California may be a bit water-challenged these days, but if I lived there I’d say I found just the thing to quench my thirst. The first-generation Taurus and Sable have pretty much vanished here in the Northeast, and I’m guessing they’re no longer very common in the rest of the country either–especially examples with less than 10,000 rounds on the clock.
As you’d expect of a barn find, this immaculate Taurus sports crystal-clear headlights that lend credence to its reported 7,500 mile odometer reading. The Taurus wagon eBay find I spotted a couple months ago was also in great condition, but still couldn’t match the Zooey Deschanel-esque eyes you see right here.
In back it’s pretty much the same story. I’m always a bit skeptical of cars with two-tone exterior treatments, but higher-end models of the Taurus can pull it off, especially with the silver-on-gray color scheme (which I have yet to see).
Everything can’t be sunshine and lollipops though, can it? This bull has some baggage to go along with it, although I can’t imagine bumper scuffs like this to be terribly difficult to correct if you can find the right paint.
That minor issue becomes a distant memory once you look inside. This is one seriously clean machine. The black-on-black interior features the quasi-bucket front seats that can accommodate a third person. Since this is the LX model, there’s a JBL sound system and, more importantly, the rare digital dash with electronic climate control.
I usually don’t post two interior pictures if I don’t have to, but those buttons on the dash reminded me that the first- generation vehicles (and also some Lincolns) sported the InstaClear windshield, which was basically an ultra-fast electric defroster that used heated wires that were embedded in the windshield. If this bull does in fact have that feature, I’m guessing it’s controlled by that button below the electronic climate cluster. Maybe one of you commentators can tell me if I’m correct. Fun fact: In Europe, Ford never stopped offering this feature on their cars. They still do, but over there it’s called Quickclear.
If that’s not enough, this hilarious warning sticker is still attached. I might be showing my relative youth here, but why is this message so important? Could you actually wreck a tape? Or did the folks in Dearborn just figure that if drivers weren’t informed of this feature, they’d lose their minds and need to be hospitalized?
Were you wondering where the floor mats were? Well here is your answer–and in their original packaging.
Under the hood is this car’s biggest issue: the dreaded 3.8 “Essex” V-6. This baby is known to eat head gaskets, and I don’t know if sitting around for 20-plus years has done it any favors.
One of the interesting features found on these highest trim-level bulls was the side light in front of the front tires. I can’t imagine it has any purpose of value beyond being a kind of vanity lamp.
And there you have it. This Taurus is quite the catch, and I’m hoping it finds an owner who’ll treat it like a true CC. After all, who the heck knows if something like this will come around again.
Check out the auction here.
The windshield on this one doesn’t appear to have the characteristic gold tint of Instaclear. I’m guessing that switch may control the power antenna, which seems to be stuck in the “up” position in the pics.
What a cherry car! Even those scuff and paint marks on the rear bumper look like they’d largely disappear with some mild polishing compound.
EDIT – If this had InstaClear, according to this pic the switch would be left of the steering column:
http://www.taurusclub.com/forum/124-taurus-sable-general-discussion/141090-heated-windshield.html#post1473948
The question here is whether or not the feature survived the interior tweaks they did for the 1990 model year. Its also possible that it does have the function, but lacks the windshield, because they were very expensive to replace.
My uncle’s Town Car had an instaclear windsheld. I think it was a 1990. I remember it could only be used in park and the iac valve actually increased the rpm’s to give the alternator more juice to run it. Must have drawn some serious amps. I alro read in the owner’s manual of my v1 radar detector that these windshields block their ability to detect.
Ah – gotcha, Edward. According to the timeframe noted on this extremely comprehensive webpage, InstaClear was offered only through 1989 on the Taurus/Sable twins (or, only those models had a specific switch for it.)
http://www.ford-taurus.org/taurusinfo/G1/
Yes you are correct about that switch controlling the power antenna. The power antenna was not controlled by the radio. It is in its normal position. I have always liked that function as it allowed you to listen to the tape deck/CD player(the antenna feature was offered in the 86-91 and 92-95 Taurus/Sable and other Ford cars) in a car wash or other high risk situations where the antenna could be damaged without triggering the antenna unlike the cars with the power antenna hooked to the radio and which extended when the radio was turned on.
I had a 1993 ford thunderbird sc with the power antenna button next to the stereo. I loved it as i rarely used the radio as i had an in dash mp3 player and 6 disc cd changer in the trunk. I would always leave the antenna down.
Those Instaclear windshields also interfere with your radar detector. Seriously interfere…
Interesting! I’m always curious about the story on vehicles like this. Who bought it and why did they barely drive it? Surely there’s a story there.
Let’s say you were 65 in 1990. You buy a brand new loaded Ford Taurus (hey you can’t take it with you). Your skills are declining and you only drive around town for shopping and doctors appointments. Your kids are grateful people who never hesitate to give you a ride, stop by and check up on you, etc. The car actually get’s driven less and less as you age. You pass away in 2014 at the respectable age of 89.
The executor of the estate finds a dealer to cash out the old car and add to the estate.
I could imagine that, I remember several cars that sold to people that age, or older, that probably ended up with very little miles, especially when I was selling Buicks in the 1990’s.
My great-uncle and -aunt bought a new Volvo in 1995 when he was nearing 70. They were very reclusive and rarely went outside. When he passed away in 2010, the Volvo had done less than 20000km. Because it had been stored inside for all those years, it was still brand new.
In 2004 when my Grandmother on my mom’s side had to be moved to a nursing home, I was given her 1992 GMC S-15 Jimmy. The truck was 12 years old and had about 33,000 miles on it. dividing that up by 12 years, the mileage per year was about 2750. My grandparents bought it brand new(with no features at all including no AC) and only drove it to church and shopping and my grandmom took it to work and her volunteer job at the local Catholic school when she retired. Other places they took the bus when going into “town” (aka Reading PA) Unlike the time capsule in the posting, this truck sat in the PA sun from day one of ownership.
Yeah, no Insta-Clear here, the gold tinting would be very noticeable if so equipped. I had a 1990 wagon with the Insta-Clear, and it worked great. When a tree branch dropped on it, the insurance company refused to replace it: they were “too expensive”. We got a plain glass windshield instead.
The stereo sticker was probably added because people were going back to the dealer unable to figure it out for themselves. Sad, I know, if true. And those look like cornering lamps in the fenders.
Or some high-ranking Ford executive got confused trying to work the feature in his pre-production car, and got pissed off and demanded a sticker be added.
Interesting in that my sister bought a1990 V6 3L Camry the development model of the 94 the world got and it had standard a CD player cassette decks were already being phased out in 1990 in NZ cars
My ’98 NZ-new Mitsi Magna has a tape deck only. Luckily, also an aux input.
I think I’ve solved the radio sticker mystery. This car has the top of the line Ford cassette deck with a search feature that would automatically fast forward to the next song on the tape. (or automatically rewind to the beginning of the current track) Rather than try to fit two additional buttons for the tape search feature, they used the radio seek and scan buttons.
Tape search was a very common feature on all but the cheapest aftermarket decks in those days, but usually found only on “premium” OEM systems.
I haven’t used (or owned) cassettes since 2005. Someone’s going to be looking for a cassette/MP3 adapter…
As it turns out, 1990 was the first year that a factory CD player was available in the Taurus/Sable. It was an additional unit that mounted in the coin tray/cup holder space below the radio.
Like pretty much any car CD player back then, there’s no doubt it skipped at the slightest imperfection in the road surface. The buffering technology that kept skipping to a minimum was just being introduced in expensive aftermarket units at that time.
They are probably going to be replacing the radio anyway. That generation of radio was known for having the display burn out and thus making it hard to see anything. It would burn out if you looked at it funny so I am sure it is not working.
Wow. That’s impressive on a number of levels. I think just about every Taurus of this vintage I have seen either WAS a rental car or was equipped like one. They look nice inside all dressed up.
The engine discussion is the same kind of issue I have whenever I see a tempting pristine ultra low mileage early 80’s Cadillac with the 4.1 V8. There’s just no way of knowing whether the auto-destruct sequence will activate on the next trip or not for a long time.
Believe it or not, in a few months (when 2015 models are generally released), this car will qualify as an antique under AACA rules. You just might see this at Hershey in October.
My uncle had an ’87 Taurus that was loaded up (the way he buys all of his cars) like this one except his had a red velour interior instead of leather. Same digital dash, high end stereo, climate control etc.
Somehow the head gaskets on the 3.8 survived well over 100K, (my ’88 T-Bird had to have them done at barely 50K) but within three years or so the paint along the hood, roof, and trunk lid was peeling in twin parallel stripes.
Is there an eBay find CC effect? Because a day after I found it another LX appeared:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ford-Taurus-LX-Sedan-4-Door-1986-FORD-TAURUS-55-130-ORIGINAL-MILES-/301130577557?forcerrptr=true&hash=item461cc7f695&item=301130577557&pt=US_Cars_Trucks
And a 1986 model, no less! But it doesn’t have leather or the digital dash, and its a little bit beaten up. I think it has the InstaClear though!
…this hilarious warning sticker is still attached. I might be showing my relative youth here, but why is this message so important?
My guess would be, this car being a 90, Ford expected many owners would be comming from a late 70s/early 80s model…the days of analog radio tuners, where you twisted a knob to search for a station. I can just see someone charging into the service department “how the @#$%#$% do I find a radio station?” .
Once you drive a car with cornering lamps, you will never want to be without them – of course, on the newest of cars these days the lights swivel.
As a kid I used to think that one had “arrived” in life if they owned a car with cornering lights. I’ve only owned one car that had them (an ’88 T-Bird) and I can vouch for the fact that they were more than just a gimmick. Those suckers were bright! They especially came in handy during extreme fog.
This Taurus is missing what is perhaps the most common feature of the first-gen Taurus/Sable (and a lot of other Fords of that era), the telltale “racing stripes” of flaking paint along the hood, roof and trunk.
I used to feel the same way about the cornering lamps. I had them on a ’91 Oldsmobile Toronado, and my grandfather had them on a 2001 Buick Century. It’s a shame that they have pretty much disappeared these days. I have also owned two cars with fog lamps, and would never own a car without them again.
Ditto. My thought process was that all of my grandfather’s cars had cornering lights, and he only drove luxury cars (mostly Cadillacs) – ergo, cornering lights were a mark of luxury!
My Ford 500 had cornering lamps. I thought they were awesome. Too bad the fog light housing in the front air dam kept breaking. It’s not cool to be driving down the road with one light bouncing up and down.
Yup cornering lights are a great thing to have, it is unfortunate that they have pretty much disappeared.
Cornerning lamps were great. I found them to be quite bright and they sure lit up the turn. Many cars up until about the early ’90’s offerred them. Now, maybe Cadillac offers them on some models but they’re pretty much gone. My question is why? I can understand expensive, troublesome and unpopular options being pulled, but cornering lamps are low tech, of minimal weight and trouble-free. Can’t cost that much either. I’d take these over the now supposedly advanced LED interior lighting, which illuminates the interior far worse than your average 1960’s sedan.
I’d say there are too many people like the author who don’t see any value in them because they never owned a car with them. Once you have them though you do appreciate them. However if people aren’t willing to pay more for them then there is no reason to make them optional and certainly no reason to make them standard.
FWIW, classic big Citroëns didn’t need cornering lamps. I sometimes turn on my brights to improve visibility while making turns where I live, if there’s no opposing traffic & no streetlights.
Cornering lamps….my mom’s van has them, always wanted a set myself. Came THIS close to buying an ’87 or ’88 Taurus LX sedan, equipped much like the one here (except it had floor shift, InstaClear and moon roof), but sadly never happened. For the life of me I can not find pics of a first-gen Taurus with leather and buckets.
It is interesting looking at this car. Ford got this and the Sable and the Lincoln Continental right. I liked the Mercury Sable better based on looks and luxury. I was not a fan of the headlights on any of them being it was not a quad headlight design. Ford got this car right. It took all these years until they got to the new Fusion to get it right again. This Taurus is loaded too. What I do not understand for a car that was about 190 inches long, it was roomy and had a big trunk. The midsized cars of today are not roomy like this car or have a trunk as large. This car is as big if not as roomy as the cars they “pass off ” as full sized in 2014.
I like cornering lamps. Both of my cars have them. They light up the way and they are a nice luxury touch.
Let’s see what they do with the next Taurus. The Taurus of 2014 is bigger than this car but not as roomy. Taurus needs some of this car’s mojo back.
This car saved Ford back in the day too.
From what I’ve read elsewhere the Taurus will not be available to the north american market. I have read that China will get it though. Something to do with poor sales I would imagine.
Sales of the Taurus are still OK. It’s getting a bit long in the tooth. There WILL be a new Taurus next year on a pulled and stretched Fusion chassis. More space, lighter and better MPGs.
Good to hear, the current Taurus makes no sense.
Did not know that. Current Taurus is a dud, and I remember all the fanfare surrounding its introduction. It’s overweight and one of the most obvious offenders when it comes to beltline creep.
“Side light in front of the tire?”
If you were a Russian spy, you would have just given yourself away.
Good God man, that’s a cornering lamp, what country are you from?
Russian spy! That’s funny!
LMAO Carmine!! TOO FUNNY!!
I think this Taurus design looks as fresh today as it did 20 years ago. These cars were awesome, and their owners loved them. I know from personal experience as I had several aunts and uncles that drove them and swore by them.
The way this one is equipped makes it even nicer. There is nothing like an older, loaded, low mileage mint condition American car that at one time was the norm on the roads of the U.S., preserved over twenty years later. I would love to own this Taurus!
It’s funny, when the Taurus first came out it looked like a futuristic bubble car, what with the rounded edges and corners and no visible radiator grille. Now it looks so plain ordinary it takes an effort to remember how different it was.
oddly enough here on the banks of the lovely fox river in chicagos far western burbs, I see quite a few still rolling around, in wagon and sedan form. Not nice looking mind you, but still rolling along. All taurus’ssssss, maybe sables were not volume sellers. someone 2 streets over from me has one sitting in driveway. I always thought it was a nice little car. Would never buy one since it was not my demographic, but they were nice rides everytime I rented something compared to everything else that was out there from GM or Chrysler during that timeframe.
‘Taurii’ is the proper plural form.
I kind of wonder what your demographic is. I came here in Fall of 1986. I liked these cars’ looks right away but it was not until 2 years later that I was sitting in the passenger seat of one. I thought this car was way more expensive than the demographic of the owner would suggest. It looked that cool to me. This car could span a whole bunch of demographics.
Who was leading the project? Lew Veraldi. He pulled a team together from all the departments and buit a car that was “best in class” in regard of some 400 items. Every item was copied of the best family vehicles at the time and possibly improved upon. Too me they are still great sensible cars all the way to the last one even though the 06 and 07 were cheapened fleet vehicles.
Recommended book: Eric Taub: Taurus, the making of the car that saved Ford.
I immediately stop reading a person’s comment if they use the word “Taurii”. Yours included. Fuck I feel good finally releasing that.
It looks wrong to me too. Then I looked it up. I got over it. I hope you can too. You even typed it!
Taurus is a foreign word; English speakers/writers therefore are not required to use the Latin plural as we are not speaking Latin. We add an “es” to Taurus just like we do to virus. Viruses, not viri. Also, Mulally has said the correct plural is Tauruses. Your spelling of Tauri (“Taurii”) is actually what we call a hypercorrection (an error!).
Cool, Yanns. I scrap it from my vocabulary.
my demographic during that time was 19-29 for the years that model was around. give or take. I was more interested in acura integras and older 3 series than a family ford.
I seem to recall my ’87 Sable having a different dashboard? It’s subtle, multi-colored & shaded cloth interior was much more attractive than the “man cave black” on this Taurus.
I have mentally kicked myself for selling my 8 year old Sable, with just 87K on it, WHAT was I thinking???
I love cars like this – genuine time capsules.
Back when these were new, I worked in an office where two of the attorneys bought new Taurii. One got a white 86 MT-5 with air and an am/fm, and I think that was the extent of the optional equipment. The other got a black 86 or 87 model equipped like this one, with the fancy wheels, leather, moonroof and digital dash. It was a very, very nice car when it was new. He didn’t keep cars that long, so it was traded for something else in a couple of years. My point is that the two early Taurii that I spent any time around were both oddballs that were equipped in ways seldom seen.
I had an 89 Ford Country Squire with those cornering lights – they were a real help! I wish cars had them now. They’d come on a second after you actives the turn signal. On a dark or foggy night, they really helped you see.
Nice car for what it is, the interior looks very old fashioned with flat seats no centre console etc like a bargain basement taxi pack Falcon, but it isnt horrendously ugly like the Taurus Ford tried to foist on Falcon customers here, the late 80s Falcon styling cues are all there on this one but thankfully we still got l6 and RWD even if the engine leaked oil new and only a 3 speed tranny.
About the center console: some will really appreciate the lack of one. Take the new Taurus with this huge center console that separates the driver’s side form the passenger’s side like the Iron Curtain separated East from West.
There is hope the driver’s side door lock will never fail.
Those early EA series Falcons were truly bad cars, RWD or not. Taurii seem to have been much better developed cars from day one,while Ford AU of that time seem to regard customers as beta testers.
My favourite story was of the infamous fart test. Someone drops a stinker at 110 km/h. The driver opens all four power windows simultaneously. The bonded in rear window blows out of its frame….
True RWD was the only good feature and every more than year old EA cab I ever rode in had a howling diff so even that wasnt great for durability.
LOL! You blokes eat beans before you go to the car dealer?
Honestly, it’s part of Toyota engineering tests in Australia now! What it says about our diet here, well, it’s best not to speculate.
He who smelt, dealt it.
I honestly hate those center consoles. I prefer front bench seats with column shifts. I can sit 6 or a girl can slide right besides me when we park!
I think that is the most loaded example of a G1 Taurus I’ve ever seen.
I don’t know if I would consider Ford’s 50/50 split bench to be quasi bucket seats. They were pretty standard fare on the Taurus/Sable until the ’96 redesign when they went to the 40/20/40 split, which was really just bucket seats with a mostly unusable cushion and folding armrest stuck in between in place of the console/shifter. What’s rare here is the black color and the leather.
Edward: you mentioned the head gasket of the 3.8L Essex. Indeed they are infamous for failing but the newer ones last. I have a ’03 Essex in my Windstar with 170000 miles on the clock. I think they improved on the gaskets. But the bad reputation sticks.
Thanks for the article and the pictures. I love it.
It looks nice. A good condition first gen Taurus or Sable still looks fresh even in 2014. That said i would pass on this one as the 3.8l headgasket eater is a deal breaker. If it was the 3.0 Vulcan I would be all over it. 1990 was the first year that an airbag was put in the car.
Never seen one in the flesh. I always thought taurussable was one word.
Nice find! Even the 1992-1995 Taurus/Sable has become very rare here in New England. The ones I do see always have rust radiating from the rear wheel well. (In contrast, the 1992-1996 Camry is everywhere still despite selling less than the Taurus alone, and rarely has much visible rust.)
That said, the first two generations of Taurus still look very sharp if clean. The design was ahead of its time, and has certainly stood the test of time.
We had an ’89 Taurus GL w/3.8L. Light metallic blue w/dark blue cloth upholstery. Very comfortable, adequate power. My mother wasn’t driving as much due to declining health, so when she died in ’94 it only had about 28,000 miles on it. I took it over and started driving it as a daily driver to work. Head gasket blew out at about 52k miles. Power steering pump(s) and transmission(s) followed on a regular basis after that. When I got rid of it with 110,000 miles, it had its fourth tranny and fourth power steering pump.
I donated it because I couldn’t bring myself to knowingly sell it to someone given what I knew about the problems with the car. It still looked good, but it was a money pit.
The AX4S tranny was really bad. When buying the Windstar I was really more worried about transmission failure than anything else. Fortunately it has the AX4N.
I heard that there was a particular oil passage in the casting that broke open internally.
My first new car was a ’90 Taurus wagon, and MadHungarian as reminded us of its imminent “antique” status–where did the years go?
Engine/transmission never gave me a lick of trouble, and–having owned various anemic 70s-80s used cars–this one seemed very smooth and powerful. The 140hp wasn’t all that much on paper, but the 215 lbs/ft of torque gave one great confidence in the on-ramp or passing lane. I remember some happy, smooth cruising approaching 100mph on some Western interstates.
Yeah, I think the design has held up well–but I’m obviously biased.
Please forgive my nostalgic sigh-I’d love to give this one a good home….
In my opinion, the ’92-’95 Taurus (and Sable) was much better looking than the first generation. I agree with those who applaud the cornering lights. I had them on an ’85 Mercury Grand Marquis LS. They would indeed light up some distance to the front/side when you triggered the turn signal.
And no, I won’t use the plural. That’s an affectation.
The cornering lights were among the optional Taurus features that were standard on Sable.
The Sable dash was different, with a kind of podlike styling housing the instruments and the leftward 2/3 of the panel and a tiny rocker switch for the headlights, instead of the Taurus’s big rotary switch.
I always preferred the blackout look of the Sable greenhouse and the front light-bar (the 1986-87 had a dark line in the middle when illuminated, the 88-91 and all the Gen 2s were solid-lit-up all the way across) but didn’t like the “girl with a too-long skirt” appearance of its rear quarter.
At one time we owned both a 1986 Ford Taurus L wagon in red (The Tomato) and a 1987 Mercury Sable GL wagon in grey (The Grey Goose).
My Father had 3 Sables in a row (he liked the local Mercury dealer, and back then traded cars pretty frequently). The first was an ’89, which replaced an ’86 Dodge 600 that my sister had borrowed and totaled in an accident. He had that until ’94 when he leased another Sable for 2 years, and then after the lease ended, he got one of those newly styled (the ones people hate) ’96 Sable which he had till ‘2001. I think I liked the ’94 the best; the ’96 was OK if you could get over the styling (another catfish style) and I was kind of neutral on the ’89. Now Mercury is no more, he’s moved onto Chevrolet, he’s on his 2nd Impala in a row.
Looks like I am alone in my lack of appreciation for the first-generation Taurus. When this car was introduced, my first thought was that it was an awkward, bloated and blocky interpretation of the genuinely radical 1982 Ford Sierra. The second-generation freshening gave it a somewhat more svelte appearance, but still garnered a “meh” from me. Ironically, the universally-derided 1996 model blew my socks off. A much leaner, lower and more cohesive design, I thought it was the best effort from Ford since that original Sierra.
I noticed in the photos that it appears your Taurus has the keyless entry keypad option on the driver’s door. It would be great if the code was included with the car.
Also, I believe that the amber lights on the front bumper corners light up when the turn signal is activated to light up a dark corner at night.
I bet TCCA has the answer where to find the key less entry code. In the owners manual or:
http://v8sho.com/SHO/KeylessEntryCode.htm
The later Taurii and 500 had the code on a sticker on the box that controlled the remote entry under the dash. I found mine that way because I did not have the card in my manual(2nd owner)
I had the keyless entry pad on my ’96 Mark VIII…how useful a feature that was! Especially for situations like going to the gym or for a run…I could lock my keys inside the car, intentionally, and then get in with the keypad. I’m sure it would have failed eventually, but it worked great when I had the car. Wish my Crown Vic had it (I sometimes think I have the only ’97 Vic in existence without keyless entry…)
I was a big fan of the Taurus from the first time I saw one. Those gen1 cars just looked so fresh compared to anything else on the market at the time, and personally, I think the design has aged well. Dated? Well, yes, 29 years after is release, it is. But I still find them handsome. The gen2 cars were similar but I think they looked bulkier somehow. The gen3 “catfish” was just awful.
And wow, rare to see one in such good shape. I still see the gen1 cars occasionally here in Richmond, but they seem to be uniformly trashed. Can’t remember the last time I saw a good one.
In this era the keyless code would be on a small sticker attached to the driver’s side trunk hinge or on the inside of the trunk lid itself. It is also on the outside of the control module which I believe is in the door itself on this model.
When this generation came out I remember all the comparison articles pitting it against the Audi 5000 (this, before the whole 60 minutes unintended acceleration fiasco played out).
$3,150 with a day left to go! What’d this Taurus LX MRSP for when it was new, anyway?
From what I could gather the 1990 LX started at $16,095. This one looks like it had the 208A package which added another $3099. Leather on the LX went for $489 and California emissions added another $100 bringing the total to $19,783 before shipping, taxes and plates.
We don’t know if this car has the SHO brakes, (4-wheel disc with ABS) which were available for $985 on other Taurus models.
Source – http://www.ford-taurus.org/taurusinfo/Options/1990T.php
Correction – the ABS was included in the option pack.
If you live in a neighborhood that isn’t very well lit and have window tint, cornering lamps are very helpful.
Ford demoted LX to ‘el strippo/cheapo’ model by 2000.
2000-03 LX had pie plate wheel overs, no power windows/locks, and flat bench. [Not 100% sure about all that, except the hubcaps]. Rental agencies got SE’s or SES’s by then.
Anyway, I saw a 2000’s Taurus today next to a brand new Honda CR-V, and the Ford looked tiny!
On today’s Taurus, SE stands for ‘strippo edition’ lol
I was back in my native S.F. Bay Area living in Suisun and working in Alameda in 1990. You’d always see a premium loaded Taurus like this at any Bay Area Ford dealership back in the day, and they were very popular in import-heavy San Francisco. Serramonte Ford was (still is) a BIG dealership that had tons of one-sheet ads in all the papers (I test drove an ’86 Mustang GT from there – off the I-280 is a great place for a dealership as you can blast right onto the freeway).
One CHERRY car and I would be concerned about the head gaskets on such a low mileage Essex V-6 unless, it was brought back under the later recall to replace the faulty gaskets (perhaps not; this car may have been slumbering in the garage back then). In the day, Serramonte Ford and S&C Ford (Castro in S.F.) along with San Leandro Ford seemed to have ‘price wars’ usually involving Ford Tauruses . . .
If I was going to guess. I’d say the button under the climate controls is probably for the power antenna. I pulled that button from a Taurus SHO from a local yard and I’m almost positive it was the power antenna.
Hello I’m a 1990 Ford Taurus owner living in Panama ( Central America) my car has a 2.5 liter engine with a 3 speed auto. trans. I have been looking for a column shifter cable for over 1 year and can not find one anywhere I love my car and it functions just fine. For the life of me I can’t understand how a car that was so popular and also used as a Police vehicle is so hard to find, This particular cable is 50 inches long I have seen shorter cables but they do not work can anyone help Me find one. Desperately seeking one .
Franc L.
Sigh…. Why does it have to be so hard to find these cars! I really want to restore an 86 LX wagon in medium canyon red but these cars are so frustratingly difficult to find. I wish I could have been born earlier when these cars were still plentiful. All I find for sale are g1 SHOs.