On Wednesday I showed you one of the last remaining examples of a first generation Taurus LX sedan in excellent condition. That evening I decided to hit up Autotrader to see if there was anything else out there that would tickle my fancy. This L wagon lit up my laptop screen and turned night into day with its resplendent beauty.
Even in base trim, the first generation Taurus looked upscale. Buyers looking for something with a little more pizazz could step up to the GL line, but cosmetically both trims looked pretty much identical from the outside.
My 1989 Taurus wagon was a GL model, and aside from the color, looked almost exactly the same as our featured car, with one notable exception.
See that rocker panel? It’s painted to match the rest of the car. You’d think painted rockers would be considered a premium option, but apparently that was not the case for the Taurus. According to this detailed guide on the 1990 Taurus lineup, rocker panel moldings were a stand alone option for entry level models and standard equipment on GL models with the 202A “Preferred Equipment” package and above.
My old GL also didn’t have a rear wiper setup. And neither does this L. I can remember a couple of times when I wished it had one, mainly on rainy nights. Otherwise, it wasn’t much of a loss. The rear defroster was essential though, and it looks like this one has it. Did you know the rear defroster was another optional item on the Taurus, even for some models of the LX trim? I cannot fathom owning a car without a rear defroster, and I imagine a lot of owners who bought a Taurus without the ability to heat the rear glass ended up regretting their decision.
In terms of the exterior, the only demerits are the faded gray painted sections and the cloudy head lamps. Both of those nitpicks are trivial at best, because the car still looks fantastic.
And those wheel covers clearly aren’t stock, which also isn’t a big deal. They even look kinda nice.
The interior is in even better shape. That cargo area is devoid of any terrible scratches or horrible stains.
All four door panels are absolutely spotless. They’re also lacking power windows and door locks, which is a plus for a car nearing its 30th birthday.
Illuminated entry? Power mirrors? Yup! Even base models had some luxury, even if the former was a stand alone option.
Check out that headliner. Taut, and with little to no stains.
The 1990-1991 model years differed from their predecessors by sporting a redesigned dash and a new steering wheel that came standard with an airbag. Functionally, everything is pretty much in the same place. It just looks a bit less coherent.
The owner opted for a digital clock and air conditioning. Those are good options to order!
They also decided to modernize the audio system at some point during the 90’s. Head units of the early aughts looked far more modern than this Pioneer head unit, as I can vividly remember my sister getting a pretty decent one back in 2003.
The ad says the car has 131,000 miles on it, but its in such good condition that 31,000 is totally believable.
Perhaps the best news lies under the hood. The 3.0 “Vulcan” V6 was used in the Taurus from 1986-2006 and it developed a solid reputation for being reliable. It looks like the dealer decided to power wash it before taking this picture. I don’t know if that does an old engine any favors, but it sure does look nice.
The Taurus is currently for sale at Phil Long Ford of Colorado Springs, where its been serviced for the last ten years. Its entirely possible it was even purchased new at that dealership, but the CARFAX doesn’t specify where it was originally purchased, probably because it was so long ago. More importantly, the report indicates this Taurus is a one owner vehicle. Clearly, that person loved this car, otherwise it wouldn’t be in such great shape. The asking price started out at $5k and is now down to just under $4k, which is probably a bit high. Then again, this is a unicorn. I hope the dealer sells it to someone who will treat it like the precious jewel that it is.
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Wow. The dealer did a great job detailing. The engine bay looks steam cleaned, with a vinyl/rubber dressing applied to all plastics and hoses. Even the under hood and inside door paint was polished. Adding the Taurus ‘lace’ wheels, painting the lower gray bumper covers to match the body color, and polishing the oxidized headlight covers would make it look brand new.
I remain a *huge* fan of the aero look Ford adopted throughout the 80s. The success of the Ford Sierra ensured the aero look was a strong styling direction for Ford.
You and I are having similar thoughts. I’d definitely stick some of the cross-lace wheels from the LX on it. But, I wouldn’t paint the bumpers. I would paint the lower body to match the existing bumpers to give it the two-tone treatment like the LX models had.
I knew a couple who had an identical 1990 Taurus L wagon that they bought new. Their names were Chester and Rachel, and they were very nice people, and phenomenally frugal. Chester drove a diesel Rabbit — he worked in a factory about 20 miles from home, so he loved the fuel mileage and the easy repairs. Rachel drove a Mazda GLC, but with two young sons, it was too small of a car. So they wanted an affordable, big wagon.
Being frugal, they didn’t want any options other than air conditioning, and had to search around a while before finding a car that met their criteria, but eventually they did, and they bought the Taurus. They loved it, for many of the reasons you stated here — it didn’t seem like a bottom-of-the-line car.
I eventually lost touch with them, but several years later I saw them again, and was shocked that they were driving an Expedition. I expressed surprise that they’d drive such a big and uneconomical vehicle, but Rachel explained that since I’d seen them last, they’d had three more kids, and the Taurus wasn’t big enough. I think at that time the Taurus replaced Chester’s Rabbit in the family fleet.
Obviously they should have gotten a “mini”van instead.
Nice car, wish I needed a wagon again, but I upgraded to a 1998 Ford F150 earlier this year.
We bought a 1997 A4 1.8t from Phil Long in the Spring, good dealer. I also had an 1987 Sable GS wagon, good car, chose over the Tarus because of the instruments.
The quatro & turbo on the Audi was a much better Colorado car in the mountains.
I remember that when new a wagon was a *substantial* jump in price from a sedan, even in a low trim level. That said, I always kind of wanted a Taurus wagon. It would have been nice to own one fairly close in time to the end-of-the-line Fox Marquis wagon I owned in the early 90s (and liked a lot). It would have been cool to compare them.
You need this Ed!
Yes, I do. This is exactly the type of first gen Taurus I would get, as it has the least amount of electronics paired with the most reliable powertrain. And its a one owner vehicle. Unfortunately, there is no way I could justify the purchase right now, especially since I would either need to fly out to Colorado to drive it back to NY, or have it shipped to my house. Both of those options would add at least $1,000 to the price. And I’d need to budget for insurance and unforeseen expenses as well. I really wish I had the money. Hopefully when I do, something like this will be waiting for me.
Well, if you combine it with a see the USA vacation…
I had an ’83 LTD wagon, the fox chassis one. I think it was an underrated car. It handled well, was comfy and quiet, and had quite a bit of torque wth the 3.8L. I wish I had kept it longer. It was in very good condition in 1992. A family member needed a car for his family so I let them have it. Within six months it was missing hubcaps, had window tint badly applied, had no muffler, and had Disney stickers all over it. I borrowed it from him because I had to use a small trailer of my boss’s that I had previously hooked up a custom wiring hookup to, which matched the car. Anyway, I was very embarrassed to drive it like that but it did seem to be even quicker with just a straight pipe.
My sister had a Taurus wagon of about this vintage. She loved it.
Taurus wagons remain one of my favourite vehicles and this one really is lovely. I had an ’87 bought used and with high mileage, but it ran like a top and was very comfy. Wishing I’d kept it a lot longer!
The old girl cleaned up nicely. For the asking price, though, a headlamp polish and a bumper rattlecan treatment should be included.
We had an ’89 GL, white with dark red interior, 3.0L. Pretty well-equipped, with all the power stuff, rear wiper, roof rack, and the 15″ alloy wheels… which really looked great on that car.
It replaced an ’85 Volvo 245 as the front-line family car. With three, later four kids and a golden retriever that roof rack got a lot of use on trips. A great wagon, and this one’s a nice find.
One hopes the golden retriever did not ride in the roof rack, Mittens.
We reserved that for the kids.
Oops, now I’ll never be able to run for President.
I’d be tempted to trade in my (matching) ‘09 Flex for this car!
Keep the Flex! In twenty years it might be even more rare than this Taurus is now.
This feature car is perhaps more tempting than the ’88 Taurus sedan just a couple days ago.
My first new car was a ’90 Taurus wagon. Its 3.8 engine and power locks/windows were premium items then, but would probably be comparative downsides today, thirty years on.
These were comfortable, capacious cruisers with what was then satisfying hp/torque. If mine hadn’t been totaled in its youth, it might have served for many years. (Photo is factory glamour shot, though very similar to mine.)
I tip my hat to original owner(s) who kept today’s car nice all this time. I’ll be interested to see if dealer finds a loving buyer at that price, or if “ask” comes down a tiny bit.
Power mirrors and A/C, but manual locks and windows. What a combo.
Ford was kind of goofy when it came to what was standard and what was optional equipment. I remember my 68 Montego had power steering, but not power brakes and I saw that same setup on a 67 Fairlane wagon with a 390 under the hood. Yet power mirrors? Having tried to re-adjust the passenger side mirror on my sister’s 74 Mustang II Ghia, with manual mirror adjustment…..even on such a small car it was a pain.
Since this car has A/C as it’s priciest option, Ford had a nasty habit of making tinted glass a separate option, so I would be surprised if this car has it.
For all the dealer blather nowadays about “market pricing” this dealer needs to realize there is a very small market for this car. Consequently, a much lower price is called for, like $2,000.
Book value for this “classic”, in excellent condition, is $2400. Given that, and being real world, it would need to find a fanatic. In the Bay Area it would sit for a very long time at $2000. However, I like the car, and there is a 98 Sable wagon in my garage so one never knows given my previous history of cars sitting around begging me. Provided the automatic passes a rigorous inspection that is.
My wife had a ’91 Sable wagon with those attractive “lattice” wheels. Large enough to be comfortable all around. Small enough to scoot around in the city. Sit up fairly high, which I prefer. We had the Vulcan engine too – that’s the one you want for reliability and economy. My only major complaint was that I understand that Ford Taurus is another word for broken air conditioning. Ours had a bad control switch that would have required several hours work just to get the dashboard apart. Decided not to go for it even though I could have done it myself, would have had to do it on the street and we were renting at the time. These cars had a lot to offer when they were new and while they aren’t quite as shade tree mechanic friendly as models of the 50’s and 60’s, I’d sure like to have one again. Especially a wagon.
We had a 1990 Sable Wagon (3.0) and later I had an HP company 2003 (also 3.0) Taurus wagon and found these to be wonderfully comfortable and capable long distance cruisers, and as an added bonus, excellent in deep snow even with just 4 all season tires
The Sable started to have mechanical issues in about its fourth and fifth year and we switched to a 1995 Eagle Vision TSi. This was not a good idea; we should have just fixed the Sable.
I am surprised to see the subject Taurus L had no tachometer (not that it was needed; just surprised).
While I am fond of these wagons, they probably would have accumulated issues here and there to keep them from being trouble free used cars with 131K miles and 28 years on the road, especially the transmission, A/C, and power steering units. Must say though, we never had an issue with the 3.0 V6 itself; just all the bits and pieces attached to it.
But for driving from NJ to Miami, all day and all night, with a 2 year old, and not getting tired or physically sore (ours had power seats), these were the ticket.
There is no question about this being one of the best all time station wagon designs ever. Look at the rear – the station wagon part. It is one smooth shape delineated into tailgate window, tail lights, and lower tailgate. Brilliant.
I finally sent my low mileage 1990 Pontiac Trans Sport to the crusher last year. It leaked water in several places – shrinking seals over the years, plus sound intrusion. Some problems due to parts that were no longer available anywhere, like erratic windshield wipers. These are the kind of things you have to be ready to deal with if you are an owner of a car this old. Sometimes NOS parts are available, and all new door and tailgate seals would be worth putting in if they are available. I had a 40+ year old 1962 Lincoln with no leaking or sound intrusion issues, but then they had drip moldings then.
I once rode in the second iteration of the Taurus wagon. One back door was so misaligned that there were outside sounds coming through. It was pretty shocking that after assembling the same body for four or five years they could totally fuck it up.
About weirdly optioned cars: the Pontiac was the base model, bought used. It had AC (probably standard), power locks and windows (not standard), alloy wheels (not standard) and no cruise control.
The window sticker shows the typical dealer trick – 1990 and then No Haggle Price right below it. Oh wait, the 1990 is the year, not the price. Phil can keep his Taurus.
That being said, it sure looks nice, the red was one of the better (more interesting) colors on the Taurus. I’m quite surprised that it still has an 85mph speedometer!
I wonder if it’s easier to just paint the rocker panels instead of masking them off to leave them or make them black. Seems like a weird thing to charge extra for. I think I’d prefer black, otherwise you’re forever scraping tar and other junk off.
I didn’t do any research but the wheel covers say Mercury. I had a 1988 Horizon for about ten years and every few years I gifted it with new cheap WalMart or wherever wheel covers, about $20. Parallel parking a FWD car with wheel covers tends to end up with gouging and cracking them. But besides that it was fun giving it a bit of a new look.
Ein neues Kleid macht eine neue Frau
I have to say that I have always had a fetish for these. I was very impressed with the Taurus when it first appeared – a fresh ‘European’ design and not just in looks, but with each component designed to work together. A true American (car) Renaissance I thought. And then the wagon. Oh my! I really loved the modern look. I mean it was SAAB-level cool. I wanted one badly.
Remember, in 1986 when these first appeared, we were only four years beyond the last Ford Granada (which I always thought of a Ford Falcon in a cheap rented Tux). The future had arrived very suddenly, and it was cool. I went on a very active campaign to get my dad to buy one. He was interested too; it was exactly his kind of car. However, it seemed like all our local Ford dealers were flummoxed by having something desirable to sell and he was unable to reach a deal. I seem to recall some claim that he could only have warranty done at the selling dealership or some such thing. In any case the combination of dealer-markup and a negative perception of the Ford dealers he dealt with sent him off to the Toyota dealers for a V6 Camry.
So, I find this very tempting… it is, perhaps, the one that got away.
The Taurus wagon was a great design, and handled even better than it’s sedan counterpart (which handled quite well for an American sedan of the era!) That was due to the more sophisticated rear suspension the wagon used to keep the cargo floor flat, and big rear strut towers from intruding.
Our 1990 Mercury Sable GS was the same color (Currant Red), no clearcoat, and was probably the most stylish vehicle we have ever owned. It had the optional lace alloy wheels and antilock brakes (first year for these on the sedan; the wagon got ABS in ’91). it was a great car initially but we had lots of problems with it as it aged. But the Vulcan 3.0 was reliable. Point of comparison: We sold the Sable privately for $1800 back in 2000 when it had 135,000 miles. It looked nearly as nice inside and out as this Taurus.
I think Phil should drop the price to the model year. $3,854 is a bit much. A nice car with a nice red [I noted it’s Currant Red]. I like the no power windows/locks bit in the back. I don’t like those non-stock wheel covers. They’re just ugly to me. But, hey, if someone can pry the ’90 from Phil at a more market-friendly price they could round up the proper wheel covers and mosey on down the road. 😀
^^^^My photo above has the standard wheel cover, and there were a couple of “deluxe” choices. I think our ’90 would be grateful to be shod with these by owner #2 (eBay now for $150/OBO):
Much better. With so much of the ’90 Taurus wagon being original I wonder how it ended up with those other wheel covers? Weird. If I had the wagon I’d definitely spring for those covers from eBay to make it look proper.
Some of the Taurus hubcaps I’ve seen on the salvage yard cars are pretty thin and flimsy. I’m thinking specifically of the ones on the car posted in the comments above by George. They probably broke apart bit by bit and anything looks better than that. For cheap replacements I actually like the black honeycomb style ones with the chrome rims. It doesn’t fool anyone but for some reason they are my favorite cheapies, and to me make everything look like a BMW M3 CSL. (Just kidding)
One of the very few new cars I’ve owned was a 1986 Taurus wagon, white with a red interior. I bought it as a leftover. Initial quality control wasn’t good. It was delivered with paint flaws and brakes that didn’t release.
Once those things were attended to by the dealer, the biggest problem I had with the car was finding mine among the dozens of white, Taurus wagons in the parking lot at the same shopping mall if I happened to have parked there too
Was it a L, Gl, or LX Wagon?
What an awesome find indeed, thank you for sharing. Sure is odd seeing this car surrounded by all those 21st Century vehicles due to styling and body style differences.
Wonder if this Taurus will find a happy home?
I still see a few of the first generation Taurus and Sables around my way. I have not seen a SW version of ether the first generation or the second generation in about 9 years (when my folks got rid of their 1993 wagon)
on this model it would have had plastic one piece hubcaps that said TAURUS on them. The GL 2 piece(hub cap and removable center cap) hubcap will fit but will not stay on as the GL wheels had slots in the center of the wheel that the hubcap screwed it on. If you had a L wheel then you could line the holes on the hubcap up and drill a hole for the screws.
A lot of Taurus sedans and wagons sold in the South East and South West did not have rear defrost because it was not needed down there. If you did get a Taurus Wagon that did not have a rear wiper or defroster then you could add it on easy. You simply grabbed the rear window from a Taurus wagon that had them in the junk yard. You removed the 2 connectors around the inside top of the window(near the hinges) those are for the defrost and wiper (the wiper in the gets its power from one of the connectors that also feed the defroster. The wiper connects to terminals that are attached to the actual window and grounds when the window is closed) Then you unbolt 2 bolts and remove the window. Next take off the trim on the inside of the tailgate and grab both wires and connectors to transfer to your car. The main connector for these things are in every Taurus of that era and it is just plug and play. next you make a notch in your tailgate’s trim at the top for the defroster/wiper wires to come out and attach to the window(or you could just take the trim from the donor car)
Then you get both the wiper switch and a rear defrost switch and you are good to go. All the wires are there so it is just plug and play and add a fuse/relay to the fuse box and you are done.
Thanks for the how to.
I’m curious as to why Ford saw the need to redesign the door panels (1989) and dash (1990). In both cases distinctly European-looking fittings were replaced with designs that, for better or worse, looked more like those of typical American cars of their time. I like the newer ones better, but if I didn’t know I’d guess the original 1986 dash and door panels were newer than the ’90-91 versions.
Wow is right! This is a rare beast.
Those these are not bad cars…my aunt had an ’89 4-cylinder sedan, rather sparsely equipped, and at the time my grandmother had a loaded ’91 3.8 V-6 Sable LS sedan. The difference in driving these two cars was HUGE. The Sable, with it’s nice cloth interior, just seemed to be a very refined sedan that was very pleasant to drive and handled quite well. By comparison, the Taurus was fine, a bit buzzy, but just didn’t have the same high quality feel as the Sable.
That Sable is the only car I ever regretting selling. My grandmother gave it to me when she decided to stop driving. It was 10 years old with 15K miles and a real cream puff — I’d helped her order it and taken care of it since she got it. I just had no garage for it. *sigh*
The ONE TIME Ford used their team concept to work on a car and they hit a homerun with the original Taurus. This company forgets to replicate concepts like this and now it seems Ford only does team situations with the Mustang and F-Series.
I saw this car too! I’m really tempted as I like the red color, but I want the LX model. If anyone ever comes across a 1986 LX Wagon fully optioned in Medium Canyon Red notify me immediately! I want to restore one of these cars really badly I’ll post on video of the car on YouTube when I get it.