http://www.detnews.com/2005/autosins...C01-154989.htm

The new Ford 500 is better by far but the Taurus helped get it there.


I have mixed feelings about this car. I was excited to see the new Taurus back in 86 when I was a senior in HS My first impression was cool design, lots of room and peppy V6 (for the times). My Mother purchased a 1989 Taurus after driving a Toyota for 6 yrs and sold the car in 1992 for another Toyota. The car was not a bad car but the little things drove us to the dealer for repairs more than you care to know. When the car died on her due to a bad alternator (43k miles) were we done with Ford.

In 1998 my previous employers own a fleet of Ford products including the Taurus. I needed to replace my dieing Mazda so I scored a 1995 Taurus with 77k miles for about 3500 (2k less than wholesale). I jumped on it and drove the car with no problem until I donated it to church years later with 197k miles. The tranny was starting to show signs of wear but overall the 3.0 V6 was bullet proof. The car came equipped with a "Police package" that gave it a heavy duty Trans, suspension, and radiator ect.. Only thing pissed me off was a terrible shaking in the dash when braking but only now and then.

I guess Ford has always been a hit or miss product but I cannot rule out every owning a Ford again but if I fall on hard financial times I know there a Ford out there waiting for me

 

i also liked the taurus but they were a b**** to work on dont really like the look of the 500

 

The Ford Taurus died a long time ago. My sister was working for a pharmaceutical company in 2002 and they provided her with a Taurus. At about 25,000 miles she need to replace the tranny. I couldn't believe it. It was still under warranty but the frustration of having to use a rental for a few days was not acceptable. I have a 1996 Lexus ES 300 and I have over 241,000 miles. I keep up the regular maintenance and no major problems what so ever.

 

the ford 500 looks like the ls430 to me

 

I wonder what they are going to be building at the plant outside of Atlanta where they assembled the Taurus and the Sable?

Oh, and its about time the killed the Taurus... Desing was getting too ugly.

 

Isn't the Ford 500 an Avalon fighter (or tries to) while the new Ford Fusion would be the actual Taurus replacement?

 

Good Riddance....

 

For 2006, I could see sales of the "Big 5" as something like:

1) Camry: 400,000
2) Accord: 360,000
3) Altima: 270,000
4) Fusion/Milan: 200,000
5) Sonata/Optima: 180,000

The Fusion is definitely in the same class as Accord, Camry, Sonata, etc.

The 500 competes against the Avalon, Maxima, Azera, etc.

Speaking of the 500, when are they gonna get rid of the Crown Vic? Once they do, is the 500 going to be THE cop/taxi car?

 

The Taurus was......and is........a strange vehicle, quality-wise. I never could quite figure it out. 3 virtually identical Taruses....engines, trannies, everything.......could roll down the same assembly line on the same day. One of the three would be a real creampuff..... it would go 200,000 miles with minimal problems, the next one would be a lemon from Day One, and the third would be more or less like an average domestic car.....reasonably reliable but not up to the better Japanese cars. The reason for this? I don't know....your guess is as good as mine.

But this is what I would tell people who would ask me about a Taurus.....it is a classic case of playing the guessing game and rolling the dice. You could end up with equal chances of either a super-reliable car or a lemon....or literally anything in between. ( Sorry, Trexus.....your sister obviously got one of the lemons). It had the most unpredictable repair record of just about any car I can remember, although one consistant pattern was overheating with the 3.8L V6 due to a tight fit in the engine compartmant, with little air circulating around the engine, until Ford made modifications. Not surprisingly, Consumer Reports, most years, gave it an average reliability rating. ( If you balance out the extremes that is what you usually come up with ).

I am one of the few Ford Five Hundred fans.....I really like the car, especially in the AWD versions and the versatile Freestyle liftback version. It is, IMO, an excellent car for everyday driving in suburban areas, but, in the Taurus tradition, I'm a little leery of the long-term reliability of the untested CVT transmission and of how long the drive belt will last.....and Ford's warranty is a stingy 3 / 36. But...there is no denying the CVT's efficiency and the fact that it extracts every one of the V6's 203 horses.....not a huge amount of power for that size car.

 

You had the car for 13 years with only 43K miles?

 

Opps! We sold it in 1992 not 2002 Thanks

 

The Taurus was one of the cars that saved Ford in the 80s. It wasn't perfect, but it did its job. I wasn't really a fan of it, as I prefer other products Ford has on offer.

 

The many Tauruses I rented over the years were boring but fine. Roomy, fairly quiet, but with the horrible 'oval' dash pieces in the early ones.

I'm with you mmarshall. I think they could improve the front end look and the grill, but I like the side and rear views and the car is very roomy and the interior is really quite nice.

Who knows on quality, but I really think Ford has made some big stride in recent years.

 

The Crown Victoria/Grand Marquis/Town Car is here to stay for quite a while...there's a complete redesign coming up in 2009. I love those cars.

 

plus if they got rid of it what would the cabbies do?