Are you looking to get into a comfortable daily driver that has time capsule written all over it? Do you think today’s mainstream sedans have gotten too boring, with their swept-back headlights and gaping bumpers, stuffed with heavy safety equipment that totals brand-new cars at the slightest love tap? Then get yourself to Rochester, Minnesota, where you can effectively buy a brand new 1997 Ford Taurus! It just, ahh – needs some work. Find it here on craigslist for $1,650.
The Taurus was Ford’s answer to the Camry and Accord, and despite what seemed like a dazzlingly bright future littered with trophies from JD Power & Associates (and Motor Trend magazine), it began to fall behind. The first-generation Taurus was a gamechanger, looking downright futuristic compared to the bland boxes from Asian competitors (wasn’t the first Taurus in RoboCop? That’s as future-looking as it gets). The later years, such as this amorphous blog from Detroit, not so much. While Ford can be commended for maintaining its mildly bonkers SHO offering in this phase, the Taurus’ swan song was anything but memorable.
Still, if there’s any doubt this Taurus has just 6,200 miles from new, it should wash away when checking out that mouse-fuzz-laden interior. The seats and steering wheel show little signs of use, which is good – because “signs of use” is the understatement of the year when viewing the exterior. The paint is peeling and rodents have gone to town on the vehicle’s wiring like a Biggest Loser convention at a Sizzler. The tires are also so rotten that it appears the driver’s side rear simply tore to shreds once the Taurus was moved. What happened here – serious buyer’s remorse or license revocation?
This handy shot of the barely-visible odometer does show just four digits rolled over, and given the minimal use the interior has seen, I don’t have much reason to doubt it. However, it does seem that despite not even accumulating a pittance of the miles that most folks accumulate in a year, this Taurus was stored poorly and battered around the barn yard before ending up on craigslist as part of an estate sale. It could be the best-worst $1,650 you ever spend, especially if there’s still a JD Power trophy in the trunk.
Rodents have feasted on the wiring? No, thank you.
Looks like hell for that low of miles. Looks as if it has 200K. If it was mint condition it would be fun to own but not in this condition.
Dah! You think? What kind of question is that for Car Guys & Gals? Not on my way to Min. anytime soon, for a jelly bean car.
Good winter beater, if that’s the only area that was chomped on its not that bad to fix.
It’ll rust on the first winter run…
As a mechanic, I have seen and worked A LOT of these over the years. The 3.0l is definitely punchy for such a land yacht. BUT, the transmissions are sketchy and their heater cores are truly THE WORST in the business.
I owned a car that looked exactly as this. And Dave, you are 100% correct. This car is a P.O.S.. Trans was a major headache and heavy, heavy expense on our young family. I will never forgive Ford for this. The heater core failed too. I was very disappointed with Ford after my final phone call to the company head office…”there’s nothing we can do help you, sir.”…true it was out of warranty, but for spending so much money on our family car, at least give me some advice I can use when sending my car to a trans shop to get repaired…third time in the shop for a trans overhaul…even the trans shops were unable to permanently repair the trans. Fords silence in helping our family serrated that last phone message into my mind. We will never again own a Ford product.
Every spring I see a few newer low mile cars run through insurance auctions just because of this reason…rodents.
People park their car and go away for the winter only to find mice have moved in and destroyed everything under the dash.
They are sold as parts only/scrap.
Great for mechanical parts, but it would have to be a fairly rare and valuable car to justify repairing it.
I’ve even seen Corvettes sold cheap because of this.
An associate with a late-model Volvo had an issue with this. He lives on what used to be farm land. The mice have made it into his garage and damaged his wiring harness. It was an expensive fix.
I let my cats prowl around in the garage, haven’t had mice in awhile.
Wish it was a Taurus SHO
I knew mice loved to feast on interior parts of the 30’s and 40’s cars, such as cotton seat padding, loom wiring, etc. I didn’t know they still had a taste for synthetics, like foam rubber and plastic wiring. My understanding is that velour is so synthetic they leave it alone.
I put a bunch of Bounce dryer sheets throughout any vehicles/motorhome/boat not used used over the winter.
While I have found the odd dead mouse I have not had anything chewed on.
I did this over the last winter and and it seems like it worked! Last year I had to completely disassemble a car for cleaning after mice had made a nest behind the dash and managed to soil every nook and crevice in the car
For heavens sake, do the right thing. Just put it out of it’s misery by pulling the battery and bury it.
If you have a Taurus of this vintage, this might be the way to go to get those parts you need. I’m looking for a transmission for my ’06 Taurus now. I can almost buy this for the price of a new transmission. .
I bought a new 1993 Ford Ranger and the odometer stopped moving at around 6000 miles. I never took it in to fix it.
I bet this is the same thing.
The car sure is dirty for a 6000 mile car.
I once heard a motoring journalist describe the styling as being like “dropping 3000 pounds of elephant dung from a 10th story window”. I tend to agree with him on that. Ford Australia imported these as a sales and styling experiment. It failed dismally.
Not deterred by this failure, Ford Australia followed many of the same styling cues when it introduced to Falcon AU (pictured), and were then shocked when it was a sales failure. This styling did Ford Australia sales and financial damage from which it never recovered, and they ceased local manufacture in Australia completely in October last year.
Adam, that’s hilarious! I never thought much of these either but they did move the masses for many a mile. Perhaps it was the name, Taurus, WOW!,,,Falcon, meh,,
Never liked the look of them then or now, but ford sold a lot of them..only problem is they rusted away quickly. By the way moth balls will keep the rodents at bay
I love my ’99 Merry Sable DOHC. I wonder if the seats are compatible. After 194000 miles I want to rebuild or replace them.
I leave mouse traps in my stored cars and check them every couple of days. I find that a month or so into winter, after catching a dozen or so, they stop coming- I always figured I caught all the ones living in the garage, and by that point it is too cold and snowy for the ones outside to migrate around much. I almost never catch any in the warm months.
Matt, isn’t it too late if they are already inside your car?
I will have to admit that I bought one of these new as a wagon and I really liked it. I bought the smaller engine though not knowing the difference between the two. If I had known, I would have bought the LX model for sure. The car was traded in on an Explorer Limited that next year. That was a huge trade down. The Taurus has much more leg room for the rear passengers that the Explorer.
I’ve owned several Taurus’, (Taurii?)
They’ve all been good cars, until they weren’t.
This is a sad waste of a good automobile.
With the 24V engine these are surprisingly fast cars. Don’t see those fender tags here though. This one is kind of like that 20 year old McDonald’s hamburger, still looks ok, but who would want it?
This one has the GL wheels on it just like my wagon did so it does have the small engine.
During the run of these where everything was oval shaped, the back window, dash pod, lights, door handles….everything. At the yearly new car show the guy in the Ford booth called it a “Symphony of Ovals” That was it for us, walked away.
“Taurus…. making the dream come true for you… Making the dream come true.”
More like a nightmare!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xTM9uLKWus
if you buy it don’t forget the electrical tape and a new tranny!
Well, look on the bright side, Ford learned from it’s mistakes (it took awhile), but at least we the taxpayer did not have to bail them out (like GM)…..
Hee-hee. . . “amorphous blob”. That was pretty funny.