problems except one injector that went bad) for $500.00 still running, the tranny was making some noises, and didn't want to chance the wife getting stranded. That's when I made the biggest mistake of my life and bought a Focus.

I actually considered replacing the some suspension parts when I had it, but decided I would just get a new car.

They probably look that way because it is aerodynamically efficient.

Which 3L are you talking about, the Vulcan or the Duratech (the reason is, our car has a Vulcan, and head gaskets are expensive to fix)

hey that´s a neat image on that Taurus! The Taurus/Sable are very nice to me, specially the 96-2002. We rented a Sable GS a couple years ago when we went to USA and the car was very smooth and with a much nicer and superb dashboard than our Accord! I really love´em both! Long life to the Taurus!
I´ve heard that the next Taurus is going to be a hatchback? I hope MotorTrend is jocking about that, does anyone knows about it??:D

Ugh Taurus, a guy down the road drives a blue one of them, he is a father of two girls aged about 4 and 8, anyway I remember I was driving past thier house a few months back and the girl was kicking and screaming saying she didn' want to get in the car because it was "Yucky" I think back to that day and laugh, not so funny is the hundreds of Americans who have had thier houses burnt down because thier Taurus' caught fire whilst in the garage.

Originally posted by Jimmy_11_cars
not so funny is the hundreds of Americans who have had thier houses burnt down because thier Taurus' caught fire whilst in the garage.

That´s a severe acusation.

Anywise I guess you mean THIS new Primera, right?

If you are reffering to my next car, no I don't want that ugly duckling, same goes for what looks like it brother the Laguna II 2.0, I think the P11 series is much better, and looks nice with a body kit

Well...IMHO...the '00+ Taurus's are much bettter looking than the 96-99 ones(with a spoiler that is)....i drive my moms and it has pretty good pick up but not the most powerful...its like 170hp and its a Flexible Fuel Vehicle and can run on ethonal...its a '01 and pretty good...really wish they would have gotten the 200hp DOHC but it aint bad...i think these cars are getting better and more reliable. It gets decent gas on the highway but only 18mpg in the city.:sun:

All cars are getting more reliable. Its just the way the world works.:)

Well we used to have Sables badged as Taurus' here on sale in 1997-8, but were withdrawn due to poor sales.......However, most people I know who own them seem pretty happy with them :)

i think that some cars are getting more reliable, you just gotta be carefull what you get. Like my dad had a 97 caddy and the thing kept having mistakes. when he hit 150,000 the engine blew, litterally, it was 3 cylinderheads, and it happened right as we pulled into the lot. that is garbage to me, it need to be able to have lots of miles and still go strong.