buying a used tarus,... advice

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - buying a used tarus,... advice

Posted: 3/16/2002 10:08:01 AM EDT

Im thinking about buying a 96' ford tarus.
58000 miles. one owner
the radiator has been replaced once thats all the owner said has ever been wrong with it..

Can any one give a reason not to buy a 96 ford tarus?

The price is right and Im thinking about telling the guy "YES I will take it" On monday night. Unless someone knows something about this type of car that I need to know.

also had the car checked on carfax.com was clean

Posted: 3/16/2002 10:17:37 AM EDT

[#1]

I can think of one reason, ford stands for
Fix Or Repair Daily.

Posted: 3/16/2002 10:23:32 AM EDT

[#2]

Probably the one bad thing I could say about the tarus is the front brake rotors. They warp with one stop from 70 to 0. Wagner made some hi pro rotors for replacement parts but they are not cheap.

My inlaws have bought nothing but tarus/sables for years, but all have had that problem.

I worked in auto parts for years and this is what I sold mostly for tarus/sable

other than that they seem decent, but also keep in mind that there isw a glut of these on the market, due to the number that have been leased, so resale value is lower than a similar vehicle, trade in is nill.

If your buying it to run till it drops and your getting a great deal (below blue book) go for it.

luck

dave

Posted: 3/16/2002 10:25:14 AM EDT

[#3]

Quoted:
I can think of one reason, ford stands for
Fix Or Repair Daily.

View Quote

C'Mon...
everyone knows FORD stands for "Found on Road dead"[;)]

Seriously, I looked at the Ford Taurus a few years ago and almost bought one. I would do a search on yahoo and check reviews on them. Try e-pinions or one of those web sites. I ended up getting a ford/Mercury Cougar, which after 60k miles started falling apart on me. Now I own a Nissan...I'm happy now!

:-)

John

Posted: 3/16/2002 10:26:48 AM EDT

[#4]

My daughter had a 96 Taurus; bought used in 99 and it too had a replacement radiator. She had no problems out of it as far as mechanical. She was hit side on by a road raging driver going 45+ on her passenger side. T-boned. The car went from a forward path to directly side path; still facing the same way. It was airborne for 71 feet. We figure she was unconscience at that piont. When she hit the ground the airbag sucker punched her. The 87 F-150 pickup penetrated her car 41 inches. The closed head injury that resulted left her in a deep coma for 7 days. Man let me tell you; when they take you to the "quiet room" at the emergency room of a hospital and tell you the phone will call anywhere for free, you know it's bad! That car took a bad lick and my daughter lived and recovered to about 95%. Just some nerve damage in her eyes now. I'd recomend another and as a matter of fact we will be shopping for another one next week.

Posted: 3/16/2002 10:31:23 AM EDT

[#5]

Yes, DON'T.

I've had 3 Taurus's as company cars:

transmissions ($2500) ever 25,000 miles

brakes (hubette rear units, can't resurface -$900) ever 15,000 miles

power steering pump, head gasket, fuel pump, etc....

The city of Baltimore was in the process of filing a lawsuit against Ford for bad brakes and transmissions on Taurus's.

They are 60,000 mile throw-away cars.

Posted: 3/16/2002 10:54:46 AM EDT

[#6]

Watch the power steering pump. I have yet to see an older Tarus that isn't leaking PS fluid.

Posted: 3/16/2002 11:04:04 AM EDT

[#7]

Hmm.. not what I wanted to hear but if thats the way it is then so be it.

thanks for the info. any keep it coming if you got it..

darn still want the car.. after about a week of talking myself into it, now It looks like I will have to talk myself out of it..

Cluster...

Posted: 3/16/2002 11:06:08 AM EDT

[#8]

Quoted:
I can think of one reason, ford stands for
Fix Or Repair Daily.

View Quote

And all this time I thought FORD meant

[b]F[/b]ound [b]O[/b]n [b]R[/b]oad [b]D[/b]ead

Posted: 3/16/2002 11:18:33 AM EDT

[#9]

[b]F[/b]*****g [b]O[/b]ld [b]R[/b]econditioned [b]D[/b]odge.[:D]

Posted: 3/16/2002 11:27:28 AM EDT

[#10]

[b]F[/b]irst [b]O[/b]n [b]R[/b]ace [b]D[/b]ay

I have a '96 Tortoise with nearly 140,000 miles on it... I agree with the thing on the brakes, as I did have to replace the front rotors once. It's a decent car (3.0 litre engine); I wouldn't hesitate to buy another. JMHO...

FITTER out

Posted: 3/16/2002 11:41:41 AM EDT

[#11]

If it has the 3.8L engine in it, you may be in for a head gasket repair. I'd be especially cautious if the radiator has been replaced because the car may have been run hot for some time. I don't know for sure about the 3.0L engine, but I think that it doesn't suffer from this same vulnerability.

Posted: 3/16/2002 11:47:51 AM EDT

[#12]

My buddy is a salesman at a Ford/Lincoln Mercury dealer, and he says that Ford has still problems with the ceramic valve body transmissions that goes into Taraus'. They are very expensive to repair. I have heard $2,500 for another trans. So buyer beware.

Posted: 3/16/2002 12:28:34 PM EDT

[#13]

[size=4][b]F[/b]'er [b]O[/b]nly [b]R[/b]olls [b]D[/b]ownhill[/size=4]

Posted: 3/16/2002 1:17:21 PM EDT

[#14]

We are a Ford family. We have now a 93[89,000], 94[116,000], and a 99[34,000] Ford Taurus. All are great cars that we have not had many problems with. We also had an 87[165,000] and a 89[98,000] they we sold off a few years ago and I still see them on the road.

We also have a 87 Escort[56,000] and a 2000 Ranger[31,000].
What can I say, we are a big family.

Posted: 3/16/2002 4:00:00 PM EDT

[#15]

Forgot to mention, also check out the Consumer Report rating of the repair history at your local library. I wouldn't buy Consumer Report though, they're anti-gun. You'll be amazed at the number of black(i.e. bad) marks.

Posted: 3/16/2002 4:51:02 PM EDT

[#16]

I had Taurus and Sable wagons from 94 to 01 for company cars. Put over a quarter of a million miles on them in that time. I had very good luck with the cars. One problem was the lock on the tailgate broke with the key in it. The only major problem was failure of a mechanical part in the timing mechanism. I had to rent a car during the downtime. Other than that, they were very reliable transportation.

Posted: 3/16/2002 5:29:28 PM EDT

[#17]

The fleet service I work in at one point was using Ford Taurus's for cop cars of all things.They all seemed to have the same failures the radiator issue mentioned/overheating which blows the head gaskets(routine fix!)the trannies sucked an constant front wheel bearing and half shaft replacements.yea cops are rough on cars and I don't mind that fact.The replacement for the fleet was the 1998 Chevy Lumina with 3.8 liter V6 a much better vehicle only suffering two trans. failures(warranty)and a occasional alternator(lights whirling at idle high amp draw)and a couple water pumps overall good car.You mentioned this guy is a wheelin an a dealin..theres a reason why good luck to you

Posted: 3/16/2002 6:32:22 PM EDT

[#18]

I made the mistake of offering to replace a friends taurus engine once. It was probably an '86 and when it overheated, the block cracked at the head bolts. Machine shop told me it couldn't be fixed. Replacement block came with guess what, pins in the cracks at the bolt holes. I wouldn't take one for free.

Posted: 3/16/2002 8:11:19 PM EDT

[#19]

Have the 1996 Taurus with the 3.0 engine. Bought it as a program car that had 22000 miles. Now, have 69,000 miles with only 2 minor problems in the 5 years my wife and I had it. Door switches stick, so lights stay on. Contact cleaner fixes that problem. Donuts in steering column moves out of place so when you turn, it makes a rubbing sound. They fixed it once, but it reoccurred. May have to do it myself to get it right.

Posted: 3/16/2002 8:34:19 PM EDT

[#20]

[b] ARE YOU NUTS? A FORD? A '96? A TAURUS?

ARE YOU NUTS? [/B]

Posted: 3/17/2002 5:55:03 PM EDT

[#21]

I have a 93 with 170000 on it and it leaks no fluid of any kind. The engine is fine and the tranny has never had any kinds of problems. Just treat it right and you will not regret buying it.

Posted: 3/17/2002 6:18:07 PM EDT

[#22]

I have a 91 Sable (same difference). Has the 3.8 in it and I've been told about the head problems. So far, this one (fingers crossed), has 111,000 miles on the same engine. It use to run cold untill I changed the thermostat. Now it's normal (what ever that is). Has a slight water leak on the intake, but I think snugging the bolt near it will work. I drove it hard driving it to college and back, but it's not babied now. Granted, I'm running 15W-40 oil in it. Still have the same CV joints (new boots).

The brakes, I've heard of that too. But I haven't even changed the rear brakes in all the years I've had it. Front....three times.

Do your research. That's all I can say. Just because a 91 is good doesn't mean that the 9X is too.

Posted: 3/17/2002 6:37:22 PM EDT

[#23]

1992 Ford Ranger 4x4
2.3L engine
170,000 miles
no problems

enough said!

Vulcan94

Posted: 3/17/2002 6:54:13 PM EDT

[#24]

Quoted:
Watch the power steering pump. I have yet to see an older Tarus that isn't leaking PS fluid.

View Quote

You are absolutely correct Vinnie. The problem is almost always the P.S. pressure line and that is a bitch to change. As someone else already mentioned the trannies on many Taurus/Sables are a major weakness and also very expensive to replace. This is a lot more common than head gaskets going on the 3.8L motor, but since you mentioned that the radiator was replaced, the motor may have overheated so check her out very carefully before you buy, especially if the motor is a 3.8L. As a mechanic I see a lot of these cars with problems and I also think the taurus can turn out to be big money pit unless you check it well. If you are getting a car who's history you are familiar with and the price is too good to pass up, that is another story. Good Luck.

Posted: 3/17/2002 7:15:14 PM EDT

[#25]

Loved my 90 SHO. Didn't like the regular Taurus too much. If they had still made a manula tranny SHO in 96 when I replaced the SHO (104k miles) I would have bought another. They screwed the SHO up something awful.

If you must buy it, watch out for the heater core. They tend to take a dump at around 75K niles for some reason. Watch out for the rear brakes, too.

Posted: 3/17/2002 7:28:33 PM EDT

[#26]

thanks for all the feedback, based on the responses I decided not to get it So since now I have extra cash in my pocket I went to the bigtown gunshow and bought a rifle..[}:D]
thanks

Cluster..

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