5th Sep 2016, 04:42
With these modern cars, it's not financially feasible to keep them any longer than 100,000-120,000 miles. The maintenance cost will eat you alive and trying to repair them yourself will usually require special tools and training. It was time to get rid of that Taurus. Its reasonable service life was over.
5th Sep 2016, 13:57
That's why I drive a 20-year old car everyday. I'm curious to know the mileage of the Taurus on review before the trade in; the poster never mentioned it.
5th Sep 2016, 22:20
Utterly wrong. My 2005 Sable had 279K miles on it when I traded it in without ever needing anything beyond routine maintenance and was still running fine with no problems whatsoever. There are plenty of late model vehicles on the road with over 200K miles and still going.
6th Sep 2016, 21:48
The 2005 Taurus/Sable were completely different compared to the 2008 models with lots of older technology, especially if equipped with the cast iron 3.0 Vulcan V6 which debuted in 1986. 279k is a damn good milestone without a transmission or front end rebuild. Those were the common weak points.
7th Sep 2016, 10:51
A modern car to me is one under 6 years old. Rack up quick mileage and it becomes very expensive today with complex systems. Some I have had lately have barely enough room under the hood to even work in them. Especially front wheel drive, which I despise working on. Or you spend hours removing other parts to get to the problem. I now have 2 rolling toolboxes not just 1 to have enough specialty tools to even work on mine. And some I simply still take in. The only real plus today is YouTube repair videos with others that faced the same issues.
4th Mar 2017, 04:46
Perhaps your utterly wrong notion comes from the limited sample you interface with. You only work on cars that have the problems, never seeing the ones that don't. If you don't have numbers, you don't have a rational basis to make broad claims about reliability.
4th Mar 2017, 19:06
These are personal cars. Not running a business. Although I have far tools than the average car enthusiast. Some of my basis is from owning many makes and models since 1969. You learn what to avoid.
5th Mar 2017, 05:19
You think you've owned enough cars to have a statistically significant sampling? Perhaps if you're Jay Leno...
5th Mar 2017, 22:52
It's very possible to have owned as many as he has. His are high end. Buying moderate cars, it's not as far fetched as it seems. And I have worked on family and friends as well. What are guy caves for?
4th Sep 2016, 18:27
I'm the original poster and have another update on this car. I have sold the car before it stopped running. Many owners are having transmission troubles with this model. I was hoping that my car would not suffer the same problems, but I was wrong. On a recent trip I experienced the hard, banging shift problem from first to second gear. The following day I traded the car for a Toyota Camry. I have had all the problems others have had with this car, creaking struts $800, defective coil packs $2000, premature brake wear, $1000 and excessive body corrosion, $2600, and the terrible fear that I would be stranded on the roadside like many other Taurus owners. I'm glad to be rid of this car. It's the worst car I have ever owned. I feel sorry for the person that will eventually buy this car from the dealer as the transmission will soon be in need of replacement... another $3600 expense.