CarComplaints.com Notes: Most people need a car where the coil springs don't puncture or shred tires while driving. The Taurus fails in that respect.
The 1999-2003 Ford Taurus has a huge problem with coil springs breaking, which can puncture or even shred tires while driving.
The US government spent THREE YEARS (2008-2011) investigating the 2002-2003 Taurus coil springs. Although Taurus/Sable from earlier years were recalled, ultimately the NHTSA did not force a recall. They determined that because there had been no deaths & very few bad crashes & injuries, the broken coil springs defect was no big deal & not a safety defect. Tell that to all the owners who had close calls...
3.9
definitely annoying
Crashes / Fires:
0 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
31,665 miles
About These NHTSA Complaints:
This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
Consumer experienced ongoing problems with both the front and rear seat belts not retracting from the retractors. Vehicle has been in and out of the dealer shop on several occasions. Driver's seat belt retractor has been replaced 2 times, and the passenger's seat belt retractor has been replaced once, but problems recurred. Also, on another issue consumer stated that vehicle was back to the dealer three times on a manufacturer's recall 04V106000 concerning brake light switch. Consumer stated that vehicle was still experiencing some problem with the stop lights not operating when braking. The consumer stated that the problem was never fixed. The back seat belts had the same problems as the front.
The 2002 Ford Taurus was on loan to us while we were fixing our 1999 Ford Windstar. Our 5 year old (almost 6) son somehow wrapped the back seat center seatbelt around himself and could not get out. In fact the seat belt would retract and lock the seatbelt on him tighter. My wife tried to get him out and finally had to use scissors from a nearby business to cut the seat belt. Our own investigation showed that if you pull any of the seatbelts out to the maximum and then let it retract, the seat belt can not be re-extended until the seat belt has been fully retracted. From what we could discern was that there is no way to manually release the seatbelt when it is in this "mode". later discussions with the dealership indicated that this was a "safety" design for child car seats. Though this is great for child seats, it could be extremely dangerous for young children (and maybe some disabled people) unless there is a manual release mechanism for that seatbelt. I tried going through the consumer relations area of Ford and am not sure they are paying attention to my concerns for they blew me off when I requested the $179 compensation for having to replace the seat belt that I think is faulty anyway.
- Lee's Summit, MO, USA
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- Washington, DC, USA