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Ford Taurus/Mercury Sable Sedans Pre-2008
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Comments
Breakdown 3 to 5 times? What are the problems. Every Taurus breaks down 3 to 5 times before 30k. I find that hard to believe!
Trust what company. Go to the Honda or Toyota board. They get repaired too!!!
Do you have any personal experience with any of these cars? Or do you just like to make irrational comments for whatever reason?
You don't add anything to the board. How can you tout Toyota without having owned one?
Then again, maybe the bird is an appropriate response!!
Are you guys trying to write CAMRY???
I went on to the Pontiac place and sat in a Grand Am and had the same problem. The salesman got me to sit in a Sunfire and I didn't have the problem although I didn't test drive it - too tired of car shopping that day. I may just have to go with the smaller car. I am going to look in to the Alero and Malibu this week. If those give me the same problem, I'll just buy the Sunfire if I like the test drive. I wanted something with a little more horsepower but guess that may be the breaks.
Sorry you found a blind spot in the Taurus...if you don't like blind spots, don't drive my Mustang convertible (of course with the top down this is not a problem at all).
I find my wife's 2001 SEL to be a great driver with no blind spot problems...sorry you do.
Anyway, I'll work it out. It's good to find these things out before I buy the car. Guess they're not making cars for short people these days! I'm reminded of the song by Randy Newman.
1) At highway speeds of 60+ the steering wheel vibrates excessively. I have had the tires balanced many times (even witnessing) and rotated with no success. The problem seems to built into the car and "feels" dangerous to drive as if parts are loose.
2) The FFV engines now pings most of the time and especially with the A/C on.
3) The car is waaay underpowered.
Anyway it will be a happy day when I reach my mileage to get out of this car except... the next car we get will probably be another Taurus.
A guy I know has the same model, both cars were built in May 2000, and he's having the same problem.
Does anyone else have difficulty starting their Duratec? Should I try a higher octane gasoline? Should I have my dealer's service department run engine diagnostics? Any input will be appreciated.
Other than that, I absolutely love the car!
Bob
AIR BAG IS TRYING TO TELL YOU SOMETHING ARTHUR
MAEBY THE DEALER SHOULD LOOK AT THAT .
NOT TO GOOD TO HAVE IT GO OFF ACEDENTLY OR NOT AT ALL
............. LARRY
Bob
Of course I only drive it 6 miles a day, so maybe my time will come. I recently drove from Virginia to Cincinnati and was so happy with the drive and the comfort that I almost fell asleep!! My family was impressed by all of the options and ride in what is otherwise a middle-of-the-road Ford vehicle. My sister's 2000 Gran Marquis wasn't that much better in any way and she paid more.
As a side note, it would be really nice if everyone would reread their postings and correct spelling AND grammar!! Some postings are unintelligible at best!
The "BUILD DATE" is on the sticker on the drivers door or pilar.
http://shortdwarf.com/dwarf_products.htm#Adaptivedrivingequipment
The big 3 have mobility programs which I'm sure would know about pedal extenders, even if a great many dealers haven't a clue. (...and they'll still ask "what they can do to get you in a car TODAY?" Clueless, I swear.). There's many other resources listed there too.
Hope this helps,
Rick D.
I sat in a Grand Prix that has potential but I need to drive it in traffic to see for sure.
I asked a salesman why they started making headrests so high and he said it's to meet more rigorous safety requirements. Don't know if he's right or not but it makes sense.
My wife (5'3") has a similar problem with our current car's headrests - they're high and wide. Comparatively, the Saturn SL2 and LW's we've tried seem to allow better visibility for her.
If I have to nix the Grand Prix, I'll try the Saturn. I test drove the Grand Prix and it was so-so. The head rest has a whole in it and I can see through that whole. I'm going to test drive it again. That's a rather bizarre way of seeing but hopefully I could get used to it.
It's a little more than I'd planned on spending but...
Incidentally, when I said "whole" in the previous post, I meant to say "hole". Sometimes when I reread my posts, I'm shocked at the mistakes I make. Guess I wrote that before I had enough morning coffee.
Brought it in to the dealer Friday afternoon and asked him to machine the rotors, and check out the low grade hum fom the front end.
They call me Saturday morning at 10 and I'm thinking, " Good they're all done ". Surprise chump!. You need new wheel bearings. This will cost you a scant $600.00!! The car has 39,000 mile on it (mostly highway), whats next the transmission ?
In another 4 months I'll be halfway on the loan. Looks like its back to a Camry. You get what you pay for in this business.
I certainly appreciate all the help and advice from everyone on this forum!
The price I asked for was based on the $1500 rebate along with a $750 dealer incentive. I got the price I wanted but after the papers were signed I found out the rebate is going up to $2000 tomorrow. I guess I'll never win with a car salesman. All in all, I'm just happy to finally have a new car.
Enjoy the experience!
The Firestone Tires they put on these cars are worthless. I just replaced them with 4 Yokohama Avid Touring tires in 225-60R16, a bit wider than the standard 215's. What a huge difference in ride, handling, noise, comfort, feel, etc..etc! I would highly recommend the switch. Discount tire price was $67.00 a piece. Here is the link to read more about the Yokohama Avid Touring Tires (80,000 mile limited warranty):
http://www.yokohamatire.com/04b4a.html
They are standard equipment on the Saturn S and L series, the Malibu and now (apparently) at least some Taurus models. Everytime I read a review of a car equipped with Affinities, the same notes are made of excessive road noise, a "busy" ride and poor adhesion. And everytime, I've dug around and found several people who have ditched the Affinities and found improvement in these areas.
And as with Steve's example above, you don't have to spend any more money to see a great improvement. How much can the manufacturers possibly be saving? At wholesale prices, $15/tire is probably stretching it.
These manufacturers could greatly improve the image and enjoyment of their vehicles by keeping EXACTLY the suspension design they have, and just ditching the Affinities. Test drives make or break a car sale, and you would certainly notice the higher road noise, poor road feel, busy ride, in even a brief test drive. Incredible.
Everything is retro these days but can't wait to see what the T-birds look like. All I've seen is pictures on the internet.
I heard on the news that the government may give a break to people who buy fuel efficient cars. I wonder what type of gas mileage we'll need to get--if 20 city/29-30 highway would constitute fuel efficiency.
Re: Brakes - I have a 2000 SEL and have felt that the brakes are not a problem at all. I DO drive in the city in Drive, not Overdrive. A past post long ago recommended doing this and it certainly convinced me. The car now is easier to stop and "coasts" to a stop.
Re: Firestone tires - I have the Affinity tires that everyone is complaining about, but I haven't any complaints about them, the ride, handling, etc. I am a fan of white walls and find that these black walls remind me of the striped down cars that my frugal dad used to get. They also came on cop cars and that was always a dead giveaway that it was a cop car. In the past, my other Ford/Mercury cars came with Michelon (sp?) tires and felt cheated by the Firestones which have never been my choice. Hope I have good luck with them.
Re: Rotors - boy, you guys are scaring me with all of this talk about bad rotors and other related areas that I've seen posted. I, too, figured I'd take my chances that Ford was making a good mid-sized car to compete with Accord and Camry and therefore, didn't buy any extra warrenty.
If I can get 10 years out of the car that I bought, I'm hoping there will be a major design change when I'm ready to buy again.
Bob
Go to www.google.com, a good search engine and type in SHO and see what you find.
Someone should have this in stock.
Head to junkyards also. I wouldn't wait 5 months without driving it.
http://www.shotimes.com/SHOappA.html
Happy hunting!
Did that person ever find out what was wrong? I have an appointment with the dealer tomorrow and would like to provide some direction to the mechanic.
Turn the key to run, but not start. Listen for the fuel pump in the tank to stop running (takes .5 to 2 seconds on my 2000 24V SES), then turn the key to start. This trick has been working for 9 months. Basically its the same procedure as starting a diesel but instead of waiting for glow plugs you are waiting for the pump to pressurize.
BTW, I would take my car in, but I can't stand going w/o a car for a day when all it takes is an extra second when I start.
Let me know if this procedure works for your car golden11.