Engine - 3.0 V6 has been very reliable
Comfort - Most comfortable car I've driven short of a for Town Car
Safety - Hit this thing and the other guy loses

Transmission, Door Sensors, Interior Layout

Got a good deal on the car with about 27,000 miles on it. Had lots of features, and the ride is great. I'm 6'3" tall and find the car to be very comfortable. I am very easy on cars, and maintain them religiously. At 47,000 miles the transmission blew while on a long trip. That should not have happened. $4000 and 6 weeks to replace with factory rebuilt unit. Ford did cover 90% of cost with an "after the fact" extended warranty plan. Brakes have been pretty good. Now experiencing the door sensor - some light won't go out problem. Dealer says $360 per door to fix - or spray WD40 into the door latch assembly should make it go away. May just pull the fuse. Car also now needs tie rod ends at 61,000 (not too bad -
they do wear). The pull out console is OK, but there are no other cup holders in the car. Hmmm - what rocket scientist designed that "feature"? Sound system is nice - note I'm not an audiophile though. It hasn't been too bad, but I've had better. Not sure if I'd buy another one though. Wiper control is intermittent at times. Tolerable, but annoying. Economy has never been where it should be. 20 MPG in town, 25 on highway. My 1994 Escort wagon was a MUCH better car. Seems like at Ford, once they get a model perfected, they quit making it. (Escort, Aerostar, etc.) Very dumb of the people at Ford.

Bottom line - be careful buying one of these. You might do OK, but then again, you might not. Do you feel lucky???

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1987 Chevy Celebrity, 1994 Escort Wagon, 1988 and 1996 Aerostar MiniVan, 1981 Ford Fairmont, 1990 Geo Metro, 1984 Chevy Cavalier

Styling, Comfort, Milage, Loads of room, Huge trunk, Comes well equipped, Just an all around good car !!

I did have to replace the brakes (front & Back) and the rear rotors at 65000 kms (38000m) There is a little wind noise at speeds exceding 100 kms/hr (65mph) Other than this I have had no problems with this car.

I can honestly say "I am very pleased with this car", it is everything I expected it to be and so much more. I would reccomend this car to anybody. I bought this car in early 2000 with 22000 kms on it and have followed the maintenance schedual. The only costs I have endured was to replace the brakes, about $300 can.

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1977 Chev Malibu - The Taurus has as much room is more comfortable and gets much better milage. 1997 Dodge Neon - The Taurus has much more room is much more comfortable and gets nearly the same milage.

Umm...

Anything between the front and rear bumper. What can I say this car really sucks. I got it for a grad. gift last year. I know a lot of people say this car is fast, well they have never driven a real car. My dad 1993 F-150 preforms better. I have driven my friend's Ecilpse, uncomparable. THe Ecilpse accelerates faster and handles a hell of a lot better. The SHO has the freaking weakest suspension in the world. Ever single turn it wants to dig into the concert, and it accelerates like my moms mini van. I have a manual trans. Automatic must really sucks balls pretty hard. Plus here is the kicker, like most American cars it runs for about 100 mile intervals between required routine total overhauls. Dont buy this car!

I get sick just thinking about it.

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A bycycle, your feet, a razar scooter

-Roomy, comfortable interior.
-Nice trunk.
-Power everything!
-Good sound system.
-Styling isn't bad at all.
-Almost no engine noise in cabin.

-Handling is not as quick or precise as it should be.
-Just OK ride quality.
-Barely average gas mileage.
-No ABS.
-Reliability is quite iffy, if you will.
-Slow pickup, sub-par top speed.

This car has a lot of strong points (described above). The cabin is very roomy and comfy, and it has a nice, big trunk. Almost everything is powered, and the sound system rocks. However to every good there is a bad. Most noticeably is that, for a car with a 3.0L V6, the Taurus picks up really slow. One time, when I floored the gas, it took around 9 seconds to go from 0-60. Unnacceptable. The top speed isn't much better: the speedometer only goes up to 85, and I estimate that the top speed isn't much faster. Throw in the sluggish handling, and driving the car becomes an exercise in frustration. The is also literally no aftermarket for those who desire to hook the car up. Also, reliability is a factor. In 5 years with this car, I have spent more money on repairs than I care to tell you people.

In conclusion: While the Taurus has it's merits, the cons, sadly, outweigh the pros.

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2000 Chevy Venture minivan- The Ford has a better sound system than the Venture, but that's about it.
1999 Acura Integra Type R- No contest. The Integra is the hands down winner here.

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Im only 17 and I saw this 94 sho that costs $5,000 (first $6,000 than reduced) and wanted to buy it. I read alot of good things online about the sho's and decided to get it, but after reading the reviews up there I got horrorfied. I don't know what to do, I really wanted it (It has 90,000 miles on it, and the interior is not in a bad shape), I wonder if I should get it. I would appriciate any responses I would get, if your have an oppinion on, if I should purchase it or not please respond, my email address is rada@arn.net

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Didn't cost much

Everything is cheap & flimsy. @ 3.5 years and 47,000 mi, all interior electrical items are becoming faulty: Windows stick up or down. Door thinks it's open when it's not (who's the rocket scientist that replaced a good old fashioned mechanical switch with some idiotic invisible one?),
dash lights flickering, speakers rotted-out on radio. I could go on.

After 20 years, I'm throwing in the towel on American Cars

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GM Chevy's - about the same

nice looking car, decent gas mileage. safe, somewhat reliable.

air leaks and noise at highway speeds coming from windows when closed. sqeaks when turning. Found that to be the outer tie rod. I twisted it back and fouth a little and it went away. heater blower squeaks. oil pan gasket is leaking - that's about 250 to fix. tranny and engine ok so far.

..

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89 ford taurus - same 3.0 engine- simmilar problems except the 96 doesn't have module problems like the 89 did. Tranny update in the 96 should alleviate that defect (89 taurus blew the tranny)

Roomy, smooth ride, has power.

I HAVE THE DOOR AJAR/STUCK "ON" DOME LIGHT SYNDROME. I HAD A DOOR SENSOR REPLACED AND TWO DAYS LATER THE SAME THING HAPPENED. I PULLED FUSE. AT 32, 000 MILES, MY ROTORS FRONT/BACK WERE BAD. AT 52,000 MILES I HAVE A BAD TRANSMISSION & BAD MOTOR MOUNTS. I ALSO HAVE THAT WIERD POPPING NOISE WHEN I TURN SOMETIMES AND MY CAR IDLES LOUD AND HIGH. THERE'S ALSO A LOT OF NOISE ON THE HIGHWAY AND I CAN FEEL SOME AIR COMING IN.

I HAVE SPENT FAR TOO MUCH MONEY ON THIS CAR SINCE I PURCHASED IT IN 1999 (AS A USED CAR) AND I AM STILL HAVING THE SAME RECURRING PROBLEMS. IT'S LIKE MONEY DOWN THE DRAIN. IT'S TOO BAD THE ENGINE AND ELECTRICAL HAVE TO BE SO WEAK AND UNDEPENDABLE BECAUSE I LOVE EVERYTHING ELSE ABOUT THE TAURUS. I WOULDN'T RECOMMEND ANY TAURUS OLDER THAN A 1999 UNLESS YOU DON'T MIND PUTTING MONEY INTO IT.

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I HAVE HAD A NISSAN SENTRA AND, ALTHOUGH IT DID NOT HAVE AS MUCH POWER AS THE TAURUS, I HAD HARDLY ANY PROBLEMS WITH IT AND NO MAJOR REPAIRS. IT WAS DURABLE AND DEPENDABLE.

none

Two major problems:
head gasket failing prematurely
tranny failing prematurely

This is the worst car my wife and I have ever had. The head gasket blew at 69k, no help from Ford. This despite aggressive attempts, including a lawsuit, to have them compensate for this defect of which they have been aware of for years. This affects all 3.8 L engines, '87 to '96. The worst year was '93, but the worst model is the Windstar Mini-van. Also, we have replaced the motor mounts twice, the radiator, the line to the heater core, the heater core, ac and many other smaller things that shouldn't be going on a car with less than 80k. This care is a big gamble for any car owner, and you will lose. Additionally, the tranny I have been told is "ready to shear right off." If this sounds appropriate for a car with less than 80k, then this is the car for you. If you are seriously interested in the Taurus, invest a little time and investigate the two most serious defects that plague it: the tranny and the head gasket. Combined, they will cost you between $3,500 and $4,000 before you roll 100,000. There are hundreds of websites out there to address these problems. Not the least of which is the NHTSA itself. I unfortunately have two a '91 Taurus as well. I bought both because they "seemed like a good car." Had I done any amount of research, I would have easily learned otherwise. A VERY good starting point for the head gasket problem is http://home.att.net/~ccatanese/ford/mainx.htm. This is perhaps the most widely used site for Ford victims, and is maintained well in an unbiased fashion. It is made not to bash Ford, but to offer recourse to victims. Bottom line: Under no circumstances is it a worthwhile investment to buy a Taurus. I can only personally vouch for the '91 and '93, but Ford has a history of knowing of defects, ignoring them, and ignoring the consumer complaints thereafter.

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'91 Taurus. Just as bad. It has not showed any head gasket problems yet, but the tranny went.

The car has an excellent ride on the highway. Mine has a 3.0L SOHC motor, seems to have plenty of power to handle hills and passes. Interior is roomy, I am over 6ft. and fit comfortably. Some nice amenities (i.e. cupholder, power locks windows)

Where do I start. Tranny amkes all kind of noises, especially at high speed going up hill. Electrical problems seem to be surfacing around the 50K mile mark. Door ajar light comes on sometimes when the doors are clearly closed. Recently, when I turn the car off, the high-beam indicator comes on and the lights are in high beam mode. I have resorted to disconnecting the battery as a quick fix until I can get to a 'service" department(that's another story in itself). I am really pissed off at this piece of crap( I had a different word in here to explain my opinion, but the web site wouldn't except profanity). I expected to buy a car that was reliable and safe. Ford brags that this is the 'Best selling car in America', I suspect that this is because they sell millions of them to the government and to companies that use them as fleet vehicles. They don't have to worry about the cost for repairs because it can be incorporated into their expense accounts. What about you and me? What are we supposed to rely on when the company who makes our car, takes our money and turns their back on us. The fuel economy is a farce, my car has never realized the 'estimated fuel mileage'. Their is a thump noise that happens when you turn a corner, it seems to come from somewhere under the front suspension, maybe it's that plastic tie rod that connects the steering components to the wheel. The brakes suck, I have warped a few rotors and changed pads numerous times.

This car has turned out to be a nightmare. I don't recommend anyone buying this car unless you have a full-proof warranty that covers 100% of the car. It is a lemon and Ford should be held accountable for their 'product', and I use the term very loosely.

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I have driven every car imaginable