The Taurus is mainly used by police in my area. The old crappy ones from the 90's and 2000's are everywhere in my area and they're barely even driveable. Those old ones were some of the ugliest cars around but are somehow they are the most common car around.

I did like the original Taurus SHO though. The current Taurus is better than the past few.

 

^ Yeah those late 90's to 2004ish Taurus, they sold them CHEAP!!! Sold a lot of them to rental companies, which you could then buy for even CHEAPER!!!! Used now days they're like a $1000-2000 car if they run good, any major mechanical malady, off to the scrapper.

 

Those late-1990s Tauri were definitely built for the rental lot. My manager at the time did a lot of travelling, from head office to the branch offices. He told me once that because he was so often in rental cars, and, more specifically, so often in the Taurus, that he actually went out and bought a Taurus as his daily-driver at home, so that there would be no change from his car to the rental cars he drove so often.

 

That's also (probably) a sign that he liked them.

 

My mom had a '94 Taurus for several years that was very reliable. Never any problems except for a transmission replacement once it hit high mileage. After the transmission replacement, still no problems. She eventually traded it in for a Ford Windstar minivan (bad idea lol). She wishes that she never got rid of it.

 

The Windstar of that vintage was actually Taurus-based, just as the Odyssey was Accord-based and the Sienna was Camry-based.

 

Interesting. Maybe she just had bad luck. She had a lot of problems with that new '01 Windstar then the transmission went out. Thought it was just a problem with that particular one so she got another, same thing. Then she switched back to an '03 Taurus, with the same issues again, and said, "I'll never buy another Ford again."

 

Taurus sales thru May were 19,521 (-.9%). For comparison, Fusion sales were 107,225 (-27%). Anyone know if sales to law enforcement are included in these delivery numbers?

 

They should be.

I see a lot more GM and Dodge police vehicles than I see Taurus.

 

The Windstar was a big pile of dog dookie, no matter the year. Transmission failures were all but certain in the Windstar, they were common in that generation Taurus as well. If you have a transmission that won't last in the Taurus, its the same one in the Windstar, hauling around about 1000-2000lbs more of steel and passengers, you could see why it was even more prone to failure in the minivan.

 

We had a green metallic 97' Windstar growing up and yes it had transmission issues and a few electrical gremlins. Our family has owned a lot of Fords over the years, and this was the only bad Ford we experienced of the bunch.

 

Taurus' were easy to work on, and the 3.0 Vulcan engine was indestructible. The transmissions, if maintained would go 250k or so, then another could be had for a few hundred out of a scrapyard with low miles, and go some more. from 2001-2005? The only real issue I am aware of on the Taurus is that they were prone to rust in the rust belt states and to the rear coil springs snapping with age. Replace the coil springs for an aftermarket set and off you go!

 

Closing necropost.