The Taurus was Ford’s mid or full-size family car from 1985 to 2019. For the period between 1996 and 1999, the automobile had unusual styling that corresponded with the Ford “Blue Oval” logo. Oval was the theme, and you could see one or more from every angle, especially the rear back glass. The seller has a 1998 SE edition, a one-owner car, which has only 31,000 miles because Grandma only drove it occasionally. Located in Temecula, California, this nice (but kind of boring) survivor is available here on craigslist for $3,900 OBO. If you’re looking for an automobile for less than $4,000, this one might be hard to beat. Rocco B. has been on the lookout for more tips for our readers!
Ford drew on the notable statistical process control methods of scientist W. Edwards Deming to design the original Taurus. It tied into Ford’s slogan, “Quality is Job 1,” which carried the company for many years. The third generation (when the seller’s car originated) was a mid-size FWD automobile that was offered as either a 4-door sedan or 5-door station wagon. Over the entire Taurus run, more than 7.5 million copies were built, becoming Ford’s 5th best-selling nameplate in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
Most examples of the Ford Taurus were built with a 3.0-liter V6 and a 4-speed automatic transmission. That pairing should be applicable to this tan-colored sedan. This vehicle has been Grandma’s car for 28 years (since new), but she got into trouble somehow with the DMV, which rescinded her license (we assume due to age, not bad driving habits). This is a garage-kept set of wheels with no reported cosmetic or mechanical needs.
This Ford has all the customary extras, like factory air conditioning, power windows, and keyless entry, all of which work as they should. It drives well thanks to its being maintained on a regular basis. If you’re in the market for a set of Cheap Wheels that should be turn-key from the time you take possession, how about this one, ovals and all?!
Very nice, clean low mileage Taurus. Definitely must have been garage kept. Odds are, Grandma mostly used this for her “big” Wednesday weekly food shopping and go to Church on Sunday car. You can’t beat that price. I’d be concerned about the tires and rubber hoses etc, but it may all be in great condition. We used to see cars like the Tarus EVERYWHERE, its nice to see another one so well preserved. Hope it goes to a good new home.
Nice to see seats without headrests that push your head out a mile forward. 🥴
Whether you like it or not, one cannot accuse the Ford designers and stylists from straying from the oval theme. It’s everywhere, inside and out. This looks like a very good survivor. Cheap wheels. And it’s even tan. My experience with them was only as rent-a-cars, and they seemed fine.
Most of them that I still see on the road have broken coil springs and sit really low in the rear.
It may be inexpensive if you consider it a “classic” that can be daily driven, cheap transportation is closer sub-$2,000. Someone looking for cheap, basic transportation isn’t likely able to come up with close to $4,000 in cash easily. Something like this would likely be a better choice over the long run, but coming up with a lump sum of cash likely makes a cheap car a priority, that’s easy to forget.
I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the cost of living is outrageously high, you see lots of cars from this era on the road with dings, dents, bad paint, etc., those cars are cheap transportation.
Steve R
Someone needing cheap transportation isn’t going to find a vehicle that isn’t falling to pieces for $2000. Maybe 30 years ago, but hardly anymore. It takes about 4 grand to get anything decent.
I’m not going to argue that point. However, you missed the point of what I was saying, someone that needs cheap transportation is likely going to have trouble coming up with $3,900 if they can come up with that amount at all, or whatever it takes to buy this car. They will settle for something cheaper, even though it is likely to be less reliable. You help make my point, it’s easy to forget or in some cases even realize the motivations of someone struggling to pay for their necessities.
Steve R
Maybe vote Republican Steve..
C’mon Barn Finds, either you mean it or you don’t…
that’ll do it for sure- most of my republican friends just tell their maids to buy a new car when the old one breaks down-lol
lets not get into the politics here- it is a place for amusng cars
Around 2010 I bought a 2003 Taurus with the 3.0 Vulcan motor. I had a Mustang so needed a good winter beater. It had 69,000km when I got it and was over 200,000km when I finally sold it. I kept it rust proofed and it was in very good shape when I sold it to the son of a church minister. They had it inspected and it passed with flying colours. It was one of the most reliable cars Ive had. Only thing I replaced was the front wheel bearings and the cam synchronize. Otherwise it was a good car.
Aaand, it’s gone!
Back when Ford had his act together. My how the mighty have fallen 😔
Owned an ’04 de-ovalized Taurus we got from my Aunt. It had the 3.0 Vulcan rather than the peppier 3.0 DOHC this one has.
We put approx. 85k miles on it and experienced very few problems until the AC compressor took a dump. By then, the repair cost exceeded the car’s value. It had been passed along to our son and we told him to roll down the windows and live with it.
Overall, a decent, albeit vanilla, set of wheels.
It’s a quite tasteful applying of then-trendy all-oval biodesign. Ford failed with ythat in European 2nd gen Scorpio, and wagon version of this gen Taurus is way too much round for me.
I loved the oval version, my roommate at the time had a silver one. I thought it was a very clever and visually interesting car. They get a lot of derision, where I think is just such a better looking car that the original or second gen version. This would be a great car for anyone…
Glad to see these show up, and I think the wagons will be collected, they still look cool imhop.
Grandma got the higher output dohc 3.0 as well.
Not surprised it sold fast, big demand for low cost, low mileage cars.
We did have to rebuild the trans on ours, only car we ever had drivetrain issues with. But we abused it offroad in the snow
I had several of these as well as a few Sables. Always comfortable and dependable. Never had any trouble. Almost wanted to look into buying this one but it is gone already.
sold at a fair price,but i would have not bought because it had the motor in it.