Originally Posted by GonneVille

My cousin owns a Yugo, you better watch it
I shouldn't really bash Ford in it'* totallity. They have always produced excellent trucks/vans, and their RWD platforms(Fox-bodies, CV/Grand Marquis) are as good as anything Chevy or Dodge puts out, but the Tauruses from that generation had massive problems with their trannies(not just me speaking, anecdotal evidence[I know, hearsay] from many other Taurus owners).
Not to mention the fact that they all, to a car(and this can be confirmed visually on your average commute), rusted in exactly the same spots, and that those spots were at precisely the right spots to weaken the structure of the car in a rear-end accident.
Now, I have to say that Ford solved all these problems on the 2nd-gen Tauruses, which are excellent, reliable cars, as is the Contour/Mystique. But the 1st-gen Tauruses were, for the most part, miserable heaps, and I won't mention burning Focuses...

Originally Posted by vital49

'lil bit of both! Let'* drop this for now.... LOL.

Originally Posted by GonneVille

Sorry about that last rant, didn't see this post until after I'd written it.
I stand duly chastened
And yeah, I have noticed that Marauder drivers do tend to be a bit over-aggressive, and so do Caprice-body-Impala drivers for that matter... :?
I wonder if the concept of factory-tweaked large cars makes people insane...

Originally Posted by Twister97

I wasnt bashing Mercury Vital, I like Fords as they have always been more reliable then anything else we have owned, including a lot of european cars when we were overseas. The Maruader (sp?) does have style, it has that in your face type of look. If I had the money, I would buy one of those instead of a SSEi, mainly because I like the roar of V-8s. If you have had bad experiences with Ford'* in the past, dont base a car you have never owned off of that. Its easy to pin point a glitch with a vehicle and then carry it on to every model that company produces, especially if you dont care for it. Its like I hate Chevy Trucks with a passion, but I wont criticize a new one because of bad experiences in the past.

I owned a 93 Taurus with 130k miles on it, with the original engine and tranny. It was a simple model with the basic 3.0l. It never failed me once. TW, my Bonne has had three tranny'* put in it since 97', hopefully this is the last one.

Originally Posted by TrueWildMan

I agree with the Tauruses. The newer models (post-1992) were bad apples. Pre-1992 lasted forever though.

Originally Posted by TrueWildMan

There are a couple Marauders around here, and a couple '96 Impalas, but they are very mild drivers compared to the F&F wannabe driver'*...if Ihad a dime for every time somone driving an import with a body kit and fart cannon cut me or someone off in traffic, I'd be rich.

Originally Posted by GonneVille

hmm.
I think maybe you read my post wrong, my rant was against PRE-92 models, as I owned a '90 model, and they seem to comprise the largest portion of the beater-Tauruses. Al though, come to think about it, I don't see many POST-92 1st gen Tauruses at all, even beaters...
Maybe the PRE-92s DID have something going for them.

Originally Posted by TrueWildMan

Oh sure enough. My family has owned, in all, 7 Tauruses, and only the post-92 ones gave us problems. Also, there'* a guy at work here that has a 91 Taurus with almost 300,000 miles on the original drive-train and says that it just won't die.

Personally, I love my factory tricked-out full size sedan. :P

Originally Posted by TrueWildMan

Personally, I love my factory tricked-out full size sedan. :P