CarComplaints.com Notes: Most people need a car that shifts gears & coil springs that don't shred tires. The Taurus fails in that respect.
The 2003 Ford Taurus has major issues with the transmission failing. Typically the 2003 Taurus transmission failure costs $2,000 to fix by about 90k-100k miles. Not good.
Adding insult to injury, the 1999-2003 Taurus also 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...
10.0
really awful
Crashes / Fires:
1 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
46,000 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.
I sat in the driver's seat of my 2003 Ford Taurus and the driver's side front spring sheared and slashed my tire. I had to tow the car and replace both front struts, springs and the ruined tire. I saw this was common in 2001-2003 tauruses in northern states but a recall has only been issued on the 2001 models. I could have been killed if this happened while I was driving.
2003 Ford Taurus has problems with transmission, engine backfiring, hood latch is broken, and seat bracket fell off. The tires were continuously going flat. Six flats occurred while the consumer was on a trip, the transmission was slipping and would jerk in traffic, the engine would back fire intermittently and stalled on one occasion, the seat bracket was replaced by the dealer but failed again (the seat bracket was incorrectly installed from the start), the engine also displayed knocking and had taken about 9 visits before the problem was corrected, it was discovered that a valve was sticking out. The A/C did not cool, the consumer smelled coolant which leaked inside the vehicle. The tires and rims were a problem and the vehicle had been in for repairs about 18 visits/two rear tires remained a problem due to severe inflation problems and the tires would need to be inflated several times daily. The consumer requested another vehicle. The gas mileage was poor. Tire loosing air pressure from the time of purchase. The consumer was involved in an accident on 2-25-06 and the air bags failed to deploy. Updated 03/29/06.
- Corona, CA, USA
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A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Ann Arbor, MI, USA