1999 Ford Taurus SE review from North America

Steering rack blew at 146,000 miles (two weeks after I bought the car).

Gas tank sprung a leak at 150,000 miles.

Factory radio stopped working at 150,000 miles.

See description for rest.

Well I bought this car in October of 2008 at a local used car dealership, and don't get me wrong, I love the car, but if you aren't good with a wrench, do NOT buy this car.

I bought it with 146,000 miles, and it ran great for about a week, and then I heard the power steering start to whine. So I stopped at the gas station and bought some fluid. The problem stopped for about a week, and then started to do it again. I tried to put some more fluid into it and then POP! There is all of a sudden power steering fluid all over my face.

Long story short, I brought it back to the dealership I bought it at and asked them if they could take a look at it to at least tell me what it is so I can replace it. They wouldn't even look at it (even though I financed and have a warranty through them). So I brought it home and started replacing one thing after another. Power steering pump ($90), pressure line ($120), return line ($50), and when I still had a pool of fluid on my garage floor, I asked my girlfriend's father for some pointers. After a look and a half, he determined it was the rack itself ($150). So after everything was done on that, I noticed the tank is leaking ($194) and the filler neck is rusted through ($5). So almost $600 later and about ten months worth of work, I finally have it done...

So the moral of the story; I'm not so much mad at the car because it's a used car with 150,000 miles on it. It's bound to have problems. But, if you don't know how to work on a car, don't buy this car. The work that I have done on this car would have cost me easily 4 to 5 grand at a shop (I checked), and the car's only worth 2000 at the most. Oh, I'm not gonna name names, but the dealership I bought this car from sold me a "required" warranty that I apparently cannot get out of that seems to cover everything that works just fine on the car. I'm sure I'm gonna end up using it at some point, but I got screwed without dinner on this one, since I still owe a bit over $5000 on it...