1990 Ford Taurus 4 Dr GL Sedan Reviews

I bought this car new in 1990.  Fantastic Interior..plush seats with lots of room in both front and back.  Very comfortable on long drives.  Good engine, sold car with 1000,000 miles on it to my niece, and she drove it another 30,000 miles without too many issues.  
   Lousy front suspension.  Tie rod ends, ball joints etc had to be replaced every 30,000 miles.  Went through 2 water pumps, but that seems to be a Ford tradition.  Back trunk lid rusted badly.  Pretty good acceleration for a family sedan, and good traction on snow covered roads.  I never had to use chains or studded tires with this vehicle, and the roads here are snow covered 6 months out of the year. 3 Liter engine gave good fuel economy, usually 33mpg on the freeway.  Seemed prone to windshield damage from flying gravel etc.  I can't even count how many times I had windshield repair done on this car.
  Average cost to drive and maintain.  I never had trouble with the transmission even though others complained about it.  I did make sure the transmission was serviced every 30,000 miles.
   Loved the big trunk area, but hated having a mini spare.  I did my own oil and filter changes, and found this car moderate to difficult to change the oil on.  Poor access to the filter was the major problem.  The parking brake cable was a piece of crap.  The lever housing in the dash kept popping loose, and it was a nightmare to fix.  Sound system had poor volume, and the radio hardly worked on AM.
   One other thing....had a super irritating rotating wheel squeak that no one could fix, and I gave up on, until it went away after about 30,000 irritating miles.  It was probably a stone caught in a brake rotor, but it drove me absolutely nuts.
  So the 1990 Ford Taurus is an average car with a great interior.  Had little irritating problems you had to live with, but other than that, it wasn't too bad.  I'd never buy another Ford though.

I love my car because:  I can fit 6 people, ski gear to include two snowboards (160's) and two or more sets of skis ( also 160's) and cooler and winter clothes for five.  Five inside the car to go snowboarding.

When I have the kids we can fit six people around town.  I have looked and looked but nothing compares to the size.

I also get around 25 MPG around town and up to 30 MPG on the road trips.  It's old and has some mechanical needs now and again.  But overall the cost to maintain is les than a new subcompact.