Hello everybody.
This is my latest purchase, does anyone got anykind of experience for that modell?
We had a 1989 Mercury Sable which is similar to the Taurus. It had the 3.0 V-6 and the car was very trouble free. We bought it from my parents when they had to move to an assisted care facility. We then sold it to my son. When he had about 130,000 miles on the car, he bought a newer car and I sold it to a colleague for his daughter to drive to college. It would probably be on the streets today if it hadn’t been wrecked.
We also had a 1988 Ford Taurus with the 3.8 liter V-6. This car had come from a rental fleet and had 8000 miles when we bought it. My son took the car when we bought the Mercury Sable from my parents. The Taurus was totaled at about 110,000 miles, but the car had no major problems up to that point.
The Taurus with the 3.8 V-6 was a little quieter than the Sable with the 3.0 V-6 and accelerated a little better. It’s been a long time since we had either car. The Taurus you are looking at is 21 years old (old enough to start drinking), so anything is probably possible.
My folks owned an 87 model with THE 3.0 engine and it was a very dependable car. In fact they passed the car on to my brother, who still drives it back & forth to work every day with about 170,000 miles on it now. The biggest problem with it was corrosion on the subframe mounts which there had been a recall on. Pretty common occurence especially in “snow states”. Can be quite dangerous if they let go, I would check them.
I bought a 91 Taurus in 93. It was reliable for the first 5 years and then had some problems, i.e. tie rods and the PS pump went bad. The straw that broke the camel’s back was the fuel pump failing mid-span on the Walt Whitman bridge between Philly and NJ with a 4 year old and an 18 month old in the back seat. After that my wife no longer wanted to drive it so we traded in on a 98 Ford Windstar.
Years later (2005ish) I came across it in a junkyard. The body and interior were still in good shape with 137k miles. Whoever got it after us got some good service out of it. If I recall, the transmission was prone to overheating and early failure, especially if driven on the highway for long periods.
Ed B.
I had an 87 Sable that had about 420k miles on it when sold and it was still running/driving well when I got rid of it. The only reason I even unloaded that car was because I was flat bored to tears with it. A major storm came through one night and put a tree limb into the windshield.
Rather than fix it the windshield became the excuse I needed to be rid of it.
The only major repair I had in the entire time was a transmission failure at about 130k miles. I replaced the transmission with a 40k miles used one out of an 89 Taurus and it was still shifting great when I got rid of the car. (330k miles on the transmission basically)
One issue that may crop up is the ignition module which is prone to failure in summer heat.
It’s not that big a deal though.
Thanks for your answer. My Taurus got very low mileage, about 45000. But worst thing is…its been “standing” about 5 years without movement anykind. Breaks have to repare.
But good thing is…air-conditioner still operates.
Thanks for your answer. Somehow my answer disappear after “submitting” 
But yes, I got corrosion problems also, bad ones…too bad because car works just fine.
Also dont know when a timing belt is changed.
Thanks for your answer. Your Taurus what you previously owned, looks better outside than mine. Headligts are different and also body of a front. I have major corrosion problems, but generally everything works just fine. I think I will keep this for awhile.
Hi there. 420000miles! only American cars can do that I have lower mileage, but I think it does not matter because car is old anyway, have to be aware possible malfunctions it is nice to drive and quite sheap to own (at least so far
Just be sure you do the transmissions services on time (and probably right now, if you don’t know it’s been done already). The transmissions were really the Achilles’ heel of what were otherwise great cars.
I drove an '88 Taurus which was the MT-5 submodel for a while and it was one of my favorite cars. The MT-5’s were odd ducks in that they had all the fancy power accessories and the good sound system, but they had the base 2.5L 4-cylinder and a 5-speed manual transmission. It was a very comfortable and nice-driving car that got great mileage and you didn’t have to fret about the tranny taking a dive any minute. If the body hadn’t been in such atrocious shape when I got it, I’d probably still be driving it today.
I think the next year they realized they weren’t fooling anyone into thinking it was a sporty car just because it had a manual transmission and so they dropped a souped-up Yamaha engine in it and called it the SHO.
A lot of different makes can attain very high mileage totals. American cars are not the only ones. It’s mostly in how it’s driven and maintained.
A lady that used to live around the corner from me had an 89 or 90 Taurus (forget which year) and she put over 300k miles on that one before getting rid of it.
Another neighbor had a 96 Taurus that had about 200k miles on it before she traded it off.
(Considering the way she drove, that 200k was probably equivalent to 400k. Very very aggressive driver)
My sister-in-law bought a 88 NEW…It was junk by 92 with less then 60k miles on it. The engine was fine…but had major problems with tranny, suspension…power windows…ball joints…wheel bearings…
My '86 Taurus–bought new and well-maintained–was a reliable vehicle, overall.
When it was new, several sensors had to be replaced, but after the early “teething” period was over, it was very good–except for one area, namely the heater core.
The heater core on this model is very difficult to get at, and they tend to rust out quickly. Mine started leaking by the 4th year. Just be prepared for a repair bill that may exceed the price that you paid for the car. The heater core is fairly cheap, but the labor involved in replacing it is…very high…due to the way that the car was designed and constructed.
Think in terms of $800–$1,000 for this repair job.