tune-up free?

My mother drives a 2003 Ford Taurus and she tells me that somebody along the way, whether it was a mechanic or the dealership, said that her model was designed to never need a tune-up. Does this have substance in reality? Myself, I drive an '02 Mitsubishi Galant ES. I have had it for almost a year now and have not sensed reason to change spark plugs or any sort of tune-up maintenance. As a rule, in my past vehicles, I would change plugs and wires about once a year but in this case I'm thinkin', it ain't broke so don't fix it. So what is the deal on the no-tune-up claim?

Its a marketing gimmick. I would strongly consider normal tune-up intervals. Tune-up intervals these days are considerably longer than back in the day, but spark plugs every 50k is a wise idea.

My 96 was supposed to have a 100k life on coolant, plugs, wires, and a few other things. At 23k, the coolant turned into sandy jello. I replaced the plugs at 60k because they started failing.

Marketing. They can say anything as long as it lasts longer than the warranty period :)