1996 Ford Taurus GL review from North America

Besides regular oil changes and maintenance.

First 5,000 miles were fine...

5,700 miles: Transmission started slipping, so I took it right back to the dealership and they said they would fix the transmission, because it was covered in the warranty.

6,500 miles: Engine overheated for no reason. Dealership said there was nothing wrong with it. After the engine overheated, I started hearing a whining noise coming from the engine above 2,300RPMS.

I then drove the car less because I was upset that this car was far from reliable, plus I could not trust it to go anywhere.

In 1998 at 13,335 miles: I took this car on a 50 mile trip and the car died when I was cruising at 65 MPH on the freeway. Fuel pump went out. ($250 fix)

At 25,000 miles transmission went out again. (Dealership actually agreed to fix it again due to the fact in went out at ONLY 5,700 MILES!

After all that I was driving the car home from work and the engine threw a rod. ONLY AT 33,559 miles!!! (DEALER refused to fix it cause it was past warranty!)

I thought I was getting a very good deal on this car because it was brand new, I thought maintaining would make it last but I was wrong! 2 transmissions in 33,000 miles!!! Come on FORD. I had a Ford Escort GT before this car and it is still running good. I gave it to my son because the 1987 Celica GT that I was going to give him has over 300,000 on the original engine and transmission. But the Escort GT only has like 140,000 and still runs strong.

The Taurus was also very comfortable, got to cruising speeds good when the transmission was fine. But it is far from reliable. Ford should have put a Mazda engine into this one like the Escort GT, or made their cars reliable like Toyota. I've got an 87 Celica GT with over 300K and it still runs great. I trusted that car way more than I could trust the brand new Taurus LOL.