My uncle just asked me if I knew anything about the 2013-2016 Ford Taurus. It's going to be a replacement for an 07, so it should be a better car but that's my knowledge on that subject. I honestly have no experience with these other than they look like good value for the money and seem to be decent drivers when I got them through the appraisal lane. Any known issues to look out for or changes between 13 and 16 that would make one better than the other?
The only thing I know about them is from driving rental cars and that's that some models (I suspect with a large wheel option) somehow manage to have both an overly rough ride and sloppy handling at the same time. Not all of them are that way and I don't know what combination of options you need to get that but it's actually a pretty impressive feat of poor chassis tuning. Those that aren't plagued by that are very nice cars to drive and I've logged hundreds of miles in them.
Just tell him he's not crazy when he finds himself arguing with Ford Sync. Motherberkeleyer
In reply to yupididit:
Haha, funny you say that, I thought my dad's head was going to explode when I was explaining Sync on their Fiesta. They almost flew me up from Texas to Virginia to program their phones. I haven't personally had any major issues with it, but my bar is set incredibly low since my Versa bluetooth is still berkleying voice activated.
2007 was the last year for the 4th Generation Taurus and looks like this.
Additionally, all 2007 model year Tauruses were only for fleet orders. I know because in 2007 I was in a Hertz rental car nearly every week and I drove som many Tauruses that I refered to them as my "other car".
The replacement for the Taurus was the Fusion (a little smaller) and the Ford Five Hundred (a bit bigger)
The Ford Five Hundred looks like this... Its twin offering was the Mercury Montego.
For the '05 and '06 years the Five Hundred was offered in a CVT trans only in both fwd or awd.
DO NOT GO NEAR ONE OF THESE CVT TRANSMISSIONS. They are horribly unreliable.
In '07 & '08 the fwd went to a traditional 6 speed auto though the awd remained CVT. These 6 speeds are reliable and continued forward.
When I say continued forward it was then in mid year '08 that the Five Hundred was renamed The Taurus and had this slat bar grill looking like this...
At this time, the twin was also renamed from Montego back to Mercury Sable. This look carried on for model years '08 & '09.
For model year '10 there was another body restyle and those look like this which is the current body style as well which is evolutionary since the '05 Ford Five Hundred.
So, where am I going with all this...
Some of the dark horses out there are:
'07 or '08 For Five Hundred with 6 speed auto in fwd or Mercury Montego.
No one goes looking for these two forgotten nameplates. Both of the nameplates are also hampered by a bad reputation of the '05 & '06 model years which then drive down resale values. I think you can find a '07 or '08 Five Hundred/Montero for much, much cheaper than a '10 Taurus.
Add to all this:
The Lincoln MKS is the same basic frame but the tarted up lux version which began in '09. Sure its tarted up and had a higher sticker price but then you add in the enormous Lincoln depreciation and you will be surprised that you can find old Lincolns with lower asking prices than same year Tauruses.
MKS:
In reply to John Welsh :
Thanks for the write up. I forgot about the MKS, a bit harder to find but I know they got nailed with depreciation, so that might be a good deal. I know he specifically said he was looking at 13-16, but I know their budget is a little tight so I'll run it back to '10 when the body style changed over. I'll also see what's out there for the non CVT Five Hundred/Montego.
I would recommend a 2010 or newer Fusion.
I agree with Dwnshft, Its not that the taurus is a bad vehicle but the fusion just does everything better in a marginally smaller package.
Biggest gripe I have on the 10+ the door sills are silly high so your side windows seem like port holes in a sub IMHO.
In reply to thedanimal:
We have a 13 fusion, sync is my only complaint. My phones get dropped from Bluetooth way too often.
The Taurus, in black, makes a mean looking police car.
I've driven a few and i dont think modern Tauruses are bad, it's just that there's a lot out there that's better.
I personally prefer the Fusion. I think it's a better car overall, I was never a huge fan of the Taurus. I think he's just going with what he knows since they own a Taurus currently. I'll bring up the Fusion though.
Re: MKS vs Taurus- at least on the level of the SHO, the Taurus was a better car- in '10, the Taurus got some chassis improvements that the MKS didn't get for a few year. So in the SHO package, the differences were pretty obvious at the limit. (some of you will remember the race up the mountain in Colorado back in '10, and we all thought the SHO would have been a much better car to do the race- but it was the wrong car WRT the actual comparison.)
As for the Fusion vs. more up to date Taurus- he HAS to drive them. When the 500 came out, it was really big departure from what the Taurus was, and that change got more when the '10 MY came out. Relative to a '07 Taurus, the +'10 Fusion is closer to it than the modern Taurus.
Other than the size, I love how the Taurus drove, though. Spent many hours in them, and really enjoyed working on that project.
I looked at Fusions before I bought my SHO, and all things being equal, I probably would have picked the Fusion. But all things weren't equal, there was no Fusion equivalent to the SHO until 2017 (Fusion Sport), and I didn't want to buy new. But the Fusion, especially the current-gen, is better-looking, more space efficient, and gets slightly better mileage. OTOH, the Taurus seems to be cheaper on the used market, it does have more space, and the trunk is ginormous. Add in that sweet powertrain, and it was the right choice for me. I just did a road trip to Cincy and back in my SHO, and it was fantastic. Fast, comfortable, stealthy, quiet, all the gadgets.
I'm still mulling over calling Livernois to give my SHO a bit more "pep", but that'll have to wait until I'm done dumping money into the 944, or at least the rate has slowed down. 
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