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Ford Taurus/Mercury Sable Sedans Pre-2008
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Comments
I will do what you recommend.
I currently have 94 Taurus that I bought used and like it as a commuter and family car. Cruising is a pleasure. I just don't like transmission reliability and I had to rebuild it. But I like how car looks very much even over newer vehicles. New Taurus is still anonimous in front side, so I like Sable more. Also dashboard in new Taurus is too bland, so I like Sable upperscale interior more.
The car otherwise seems to be well built and the interior is nice, but the front seats (This one was a bench with the stow away center console option) and I found them to be a bit uncomfortable on long drives.
I think the GM W-body sedans have much better powertrains, transmissions and brakes than the Taurus/Sable models. But the Taurus/Sable interiors are better indeed.
The Taurus is a nice car and far much more appealing and comfy than a comparable Honda Accord. Too bad Ford hasn't done enough to keep this car ahead of the family sedan pack.
One more thing: In the NHTSA crash tests, the Taurus earned 5 stars front and 3 star side ratings. The Impala earned 5 stars front and 4 stars side rating, without the side airbags.
I own a 2001 Checy Impala LS and I would say that both the Taurus and Impala are very similar cars in terms of room, size, safety and equipment. The Taurus has the better interior, but the Impala beats it in the performance department with the stronger motor, smoother and more precise tranny and the beefier, more powerful brakes and the better more firm and communicative steering.
Both cars should keep their owners pretty happy and are great family haulers at an affordable price.
Toyota and Accord just feel too small (and bland). I don't like small cars for everyday long commute. Taurus story shows that good styling in American cars is important. Also transmission issues hurted Ford much. I feel uncomfortable when think about my Taurus transmission. I would buy GM car if they had better interiors, more refined design (means like Oldsmobile) and build quality for the same price as Taurus.
I still don't understand why the car mags gush all over the Camry and Accord when the *American* counterparts offer more room, safety, style and features for the money.
I have owned 6 Accords. Been there and done that,
The Duratec engine is really the most salient feature. It's roomy for cargo. Three adults fit well in the back seat with good head and leg room.
In front, 3 people dont't fit comfortably nor is it designed for that. The middle seat is for a shotgun passenger, mainly a child. I have the rearmost or third seat in the back which I never needed to use.
The tranny feels fine to me and so do the ABS brakes. The steering, to use another reader's words, feels rubbery and disconnected from the road. I miss head rests on second seats.
Ford made a good product and should improve upon it to compete better with Accord and Camry.
Have you visited the site? They have a lot of the answers there. At any rate, maybe I can help. When I bought our car, you got (and the website explicitly said so) any balance of the Ford factory warrantee (3 years, 36,000 miles), with added coverage so that you got at least 12 months/12,000 miles warrantee. Since our car was 25 months old and had 11,000 miles on it, we got 11 months and 25,000 miles on the factory warrantee, and Ford added a month.
I see now that they offer a 6 year/75K warrantee on the powertrain and other major components. The only thing not clear to me is whether the Ford factory warrantee still applies, though I wouldn't think it would be legal to drop that if the car is still within the 3/36 when the purchase is made.
The price listed is what you pay. No more, no less, no haggling. It's usually a very good price, in our case, $1400 under the Edmunds 'certified pre-owned' price for a car with that mileage and options. Some of the other models may be closer to the Edmunds price, but they still seem to be a good and fair deal. The dealer acts as an agent for Ford, who apparently must pay them something for the sale. Our dealer had (in August, 2000, when we got the car) done dozens of the pre-owned sales (in the Boston area) and was very familiar with the process. If you noticed in the dealer list, not all dealers in your area will participate, and I suspect that is because some refuse to deal with this process for whatever reason.
We bought an extended warrantee because we drive around 20,000 miles annually. I'd have to look up the exact cost, but we felt (due to the loaded nature--power items, etc.--of the car) that the Ford plan we got from the dealer (low pressure, too) was a good deal. The car is covered for 4 years and/or up to 100,000 miles for darn near everything in the car but wear items, upholstery, and glass. I think the price was somewhere around $1400. In our case, we got such a good deal on the car itself, it was worth putting that (which is about the price differential between our price and a 'typical' price) into the warrantee. They asked and we accepted (having thought about it beforehand). But it was a low-pressure question we were asked.
The only items you deal directly with the dealer on are the financing (though Ford will often have interest rate deals on the pre-owned cars for those interested) and any of the extended warrantees and other 'business office' items (car alarms, etc.). Our dealer was terrific, and of course, that could vary. If you want only the car, you pay the dealer the cost on the website plus state-required things like registration, taxes, etc.
Hope that was some help. It really was a painless experience. Feel free to ask any other questions, and I'll try to answer.
By the way, on the other thread--my car has a Vulcan engine and the AX4N transaxle, with 36,000 miles now. Absolutely no transmission hiccups, odd behavior, etc. It shifts crisply and firmly when I stick my foot in it and when I drive sedately. Just keep the fluid and filter changed at required intervals (30,000 miles for my '98) and you should be fine. Chrysler products had problems with their transmissions, and a lot of the trouble was due to neglected fluid changes. The Taurus/Sable is apparently the same way.
At least there is no sludge problem with Vulcan.
The original website I mentioned (www.fordpreowned.com) is an older program. The cars are held by Ford in central locations in those 5 metro areas, and are listed and sold by Ford through participating dealers. There was no 'certified preowned' program when we bought our car, but now that there is, Ford synched their fordpreowned.com with the certification program the individual dealers use (that must have been when the warrantee term change I mentioned in my post above happened). The main difference here is that the certified cars are for sale by dealers at prices set by the dealers, and the usual dealmaking applies. The Ford Preowned cars have set no-haggle prices and are sold only through the 'net by Ford Motor Company with a dealer as the delivery and sales agent.
These are my impressions of the two programs, and I am not associated at all with Ford, so I might not be totally correct. But I should be somewhere close... :-)
Ask them to fix the noise under warranty.
One other nitpicky point--the Duratech is a SINGLE overhead cam (SOHC) engine, since the single vs double usually refers to the number of overhead camshafts per head/bank in the engine. Because the Duratech is a V engine, there are 2 overhead cams, one over each bank of cylinders. But there are some V6 and V8 cars with two (or double--DOHC) overhead camshafts, and they have 4 total cams, two per head, typically with one working the intake valves and one working the exhaust valves.
On the other hand, the Vulcan is an overhead valve engine, which has the camshaft inside the engine block and not 'over the head' with the valves 'over the head' rather than the camshaft...
Must have been lack of coffee. I'll go crawl back under my rock! :-)
Also, I plan to tow a light fishing boat some day in the future: do I need to or am I able to install a larger transmision cooler?
I have close to 5000 miles on my Taurus, runs great, no problems to report. I have installed some 3/4" tweeter speakers($90.00) on the foward most part of the armrests beyound the power window switches. I did want to drill holes in the door panels, so I had the wire snuck through the first gap in the armrest, and the speaker sits in that little triangular area with some windshield rubber adhesive to secure it. They are surface mounted so they sit just a little higher than the power window switches, but are black so they just look like more switches. They add just enough, I can now hear the "highs" just perfect at low volume levels. And it cancels out some of that wind noise that comes from the side mirrors. My SEL was not equipt with the Mach stereo, and this was a cheap upgrade.
Wow sorry to go on like that.
My car starts fine in the morning but later in the day after sitting some 7-8 hours the engine turns and is difficult to start. Finally it starts but after it turned several times. In the morning it starts right away.
Has this occurred to other owners? What may be the possible causes for this problem? It will leave me stranded sometime.
Thank you all?
even hiccuped once.
I had a '91 SHO, best and most fun car I ever had. That car had 175,000 miles when it sold a couple years ago. My friend "Vadim" at the SHO SHOP did his magic. The car dynoed 265hp at the crank and I was smokin' ever thing out their except some vettes.
A real wolf in sheeps clothing!!!
I'm wondering,if somebody experienced same type of
problem.How did you fix it?
BTW,I've been at dealer,he replaced me switch on the steering column. But this problem still exist?
Has anyone else had pinging or lack of engine braking? Will the pinging hurt the engine? Supposed dealer adjustment had no affect on either problem.
song! That car had"soul"
Also, its a shame that Ford doesn't offer a
4-door hot rod anymore. I've been shopping for a car for months and decided on a BMW 3 series(5-speeed, rear drive etc).
My bmw is due in next week, I never in a million years would of thought I'd be driving one. These are the same cars I used to eat for lunch. Go figure.
is fine.
I think the problem has been lessened if not resolved. I used to turn the key to the on position and leave it for 3-4 seconds. I read
that this practice was beneficial for the fuel injections or something similar. I don't leave the key in on position anymore except for the mornings.
These are high compression rev happy engines, 87 octane cannot support Ford's v6 engines. One day, after owning the car for few weeks, my new 99 Taurus engine knocked so bad on 87 octane, I had to top it off with about $8 of super, problem solved.
87 octane is hit or miss for quality, your taurus may run ok on one brand, or It may engine knock and rattle right to the junk yard on another.
I have been using Mid-grade ever since and is ping/engine knock free. It's just amazing how you explain a simple valid concern like engine knock to the Dealer, and they look at you as if you have two heads or offer any good suggestions.
I have used/been using 87 octane for all my cars (accords, Civics, Corollas...), including my 00 SES. Never experienced ping or knock.
Why go cheap with a $20K+ auto?
Two things happen when you use higher octane than you need: One, the engine can get carboned up much more easily. The compounds used to raise octane often have the effect of causing carbon in cars that don't need the higher octane. And two, cars calling for regular gas (those that don't have knock sensors or other means for the computer to adjust for octane or older cars without computers) will often produce less power on higher octane gas because of the slower burn of higher octane gas.
Granted, these effects may be smaller on some cars than others, but they are often measureable. If the car has no means of compensating for octane, and it doesn't require more octane by design or because of pinging, why waste money on gas your car can't effectively use (and may be damaging in the long run from carbon)?
Even if the carbon part is untrue, the power part is true. So why use gas that costs more and doesn't do squat, and will degrade performance? The Vulcan at least has no way of compensating for octane (other than a base adjustment calibration that is not touched except for altitude calibration). So higher grades of fuel won't help you at all unless you really have a bad pinging problem (it's normal to ping lightly under a load like accelerating uphill).
Usually it doesn't affect gas mileage, just power output. If you're sensitive to subtle changes in your car, you probably will be able to notice.
You can always find a station with regular unleaded that your car 'likes' (I had one car that would ping slightly on Texaco, but not on Mobil. My '98 Taurus runs great on regular unleaded but especially likes Shell...). Sticking to a name brand 87 octane gas should be fine.
Both codes must be 111. If it is different from 111 look to manual for the decoding and then you can talk with dealer to fix the problem or fix it yourself.
Pinging can be caused by malfunctioning of air flow sensor. You can also make the experiment - clear computer codes and see what will happen.
If you are experiencing pinging in your car with very little miles on it, something is probably wrong with it ad needs to be checked out.
g1994sts: I'm sure Bill Ford will be happy to know that you the consumer knows more about the Ford Taurus the the Ford engineers that designed it.
My GM manual says to use only Premium, but no less than 91 octane containing Gasoline. In general GM manuals will recommend Premium, then end it by saying, but it's ok to use 87 octane in your vehicle.
What's going on here? Its funny that when gas was really expensive like close to $2 bucks I experimented by mixing about 1/3 premium to 2/3 Regular and many times almost on all Regular, my 32v Northstar ran just the same as on Premium, and no engine knock.
Like enhenness says, if the engine is electronically capable of compensating for octane differences, why spend more money for Premium. Plus It is known now that serious carbon build up problems is attributed to 93 octane gasolines.