From experience, I would have to say that this car is not worth the money you would spend on it. This was my first car and it had eighty thousand miles on it. It is a six cylinder, 3.0 liter. From the start, I have had problems with my breaks, causing me to have them replaced four times in two years. One time my break pads actually fell out about three months after i had them fixed.
Other problems that reoccured with my taurus is the transmission and motor mounts. I had to replace my transmission two time in eight months. The same with my motor mounts. When I finally got rid of my car, the transmission was dying again and it has only been seven months since the last time it broke. My motor mounts have cracked open twice, both time when I was driving.
My alternator died twice, again when I was driving. At the time that I got rid of my car, the alignment was getting unaligned for no reason. I would be driving and it would get worse and worse.
I know another person who had a 1989 taurus gl and she has had the same problems. I heard of a recall for a certain part of the car and went to check it out and I found that there are many parts on recall for this car.
I do have to say that this car does hold up well in an accident, though. I hit a car from behind and I was going about 25 m/p/h and all I really had to replace was the radiator. My air bag did not go out but that might have been because of the angle I hit the car at. Neither my passenger or I was hurt at all, despite being thrown forward.
I like the interior of the car because it was very roomy and I could fit many people in there. The trunk is spacious and the only downfall to that is things can get lost easily in there. There was a dead spot in the steering wheel of about an inch in each direction. When my brakes did work, the anti-lock system proved to be very effective. This car is affected by the wind a lot though. Perhaps not as much as a smaller car, but more than I would like a car of that size to. My rear view mirror has fallen off about four times one summer but that was the only summer that it did that. That is an easy fix though. My cup holder would stick a lot also. It was the type that would just push right into the dashboard. The change holder was very conveniently placed, right under the radio.