1998 Ford Taurus SE from North America - Comments

I've had to replace one fuse for lighting.

The passenger side window motor failed.

I bought this car at 58,000 miles and was told to start looking for another car in 10,000 miles or so. Since then, just over 60,000 miles later, other than routine maintenance, I've had to replace a whopping fuse and one window motor.

The 24V DOHC engine responds nicely when I need it. As long as I don't 'heavy foot' the gas, the Taurus gets decent gas mileage for a '98. The body is light. When I do need power, the engine responds quickly and accelerates smoothly, keeping me safely away from other CA drivers.

The ride is relatively quiet. The suspension is good and braking never feels sluggish.

The car is fun to take on Sunday drives with good visibility from all windows and an AC plant that cools the car quickly. As a single guy, the body style on the SE is sufficiently sporty enough to shake off the 'family car' label.

I've heard other Taurus owners either really love their car, like me, or really hate it. I wonder if there are two different plants that produced the 98s and if that might be the source of the mixed reviews.

Overall, I'll be looking at another Taurus when I replace this one, hopefully a long time from now.

I currently have a 1998 Ford Taurus SE also. It was given to me by some family friends with only 44,000 miles on it, so I took it. So far I've had to replace the front disk brakes and tires (no big deal, they were bald, it happens), replace the battery which actually went bad again two months later but was under warranty, buy a whole new transmission after mine exploded, and now my a/c is broken and none of the windows work except the right rear. Did I mention I've only owned it for 4 months? I don't know if I've just had EXTREMELY bad luck with this car, or if it's a piece of **** but I can't seem to keep it in a working condition for more than a month. I wouldn't recommend this car to anyone. Go buy a honda or a toyota, they actually try to make their cars last.