Thinking of buying a new car, possibly a Taurus Sho

[MaynardsEden]

So here it is, I've recently come into some money.

I've always like my wife's Taurus (power wise) which is an SE 24 valve V6. I've always liked the idea of buying a Taurus Sho. I've always trusted Ford Trucks, my father ran a '90 Ranger up to 350,000 Miles, and my '99 Ranger now has 103,000 miles on it and is still running well. HOWEVER... I've never really liked fords cars. My moms old 95 Contour fell apart before 100,000 miles. My sister's 2003 Focus had many problems, buttons falling off, dash came apart... and even my wife's taurus has had it's share of problems. I've never had any major problems with my Ranger, other than the Rear main seal and the valve cover gasket needing to be replaced, yet her taurus has had o2 sensors blow out, injection/starting problems, and many other miniscule problems that just constantly piss off our wallets. My truck has had the same battery in it for 4 years, and always starts on the first turn. Hers has gone through 4 batteries in the past 3 years. (even 1 Interstate top of the list battery only lasted a year.) I realize a may just be dragging along with this...

Ultimately my question is...
Is it worth it?
Do any of you have any experience with SHOs to the extent that you LOVED them and would buy it again?
Do any of you have any BAD experience with SHOs to the extent that you would never buy a Ford ever again?

Please let me know...
Thanks

[shorod]

What year of SHO are you considering? I've owned a '93, a '98, and currently a 2011.

-Rod

[MaynardsEden]

Originally Posted by shorod

What year of SHO are you considering? I've owned a '93, a '98, and currently a 2011.

-Rod

I was thinking of an earlier year.

I like the 93's, and I love the new ones, but I would rather spend less than 10,000. So the new ones are not in my sights.

Really any of the 90's models is what i'd be gearin' for.

[shorod]

Yeah, you should be able to pick up a V6 or V8 from the '90's for less than $10k. The '92-'95 are, in my mind, more attractive than the '96-'99. And the V6 engine has fewer problems than the '96-'99 which were know to have cam sprockets that walk and coil on plug units that fail. The earlier SHOs also felt smaller to drive.

Of course getting an older car will likely mean there are more items about to fail, or if you're lucky, more items that have already been replaced. The transmissions on the older SHOs, both manual and automatic, are not necessarily known for their robustness. The V6 engine on the otherhand is nearly bulletproof. It seems the biggest issue for the V6 was leaking spark plug well seals that could cause a misfire. That's a rather easy fix though if you are handy with basic tools.

Suspension issues were also rather common, but other than that, if you get an early SHO that's been inspected to be in good shape, you'll likely be quite happy with it. You're lucky that there are probably several cars in your vicinity that still have good bodies on them and haven't been exposed to several years of road salt.

-Rod

[MaynardsEden]

Originally Posted by shorod

Yeah, you should be able to pick up a V6 or V8 from the '90's for less than $10k. The '92-'95 are, in my mind, more attractive than the '96-'99. And the V6 engine has fewer problems than the '96-'99 which were know to have cam sprockets that walk and coil on plug units that fail. The earlier SHOs also felt smaller to drive.

-Rod

Thanks, I appreciate it.
Only problems I've had with suspension on my truck has been bushings/shocks needing to be replaced, and it's been a rather less than smooth ride in the turns. So I'm used to that. But I do feel like I'll still consider it.

Are the earlier '90s turbo-ed like the recent ones?

[shorod]

Nope, 2010 was the first year for an OEM forced induction SHO engine (365 HP). The Yamaha V6 engines (220 HP) and V8 SHO engines (235 HP) were normally aspirated from the factory.

-Rod