Nothing in life is perfect. Keeping that snippet of wisdom in mind really helps put things in perspective for my ownership of our 2001 Ford Taurus.
Enough of such introductory statements. Let’s jump into why I say this…
From the web; Marie’s was a twin
When Eileen was born in early 2002, Marie had her 1996 Ford Escort two-door and I had my 1996 Ford Thunderbird. Neither played well with having to put a carseat in the back; while we denied the need for a different car for a while, suddenly one day denial was longer an option. Marie, still experiencing pregnancy related physical issues, had really struggled to get Eileen’s carseat in the Escort after a pediatrician’s appointment.
So it was time to do something different.
My approach was to shop based upon acquisition cost plus personal experience. There were a slew of Taurii at work as fleet vehicles and my thoughts were depreciated price combined with known behavior in harsh use conditions should result in something practical and financially prudent. Nothing is perfect.
If you want to keep car salespeople on their toes, take a screaming baby with you. They will go out of their way to accommodate you. We ultimately bought the Taurus at a modest sized Ford dealer in Smithville, Missouri, just north of Kansas City. Eileen having a screaming fit for Marie manufactured food really stimulated their hospitality.
The sales manager at that time was the personification of nearly every negative car dealer stereotype except he wore jeans and cowboy boots instead of nylon pants and white vinyl shoes. I had test driven two identical Taurii – right down to color – with the one I chose having a few thousand fewer miles. The seats were pristine.
However a few days later upon taking delivery I noticed mild burn holes on the front passenger seat which had not been there previously. I politely pointed this out to our salesperson. My mistake; I suppose I should have made a bigger deal of it, but screaming infant and mealtime were upon us, as was their closing for the day.
The sales manager called the next day. He said they could fix the seat for something like $150. I nicely pointed out this had happened during their ownership and after we had made a deal. I requested a fix or exchanging the seat as I didn’t have a preference. He rudely stated he didn’t change seats out. In turn, me being me, I told him that’s his prerogative, but I could stop payment on a check and dump a car off on his lot if that’s what he wished.
They fixed the seat, no charge.
So what about the Taurus itself? It was a year old program car (such a nice euphemism for “former rental car”) with 21,000 miles and the 3.0 Vulcan V6. It had been titled in Colorado when new. Absolutely nothing exciting, yet roomy enough and fairly comfortable. The price was around $12k or $13k; I really don’t remember anymore other than arguing over $25 with said sales manager.
Maybe that was why he didn’t want to fix the seat. Who knows.
However, it was one of Ford’s “Certified Used Cars” or some such, meaning it was in good enough condition for Ford to extend the warranty beyond what they would have done on a new car. Really, it always seemed Ford was cutting their own throat with this, as a year old Taurus at 60% of original sticker price and a longer overall warranty was a much better deal than a new one. Similar seemed to be the case with the entire Ford lineup.
This chestnut colored Taurus entered into our lives during our time in St. Joseph, Missouri. Marie and I really liked that color and had looked far and wide for one.
Let’s take a detour and talk about St. Joseph. I’ve mentioned it many times over the years, so it only seems fitting to do the town a bit more justice.
Soon after being founded by Joseph Robidoux in 1843, St. Joe soon found itself as the last bastion of civilization for those headed west on the Oregon Trail in the 1850s. A few years later, the notoriety of St. Joseph grew due to being the home of the Pony Express and for being where infamous outlaw Jesse James was murdered. Its population peaked at 103,000 in 1900; it currently has a population of 72,000 (down from when we moved there in 2001) and is the eighth most populated city in Missouri.
Marie and I truly enjoyed the town itself, with many there being truly fantastic individuals. Sadly a select few of the inhabitants tainted our otherwise rosy thoughts.
One of the more unique behaviors we saw was (among some in our orbit) a prevailing opinion St. Joe’s status and influence was comparable to that of Kansas City or St. Louis. KC Proper has a population of 508,000 with the metro area having 2.2 million. The St. Joseph Metropolitan Statistical Area, as defined by the US Census Bureau, has a population of 127,000. This isn’t exactly comparable and it also reflects how quickly, and how dramatically, the area immediately outside of St. Joseph becomes rural as the MSA covers 1,600 square miles.
However, to be fair, St. Joseph does have the third largest manufacturing economy in the state, behind St. Louis and Kansas City. Further, Herzog Transit Services is based there; one of Herzog’s subsidiaries is TransitAmerica which claims to be the largest privately owned commuter rail operation and maintenance service in the nation and also claims to move 35 million people annually. Locally, Herzog is also a highway construction company. In addition to the Herzog owned companies is the News-Press & Gazette Company, which owns the local ABC affiliate; this same group also owns various network affiliates in Southern California and multiple other states.
Another oddity was the “which high school did you attend?” topic. With so many having lived nowhere other than St. Joe, it seemed as if there was no realization one might be from another world. Twice while living there someone in conversation asked me which of the two high schools I attended. When I disclosed I hadn’t attended either due to being a transplant, the response was “Oh” and both times the person turned and walked away. One was a woman in her seventies, the other a guy in his early thirties.
If you watch this clip (start at 0:25) it does rather sum up my response to those two events.
However, to be fair, many of the people we met in St. Joseph are among some of the best we’ve ever known.
The more a person can become acquainted with their town, the better. So one night in 2004 or 2005, I immersed myself into a side of the city I had not experienced as I rode with a St. Joseph police officer on the evening shift.
Marie had signed me up for the “Citizens Police Academy” as she said I needed to get out of the house and meet some people. Other participants over this multi-week session included several local television and newspaper reporters along with a few businessmen and housewives. We got to see pictures of a recent murder scene, do mock traffic stops, and learn of procedure. Topping off the session was a ride along with an officer.
At that time, the City of St. Joseph was hot-seating their patrol cars. While I was waiting outside (this was in June) with the officer coming onto his shift, an Impala rolled up. That officer got out, we jumped in, and off we went.
The officer soon received a call to a location near the Patee House Museum. It seems some kids were hiding behind cars parked at the curb and shoving a weighted down baby stroller into oncoming traffic to watch the reaction. As the officer was wrapping up his coaching and counseling session, he received a call about a disturbance north of downtown.
Off we went, lights and sirens at full blast.
While I’m not sure what the situation was, other than a lot of people in the street yelling and cussing at each other, we soon left and went down the street to a ramshackle looking building. The officer went inside and brought out a rather rotund man in handcuffs. As soon as he got in the car, the arrested man farted quite loudly.
Back at the station, I got to see where everyone was booked in the middle of a large room that had holding cells around the perimeter. It was not too far removed from what one could see in the movies. One woman, who was quite animated, kept screaming about how she was going to die if she didn’t get…something I couldn’t determine. There was a nurse attending to matters and I highly suspect these two had met before. What the nurse told that woman is stuck in my memory: “Honey, let me know when you are going to die and I’ll give you an aspirin so it won’t hurt.”
What a digression. St. Joe is a great town, but like most others, it isn’t perfect. This experience, along with some of the others I have relayed about our time in St. Joseph really did introduce me to another world.
Out of the box, we made a fair number of trips in the Taurus. A month after purchasing it in September 2002, we made the 1,000 mile round trip to Cape Girardeau and the Illinois side of the Mississippi River so extended family could meet Eileen.
We visited Kansas City often for a variety of reasons, such as a few trips to Children’s Mercy Hospital.
The day before Thanksgiving in 2004 Eileen, at age 2, had her tonsils removed. They had been causing obstructive sleep apnea. It was the Taurus that hauled us there for all the appointments and the surgery – with a snow storm happening on the way to the hospital.
Holding Eileen while she was given a sedative and then carrying her to the operating room was gut-wrenching. I felt like the most horrible person to ever draw breath, like leading an innocent lamb off to slaughter. That poor sedated child had no clue what was happening and didn’t have enough spark remaining to say anything. All Marie and I could see where her scared eyes.
Since Eileen wasn’t a voluntary napper, at one point Marie began taking Eileen on daily trips to the small town of Savannah, about ten miles north of St. Joseph. Invariably, the sitting still would eventually put Eileen to sleep. I’ve joked half the miles we put on that Taurus were due to these trips.
That Taurus worked out well for such purposes.
Ford did us a huge favor with the keyless entry for the Taurus. Hitting the key fob would cause a loud “clunk” when locking the doors and a hollow sounding “clank” when unlocking the doors. As most children likely do at some point, Eileen had a phase of extreme resistance about getting into her car seat. After a time or two of this happening, Marie got inspired. She would hold the key fob behind her back and quickly lock and unlock the doors, saying “Uh-oh, Eileen, I think the car is getting mad. Do you want the car to get mad?”. It worked like a charm as Eileen would scramble into her seat.
Near the Laura Ingalls Wilder home in Mansfield, MO. I think Marie was doing a 19th Century theme; I wasn’t. It was muddy and that Corolla had been clean when we parked.
However, Ford did us no favors with that particular Taurus. While it was always reliable, it had several un-endearing traits. How about spark knock / pre-detonation on anything other than 91 octane fuel? Or how about taking fits of having minimal power while alternating with times of running like there was no tomorrow? Or, my favorite, how about routinely returning less than 20 mpg on the highway, with one tank of mixed driving netting us 12 mpg? Our all time high was 24 mpg (which happened exactly once) on a car the EPA rated at 25 mpg highway.
Naturally, asking any local Ford dealer about such phenomena resulted in having my intelligence questioned.
So my automotive eye kept wondering but my wallet overruled it. I had no car payment, enjoyed having no car payment, and since Eileen was born we have lived off my income alone. So the Taurus stuck around. But things got weirder.
One night we were nearly home after a trip to Kansas City. Stopped at a red light, I noticed the oil light flashing meekly when idling in gear. The local Ford dealer drove it cold around the lot and said, in so many words, I was stupid. I told them they should challenge themselves and listen to what customers said. Taking it back to the dealer in Smithville, my apparent stupidity was corroborated. So I tried a large Ford dealer in Kansas City.
The first round of taking it to this dealer resulted in nothing, although they were more believing in what I said. Not satisfied, I got up early one morning and drove back to Kansas City, allowing the engine to be at prime operating temperature. I made sure the oil light was flashing as it had been, then drove to the dealer. I drove into the drop-off bay, put it in park, and left it running. The service manager I had been working with was standing there.
I told him to take a look. Things then went quite smoothly; I got a new Ford Focus as a loaner. They had that Taurus for two weeks.
What was wrong? At 57,000 miles the crankshaft bearings had excessive clearance and it was causing the oil issue. It seems Ford had had a batch of bad crankshaft bearings on the 3.0 Vulcan engine, of which this Taurus was among those so equipped.
That extended used car warranty kicked in, as all this work only cost me $100 for the deductible.
At the in-law’s house, giving Marie and Eileen a ride. The Taurus is in the background.
Sometime after that, in late 2006, we moved across the state to Hannibal, Missouri, boyhood home of novelist Mark Twain. We were wanting to get closer to at least one side of the family, so when the opportunity arose to be roughly an hour away from Marie’s parents, we seized it.
Remember a few installments ago how I mentioned being afflicted with gastric reflux? Well, by late 2006, it was really bad. My voice was hoarse more often than not and, when it wasn’t hoarse, it was gravelly sounding.
Soon after moving into our house in Hannibal, we received a snowfall of eight to ten inches depth. Upon clearing the driveway, I could not talk when I came back in the house. It seems removing snow caused me to bend just enough often enough that my stomach contents had overwhelmed my voice box.
While my gastroenterologist and I agreed about wanting to avoid surgery, it seems I had gone as far down that path as possible. The surgery is called Nissen Fundoplication – and there is nothing fun about it. Granted, I could have skipped it, but quality of life was greatly hindered and it simply further predisposed me for esophageal cancer. So I went under the knife.
The surgery caused me to lose fifty pounds in thirty days. I was pale and looked emaciated for a long time; the surgery knocked me on my butt for about a year.
An interesting aside about this. Due to my rapid weight loss and inability to eat nothing other than small portions of baby food for weeks, I was rather weak. One day while I was off Marie, Eileen, and I took the Taurus to meet my parents at the planetarium in St. Louis. Due to this starvation induced weakness I was in a wheel chair. While I was sitting there my father scolded me about how I needed to call my sister more often. Really? Who just had the surgery in which there was a possibility of dying on the table? Who needed to be calling whom? It seems I may have made mention of that, to no avail.
Some things in life just aren’t meant to be understood.
We sold the Taurus in early 2009, right before Cash-For-Clunkers. Had we known, and had we waited, we could have gotten a lot more for it. In our ownership we never could determine the cause for the pre-detonation issue nor could we determine the cause for its atrocious fuel mileage. However, that car was as reliable as the sun, as it always started and got us there. After a point I rationalized it all, saying an old work horse just needs an inordinate amount of food with the tradeoff being no bad surprises.
Other than the one time with the crankshaft bearings, that Taurus never did give us any bad surprises.
However, one day Marie had had enough. When I got home, she simply said it was time for the Taurus to go. So it went. It had around 95,000 miles at the time and we sold it to a girl who had just totaled out her Chevrolet Cavalier in the Hannibal High School parking lot.
I saw the Taurus a time or two around Hannibal after that. My inkling was that car didn’t have a long life ahead of it, but we had had our use from it. Its various issues did sour me on Ford to a palpable degree as there was no reason for such a common car to have so many various vices.
Postscript: As luck would have it, about six weeks ago Marie was in Hannibal and ran into the mother of the girl who bought the Taurus. It seems she got six years of hard use out of it before she graduated college and bought a new car. As the mother said “that poor car was pretty much finished”. I have no idea how many miles it had on it by that point.
(Author’s Note: Another World aired on NBC from May 4, 1964, to June 25, 1999.)
Welcome to Curbside Classic, where a brilliant writer can tell a mundane tale about a mundane car and leave the reader on the edge of his/her seat wanting for more!
Thank you. When cooking, one does need to utilize their spice inventory as it can help perk things up.
I encountered a number of Tauri as company cars or rentals, and we owned a Sable wagon so I feel well versed in these vehicles. My favorites were the wagon, just the right size for a small family, easy to drive and park and very functional.
The 1992 fleet level revision had front seats that were much less supportive than earlier models. I dreaded long trips from NJ to MA and back in one day, but maybe the stress of those difficult times trying to keep Digital Equipment Corp. afloat had something to do with it.
The oval obsessed 1996 model was just about perfect. Ugly, but perfect.
IMO the key to happy Taurus/Sable ownership is to not keep them too long (4-5 years max) -or- know a really good mechanic/dealer service center. However, none of these Ford Taurus cars ever showed a lick of exterior body rust and they were all used in road-salt happy Northeast USA.
I love Ice Cube’s “Friday” series. The actor who played the bully Deebo (the late Tommy Lister) also was Galactic President Lindberg in the movie “The Fifth Element”. Now that’s range!
“… Some things in life just aren’t meant to be understood…” . Losing 50 pounds in 30 days … calling your sister … let me just say if I saw my son down 50 pounds and in a wheel chair I’d completely lose it logically and babble about any nonsense I could come up just with to keep from crying. But that’s just me and two cents worth of sharing.
This is a great Saturday morning read.
“The oval obsessed 1996 model was just about perfect. Ugly, but perfect.”
Spot on. It did not handle as well as the ’94 and ’95 models I drove (and you are correct about them not being overly comfortable) but the ’96 to ’99 years were very comfortable and drove quite well. I put many miles on that generation of Taurus.
About statements from one’s father…some things really aren’t meant to be understood. Really, there is no way to understand the mentality behind that statement, especially given the context. Eileen has a bad trip to the orthodontist and I am devastated.
His history of making breathtakingly unthoughted statements to me after surgery has repeated itself. Sometimes you just have to compare family members to Ford dealers by reminding yourself they are oblivious to their actions and everything eventually comes home to roost.
One other, tangentially related thing…one of my counterparts at work gave the seven of us having the same job title a t-shirt a few years ago. It has a picture of a water buffalo with the statement about having thick skins and strong backs. It was quite appropriate.
good story – I remember how that issue of the Taurus was initially wildly overpriced and was an ovoid flop – and then decontented to lower the price, making it an inexpensive rental and used car.
I love the West and the Pony Express lore – and yet the PE was just a blip – it operated from April 3, 1860, to October 26, 1861, @ 1.5 years
If you enjoy the Pony Express and the West, please take a look at the link I placed about the Patee House Museum. You will like it.
This is the most enjoyment I have ever gotten from an early 2000s Taurus! 🙂
My first thought was as one who experienced both “fat” Fords (up through the mid 90s) and Fords after the cost cutters have finished with them. I have always found late 90s to early 2000s Fords to be exceedingly grim and depressing cars. Did you notice that kind of vibe moving from the 95 Escort (that seemed quite nice from your sample photo) to the decontented Taurus? All that aside, I do love the color.
The gas mileage and spark knock is a mystery indeed. But as we pretty well established in my New Yorker piece last week, there can be wide differences from one car to the next in a production run.
Having a kid does indeed change everything. And there is really nothing worse than watching one of them deal with a physical problem or go into a surgery.
That’s a great question about the decontenting of the Taurus. Here’s my take on it…
I drove a bunch of ’97 to ’99 models at work. The ’99 I was assigned for a while was bleak – vinyl seat edges and door panels along with just a lower quality feel to everything inside. It was quite the contrast to a ’97 I had had earlier in which everything was nice quality in both feel and appearance and no vinyl anywhere.
The 2001 we had was the next to top trim level (the order was LX, SE, SES, and SEL) and did not have the cheapness of the ’99 I had at work. How much is attributable to trim vs. Ford upping their game is hard to know. My grandmother had a 2000 Taurus LX and it did not have the cheapness of the ’99.
Before I got the ’99 Taurus at work, I had a 2000, the first year of this bodystyle. It was either an LX or SE. Surprisingly, it appeared as if Ford had picked up their game on interior quality for 2000 as it was vastly far ahead of the ’99 I had later.
However, by 2005 (I drove several of those along the way), the Taurus was back to the cheapness – if not worse – I had experienced in the ’99.
In regard to Marie’s Escort vs. the Taurus…they were surprisingly comparable. Was it a matter of trim levels? I’m not sure.
There was one other issue with that Taurus I forgot to mention…I had to replace the rear brake shoes. Both were worn down to the metal (4:00 passenger side, 7:00 drivers side) while the rest of the shoe was pristine. So it seems like the brake drum assembly must have been out of round. That annoyed me but it was a one-time job.
The 2005 Taurus may have been “cheapened” as a way to push people into the new Five Hundred, which shared the basic size and function of the Taurus, but was sold as a bit “upmarket” from it.
That’s a really good point. Ironic, as the Five Hundred never seemed to have quite the market share the Taurus did, but that is just observational, not necessarily factual.
I’d suspect the spark knock was due to carbon build-up in the combustion chamber, or blocked cooling passages in the cylinder heads or block creating hot spots. I remember the Vulcan blocks had some casting issues back then, especially from ’96 to ’99 but it continued into the aughts. Seems they weren’t getting all of the sand out of the cooling passages of the castings prior to assembly, and it would lead to rusty coolant and blocked passages in the heads and heater core. If the spark knock was as prevalent as you describe, it didn’t do the bottom end any favors, and was likely a contributor to the poor fuel economy. When the crank bearing issue arose, did they replace the bearings and crank? Any dealer I worked in would have installed a reman engine, and it wouldn’t have taken 2 weeks, likely not even 1 week. Sorry to hear about your service experience, some dealerships clearly don’t get it.
What you state makes a lot of sense and likely was the cause. Why this was so difficult to diagnose (well, technically it never was) is what aggravates me.
The engine was not replaced. I vividly remember the conversation with the service advisor in Kansas City when he stated they “rolled in new crankshaft bearings”. So it sounds like crank bearings only, which from what you describe seems to only be treating the symptoms, not the root cause.
For some reason now lost to time, the dealer had to involve a regional manager on this issue. Not sure if that is what led to the longer time, but this was not a small dealer.
I’ve often wondered if part of the challenges seen by American car manufactures over the years were partially created by dealers such as what I experienced. A little thought on their part could have gone a long way.
The cooling system issue was well known. There were a few TSBs on it, and a heater hose recall that involved removing freeze plugs, replacing the water pump, and flushing the block, but I don’t remember if it went into the 2000s. I remember when the ’96s came out, within 10,000 to 15,000 miles the coolant in the pressurized recovery tanks would be completely rusted. Had a water pump that the fins dissolved on that came in overheating while still under warranty. Recall came out in ’99 if I recall. I think it was all due to a change in the casting process for the block, and was never completely addressed, but from 2000 or so on was somewhat better. Sad, because that motor was basically bulletproof prior to this.
This is what a water pump looks when taken out of a 98 Sable when the coolant turned brown. The issue further down the line was that the #1 combustion chamber would overheat and get a crack between the valves.Solution was make a bypass for the heater hose so the coolant had another way around a clogged heater core. When bought used in 2006 this issue pooped up within the year.
Was that ever an issue on older Vulcans? Sure would explain the ’87 Taurus the family had.
No, prior to ’96, the Vulcan was pretty much bulletproof.
Apparently my father must have particularly abused ours.
The Triumph Stag V8 often had sand left in the castings. This in an engine whose design made it prone to, and intolerant of, overheating in the first place.
Excellent story Jason, and a great way to start out Saturday morning.
I think that one of the morals of this story is that sometimes a boring car is exactly what one needs; and that need is seldom more the case than when there are infants and toddlers to care for. I recall those years, and at least in my case, I’d have gladly made any concession just to eliminate one more source of stress and drama (my first one wasn’t a “napper” either…which usually meant that most days went to hell in a handbasket by around 10am, only to be followed by a sleepless night between 7pm and 5am when it all started again. For at least 3 years.).
Someday I want to visit the Wilder home. I was a huge fan of the Little House books (along with automotive sales literature) when I was a kid. And of course, the TV show.
And finally, thanks for the LaWanda Page and Ice Cube clip. Gotta love Aunt Esther!
Boring describes that Taurus perfectly but, as you say, sometimes that is exactly what is needed. Overall it worked out well despite being dismayed a few times along the way.
The Mansfield area is about two hours away from here. It is scenic and rural – which are huge selling points for me. The house is open for tours and it is pretty much as it was when Wilder died.
There were no motels in the area at the time but we did stay at some cabins. If memory serves, there was a cave on the property with the lodge, so one could explore it as part of the stay. Lake of the Ozarks is a little over an hour away as are the Ozark Mountains. It would make a great addition to a trip.
Ah, I didn’t know how close it was to Lake of the Ozarks. Back in the early 90s, I used to go to an annual conference at what was then called the Tan-Tar-A resort (known in my house for some reason as “Lake Tarantula”). I’d make the drive out there each year from west-central Kentucky where I lived at the time.
If I’d know about the Wilder home, I’d probably have taken a drive up there. I guess I’ll just add that to the road trip list.
“St. Joe — they loved me there!”
The “which high school did you go to” sounds familiar. In a certain type of place, you’re always from “out of town” if you didn’t grow up there.
Thank you for this clip. I’ve seen it many times but never have I caught the St. Joe part.
I cannot quite make the same statement as only some loved me there!
This generation Taurus may be one of the more successful redesigns of an existing one, at least aesthetically, that I can recall. It went from “no, way, not in my driveway” to “it’s not bad looking”. Bummer about the dealer experience and the weird mechanical things, not how you’d think a manufacturer would want a volume seller to be experienced unless banking on the “we’ll just sell them another one of the same when the warranty runs out” which seems shortsighted if true as there is competition. Major production line variability really should have been ironed out by the 1980s.
ANYway, you all survived, and your surgery looks terrifying from more than one angle, it’s good you work for what I believe is the public sector with access to its health insurance programs. The resulting crash diet thing looks interesting, not sure if that’s a better way than purposely introducing a tapeworm into “things”, if only the actual weight loss could be regulated to a more managed degree, I suppose that’s the trick. I may skip the bagel this morning and just head toward the fruit bowl.
For those that don’t know him personally, Jason appears perfectly normal in person, neither over or underweight, 50 pounds would be a massively significant change to endure even with his predeliction for sweet tea…
You’ve hit upon a lot of good stuff here.
Had Ford tempered the 1996 Taurus into something more approaching the 2000 model, I can’t help but wonder if their success would have been better. And, I’ll be honest, when we were shopping for the Passat in 2014, I did look at a couple of new Fusions, but our experiences with that Taurus popped into my head. I’ve also entertained the idea of a new(er) F-150 but that Taurus still pops into my head.
Ford, you and your dealers did it to yourselves.
Yeah, I don’t recommend that type of weight loss regimen. I am 5’11” tall, medium frame, and weighed right at 200 lbs the day of that surgery. I was 165 lbs when I graduated high school, and called thin, and dropped 15 pounds below that. I dropped one-quarter of my body weight. After that surgery, if I turned sideways I disappeared. That’s how thin I became. I no longer have that problem but still weigh less than 200 lbs.
Good sweet tea is like angels singing. Bad sweet tea can make you question every decision you’ve made in life.
Yeah the 2000 Taurus in 1996 – if the price and content was right – should have succeeded in every way.
Driving and dealer experiences can be so important to future sales, even down to rental cars. I recall my parents renting a T-Bird in 1966, as they were looking forward to buying one. The rental car seemed shoddily put together to them, so the purchase was taken off the table.
In Europe, about 2007, we rented a Ford Mondeo followed quickly by a Toyota Camry. The solid tightness of the Ford versus the Toyota predisposed us to shop for Fords soon after, not Toyotas, even though the Fords in the U.S. were not Mondeos. It could have even been that the Toyota had been crashed or abused, but the impressions were what they were.
Renting a GM “Captiva”, some years back, reinforced the idea that GM was out to lunch. A VW Passat was a reasonable and non-offensive rental drive, and the mileage across long stretches of flat Colorado and New Mexico was astounding, well over 50 mpg at a carefully constant 70 mph (confirmed at fill-up time, 6 gallons for 325 miles on the odometer). The experience moved VW way up the mental list of potential rides to someday own. (Never mind the huge lot full of bought-back and abandoned VW diesels that we saw in southern CO. What a waste, but a CC story for another day).
Dealer treatment of customers is a huge element of these mental long-term impressions, yet the manufacturers don’t seem to entirely zero in on that. I think Mazdas are great cars, yet we stay with the Honda, in part because the dealer experience in recent years (once we got beyond the open scalping on back-ordered Odysseys back when) is so consistently good.
Great story thank you. I remember in the late 1990s, cost cutting at Ford and other auto makers was hailed in various business magazines as a favorable trend in achieving cost competitiveness and greater profitability. Lots of cutting was directed at manufacturing processes, like just-in-time inventory control. However the bean counters took control over the product planning and debased the brands
I have both a 1993 and 98 Grand Marquis, both too end models. The 93 is virtually a Town Car and the 98 is a taxicab. Vastly cheaper throughout.
GM got the cost cutting disease too. My 97 Deville has a high quality look and feel throughout the interior, lots of detail and quality materials and controls.
I was shocked at the next generation of Deville. Unbelievable decontenting in 2000. All the richness are detail replaced by Chevy taxicab switch gear and materials. Buyers notice these things, and can appreciate quality, and won’t spend on a down market feel.
So, that era of cost cutting was quite destructive imho.
You’re giving Samuel Clemens a good run for his money Jason, thanx .
I remember these cars, I more thought “blah” than ‘boring’, might be the same in the end .
I do remember riding in them, compliant and capable for what they did, when new(ish) I seem to recall a lot of them had issues with the manual window lifts .
Interestingly, Ford has produced more than a few ‘Economy’ vehicle that require premium fuels to run well and avoid problems long term .
A buddy of mine bought an earlier Ford Ranger base model and told me it required premium fuels otherwise he loved it, I didn’t think that possible until I bought a 2001 Ford Ranger 4 cylinder and Lo ! .
The history lessons you provide are terrific .
-Nate
Jason
Great story. A buddy bought a similar Taurus (used rental car), and I recall it pinging like a bugger unless he put premium in it. About two months after buying it, he was told by the regular mechanic that it needed rear brakes. He went back to the dealer that he bought it from, considering brakes are supposed to be covered under Ontario’s certification program, and the dealer wouldn’t do a thing to remedy the situation. The Taurus lasted a grand total of six months before he traded it in on a new 2002 Grand Am. The clincher was that the salesperson that sold him the Taurus at the Ford dealer, was now working at the Pontiac dealer and the Grand Am was his first car that he sold new at that dealer….Talk about fate.
I can’t say too much about your health issues, other than it scared the pants off of me reading it. Being from an English background, we have an aversion to the entire medical system or hospitals in general (dentists included too).
Also having an English father, he sounds to be the clone of yours. He was visiting his brother in England, who has five daughters and an incredible schedule, and told him in anger that he should “visit his daughter more often”. He also managed to drink the Uncle’s house dry, and they smoked like locomotives in their house, where the Uncle has Asthma and they don’t smoke. The Old man couldn’t understand why his brother blew his stack at the daughter remark…Completely oblivious to everything but his own world.
When the crank bearings went south, I was sorely tempted to purge myself of that Taurus. I knew when Marie hit her limit it was time for it to go.
Also being of primarily English heritage (so I have learned in the last few years), I have also developed an aversion to the medical system. My wife, of Irish heritage, has also. Just wait a couple of weeks until the “General Hospital” episode of this saga runs.
As to your father…yep, that all sounds familiar.
Did Marie say why she hit her limit? Was it some watershed event?
I’ve had to think about it, but I do remember. The antilock brakes would be triggered at random times when stopping on dry, level pavement. It never happened for me but did for her several times. That was the final straw for the car.
Thanks for dredging that up for me!
Of course you didn’t assume that it was her imagination because you hadn’t experienced it yourself, and you didn’t tell her she was stupid. You didn’t want to sleep on the couch. 🙂
Well told. Never owned one of these and never had one for a company car either. Did get a few as rentals though.
One rental sticks out due to having the wife along. She owned a Neon at the time. Picking up our rental Taurus at O’Hare, we headed north towards Milwaukee.
My wife was not a car person. Her only real comment on the Neon was she liked how much easier it made dealing with child seats. Fair point considering her previous car was an ’89 Mustang convertible.
Her commentary on the new Neon had me wondering whether there was something wrong with her old one. The wife usually didn’t comment on car problems until they were quite well along. I thought this might be leading to a first warning of impending major trouble with her Neon.
I told her I didn’t see much difference between her Neon and the new ones, but if she was having problems with her old one, we should consider getting something else.
She said she liked the new Neon and thought it quite an upgrade from her old one. I considered all Neons pretty much interchangeable, but went along with her thoughts. Driving the rental Taurus led me to comment if she wanted something with a bit more room, perhaps we should consider a Taurus coming out of a rental fleet.
She thought a minute then said she’d like to drive a Taurus first. Thinking she wanted to drive, I pulled over and offered her the wheel. When she asked why – well you know where this is going. She thought the Taurus was a new model Neon.
I never noticed the vague similarities in the styling lines until that moment. Both her Neon and the previous Mustang had manual transmissions. She didn’t pick them for that reason, but after driving a manual for so many years, she wanted another.
We did look, but neither of us could find a used Taurus with a manual. Not sure whether they even offered one. She ultimately traded her ’95 Neon for an ’06 Neon – with a manual. The oval style Taurus shall forever remain a car she liked, but never would own.
I’ve only glanced through this so far, looks like a great story to pore over later!
I love how you matter-of-factly handled the seat burn issue with the sales manager!
The fact that the dealer was trying to “deny/disavow” the burns to the seat speaks “volumes”.
You got an extended warranty, you were not meant to have any problems with the car so the dealer just denies there is a problem and hopes you go away.
My ’05 with the Vulcan was always an excellent runner.
But when I got it at 20,000 miles until it’s demise.(due to my wife getting rear-ended in a multi car crash while stopped at a red light) at 170,000 or so, it always averaged around 17 mpg. Using E85 would result in a laughable 12 or so. Reaching an average of the rated 25mpg highway would have really not be possible.
First the OP’s comments about acquaintances in Missouri recall memories of mine. Except he had some positive ones, but the ones about not being from there… Nuff said.
With what must be dozens of seat miles in both V1.0a and 2.0, which were my Dad’s, I find it all interesting. He spent, oh, 15 years or so in England and Europe. Still not a car guy, but it made an impression on him and vehicles. He really liked the 1.0a. It wasn’t intended as such, but was a lease car that ended up with a million miles on it. But the dealer made him an offer he couldn’t refuse on a 2.0, the oval one. Aside from the lack of good side impact protection which killed him, he never really warmed to it.
My few miles driving 2.0 are overshadowed by my inability to put it into gear. I don’t even remember now what it was, nothing obvious like seat belts or pushing on the break pedal, but it had some weird interlock which prevented me from shifting out of park. Funny, you always remember the bad stuff.
About not being from there, there’s a story about a man who moved to Vermont from elsewhere. One day, quite a few years in, he was venting to a local Vermont native about how felt he wasn’t really accepted after all those years. He said, “But my children were born here, at least they’re Vermonters.”
The local said, “If a cat has her kittens in the oven, they don’t come out muffins.”
I’ve never been a parent, and the “Do you want the car to get mad?” trick would never have occurred to me. Clearly Marie knows something about wrangling children that I don’t!
The photo of you giving Marie and Eileen a ride—when I was Eileen’s age, I’d think that kind of ride was great fun.
I had a tonsillectomy at age 4 or so, and I don’t remember it being too traumatic.
I would have thought that the news that you weren’t a St. Joseph native should rightfully have been the springboard for a line of conversation in itself. Sounds like you encountered a couple of really poor conversationalists.
Marie is pretty shrewd when it comes to children. It’s one of her many talents and it never fails to amaze me.
St. Joseph was such a bipolar town, or at least that was our experience. Either things went really well or they didn’t. We’ve never seen similar with the other places we’ve lived.
Did someone say crank?
Just take a look at these in original box from 2000 Ford mains. Turned out to be free and fit for the garbage.
Makes you wonder how many like this were installed.
I bought a used.2004 Taurus in the same exact color back in 2010 and drove it for 4 trouble free years.
Mine was the 24 valve and had 210,000 miles on it.
I got it for cheap, because the dealership never bothered to look in the glovebox where I found the paperwork for a Jasper reman engine and transaxle that was replaced at 160k.
Sorry to hear about your Pops Mike .
-Nate
Owned three Tauri, a 1994, 1999 and a sage green 2003 SE. All three provided excellent service, but I miss the 2003 most. It was an extremely capable highway car, quiet, comfortable, reasonably powerful and easy to drive. When Ford discontinued the car I went to Hyundai, one of which is sitting in my garage now.
Took many day trips and overnights in the Ford from my home in Columbia, Mo., including St. Joe. In an odd way, I was most intrigued with the Glore Psychiatric Museum (https://www.facebook.com/gloremuseum/) there in the old state hospital for the insane. I left the tour saddened and convinced never to fully trust scientists again.
A regular STJ lunch stop for me was at the airport terminal restaurant at Rosecrans Airport, home of the 139th Airlift Wing flying Lockheed C-130s. Always fun to munch on my tenderloin sandwich and watch the transports run their touch and goes.
If you go to St. Joe, drive about 30 minutes west on Highway 36 to Hiawatha, Kansas, home of the windmill museum. Being a city guy, never though windmills were interesting. The museum changed my mind and showed me how adaptable people had to be before electricity.