1996 Ford Taurus Ghia review from Australia and New Zealand

Do not buy a Taurus *without* Ford guaranteeing you in writing that the engine cut out problem outlined below will not occur:

A **major** safety issue and the reason we sold it (to a scrap metal yard) was that the motor would intermittently *stall* even when traveling at anything between 5 km ph and 120 km ph. My wife and kids nearly died as a result due to her panic as a result of loss of steering power, braking etc.

This technical fault is a potential *killer* for sure!

More worrying still is that I have heard of many other non-Taurus Fords, even much more recent models, having this same problem. This situation, if correct, and I personally have reason to believe it is, is *outrageous* and is why I will never purchase another Ford.

I was told by my mechanic that the auto gear box was on the way out - I am told this is a *very* common and *expensive" problem with these models. $5000 plus to fix in Australia, no doubt less in the US and Canada.

This is a very comfortable and reasonably fuel economic car (up to 30 mpg on country trips and 19 mpg in city driving).

If you buy one in Australia (although I strongly implore you NOT to for the reasons stated above) Ford will candidly tell you that they do *NOT* stock the parts here anymore (expect to wait for them to be shipped from the US and PAY big $$$$ for them), and as such you can also query Ford's current technical ability to service them in Australia too.

FORD did not have a ready answer about the death defying cutting out trick, and intimated that it would cost a LOT of money for them to identify and fix the problem being an intermittent one.