Hello there...

My brother is interested in buying a used Taurus. I'm just wondering, how safe is this car? Compared with others?? And what kind of gas mileage should he expect if he gets one?

(Sorry I sound so dumb and ignorant.)

JPS

 

I had a 99' a few years back, 24 valve Dohc, pretty quick for a family car, 28 miles to the gal, watch out for the motor mounts, that engine puts all kind of strees on them, pretty reliable, named top ten safety rides for that year. overall a pretty enjoyable and reliable car

 

No matter what kind of deal he may be able to get, do not allow him to purchase a 91-95 Taurus unless it is an SHO with a manual transmission. The 91-95's had major transmission troubles. 90 and older aren't necessarily great with transmissions, but they won't burn up unless seriously abused. And 96 and older redesigned, and also look nicer as well( supposedly). 98, 99, 2000's can be had between 2000 and 4000 dollars, not too shabby.

 

Besides the transmission problems, if it has a 3.8L engine and hasnt had new head gaskets yet he should figure that into the price.

 

I bought my wife a 94 Taurus. She's had it a couple years and has put 70,000 miles on it, (145,000 miles now). It has the 3.0 liter and gets 24 to 32 MPG. When I first got it I put a tranny cooler on it and had the fluid flushed. (I've since found out the 3.0L is the one to get - a majority of the tranny problems happen behind the 3.8L, plus headgaskets). I've replaced the waterpump and alternator on it. Needs to have the speed senser replaced, but I'll have to take down the exhaust to get to it - low on the priority list.

Overall, it's been a good car.

 

My wife and I bought a '96 Mercury Sable (same thing as a Taurus) several years ago as a used car with 75k miles on it. It needed to have the oil pan gasket replaced, and that was it. It had the 12V 3.0 motor, and had plenty of power for "normal" driving, sometimes too little to pass when you wanted to though. It was a good car to us for a long time. We recently traded it off for an '02 Taurus SEL with the 24V 3.0, good car that passes better and still drives really nice. It has a five star crash safety rating and ABS. The main reason I went after a Taurus is their terrible resale value, tough luck for the person who bought it new of course, but we paid almost exactly half of the new sticker price when it was less than two years old with 17K miles on the clock. A good deal money-wise, and it has a massive trunk too. I like our Taurus, it's been a good car for our purposes anyway.

 

The nice thing about Tauri, they aren't as ugly as the midsize GM offereing, and are much cheaper.

I'm a pretty big fan of the SHO cars, they are kinda hard to find, and fairly valuable. They made a few that had a Yamaha Marine V8 in them. They would wind up tighter than a mod motor, and hold their own, the water pumps and alternators didn't quite like it though.

 

I have a '92 Taurus with 3.0 that has 160,000 miles on it, engine still runs good but the tranny had to be rebuilt at 88,000 and the a/c compressor gave out at 100,000. Other minor repairs include alternator, waterpump & thermostat(might have just needed thermostat),.

 

Being an owner of an '89 SHO, id like to make a few corrections No worries, many people are uninformed or misinformed about the SHO.

1. SHOs are quite easy to find. Problem? Find on in decent shape! THAT is hard.
2. worth a lot? Hardly. Check KBB. Last time I checked, the SHO actually blue booked LESS than a regular taurus. I bought my '89 with 85k on it from the original owner, in excellent shape, all records from day one, for $3k. And according to KBB, I overpaid!
3. The yamahe motors were never "marine" motors. And the v-8 SHOs ('96-'99) had a ford block with yamaha heads. V-6 SHOs ('89-'95) had motors designed and built entirely by yamaha, from oil pan to intake.

Now then, interested in a SHO?
If you are, be sure you have a garage full of tools, and the time to wrench. They are not that reliable. Fun, but not reliable. Kind of like the old saying...

Fast, cheap, dependable.

the SHO is fast and cheap.

On the bright side, the motors seem the last forever. There are many SHOs running around on 300k+ engines. With no engine work ever performed.

Check out www.superhighoutput.com and www.shoforum.com for more info!

BTW, here i my (quite limited and outdated) SHO page:
http://hosting.superhighoutput.com/n...o/SHOindex.htm

 

The trannys were the weak link in these cars. As other have stated, they will need a total rebuild between 80,000 and 130,000 miles. Mine was to the tune of $2300.00. These cars are barely worth that much by the time this needs to be done. Choose wisely grasshopper.

 

The 3.0 Vulcan engine (12 valves) is only rated at about 160 hp - enough to get by, but you're not going to impress anybody with it. It gets about 24 - 28 MPG. As long as you flush the radiator ever 40K - 50K it will run for ever, most problems occur when the radiator gets clogged or the water pump quits and the engine overheats - avoid that and they're good for 200K easily. The Duratec engine (3.0L 24V) is pretty much the same as the Vulcan in gas mileage and reliability only with about 25% more power.

Trannie problems - get a A4XN transmission and keep the oil changed in it - will last as long as the car. Get a A4XS transmission and keep enough money on hand to replace it anytime after 80K. All Taurus's with Duratec engines have the "good" transmission, about a 1/3 of the Vulcan powered cars have the "good" transmission.

Price - even with low miles a 2 year old Taurus only brings about half what it listed for - lots of them come back from leases because of that.

 

"Trannie problems - get a A4XN transmission and keep the oil changed in it - will last as long as the car. Get a A4XS transmission and keep enough money on hand to replace it anytime after 80K. All Taurus's with Duratec engines have the "good" transmission, about a 1/3 of the Vulcan powered cars have the "good" transmission."

Are u meaning the newer models too? He'd probably get a 2001-03-- something like that. Are u saying he should avoid the Vulcan powered cars??

Thanks for the help... I always feel ignorant reading yall's replies!!

-jps

 

My wife and I recently purchased a 00' Ford Taurus with the FFV 3.0L vulcan and it has a Ax4n tranny.

The vulcan motor can scoot with the best of them IMO, but then again I would prefer the 24v Duratec, but I'm still happy with my Vulcan, as it gets the job done and doesnt scare the tar out of my wife. I usually get about 28mpg on the interstate, and 30 if my wife drives.

Other wise a great car!

I think that I paid something like $7K for mine with 72K on it....I'm not sure why others are saying lower prices, must be a regional thing...I looked all over my state to find the deal that I got.

 

1996 to 2003 - basically the same transmissions and the engines with some small tweeking done almost every year. Have the dealer put the thing on a lift - and check the pan - A4XN has that on the pan - A4XS has A4OD on the pan. I got lucky when I bought my '99 - didn't know one transmission was better then the other - just happend to get a Vulcan engine with a A4XN trannie. With the less powerful engine that transmission should last longer then the car.

 

160 HP? If you're talking about the newer Taurus incarnate, then maybe. The older Vulcan's were dropping 160 tq, only 140hp.

The Vulcan will run forever. And as you probably have noticed...they'll spit out a waterpump at some point. Mine did...mine just leaked constantly and I carried fluids with me as needed. Then the radiator took a rock..but..that stopped on its own. Not exactly good..but...she still went. Then with the tranny sick, I didn't feel like sinking money into it. It was a beautiful car...adn with it being a former cop car, that spotlight on her was SO fun to scare people with. Just driving down the road, everybody reaches for seatbelts, slams the brakes, etc.

No matter what you get, tranny cooler it. Please? =P

Btw...the Duratec will last just as long for you. You won't have quite the down low, but the thing revs fast enough that you're in the power quite quickly anyways.