1997 Ford Taurus GL Wagon review from North America

Bought the car used from Auto-nation in California. They replaced one of the front door speakers under warranty, then the other door speaker blew out 18 months after purchase.

There is a creaking sound from under the car when you hit a bump or shift from Drive to Reverse. Initially thought it was a loose transmission or the engine was loose, but it hasn't been a problem.

Since the car originated from the East Coast, the brake discs front and rear were quite rusted, and began to warp at about 50,000 miles. The discs and pads were replaced at the 60,000 mile service, which overall cost $1,600.

I wanted to get a new ignition key for the car - the dealer told me the key was $45 and it would be an hour of labor to 'program' the key to work with my car (another $65). I read in the manual that you could simply program the key by placing it in the ignition after a working ignition key - the dealers are sharks!

No other problems.

The 24 valve Duratec engine is a must. It likes to rev and has strong acceleration (for a station wagon) over 3,000 RPM, with plenty of torque. It's actually more fun to put you foot down than in my Audi A4 2.8!

There is a lot of space in the cabin, and the rear cargo space is huge for a station wagon.

The car has the premium 'Mach' stereo in it with a trunk-mounted CD changer. Overall quite impressed with the clarity and volume, despite the blown speaker mentioned earlier.

The quality of the interior fabric and plastic is not very nice, but it's all functional and pretty easy to keep clean.

Overall I feel like I've been quite lucky with the car (knock on wood), as a lot of other buyers have experienced many more problems. I was looking for a cheap, spacious family wagon and that's what I got. Fuel economy on regular unleaded has been around 24 MPG, which is reasonable.

If I had been looking for a sedan and not a wagon, I doubt if I would have bought a Taurus however, as the market is so much bigger for sedans...