Today's Ford Taurus is a perfectly acceptable car. Some people's memories are long. The Ford Taurus of the early/mid 90s was an execrable automobile. A friend's broke down on approximately 1 out of every 3 trips. It got so bad that he was fired as a customer by AAA, because of all the tows, back in those days before AAA made a habit of limiting how many free tows you got on the "plus" plan. Here's a funny: My friend and I asked one of the tow truck drivers if any car got towed more than the Taurus. He scratched his head and finally came up with Dodge Caravan. That was my friend's next vehicle. Maybe he had a death wish.