Ford sold just a hair under two million first-generation Tauruses during the 1986 through 1991 model years, so these cars still show up regularly in the car graveyards I frequent. I won’t bother documenting an early Taurus at Ewe Pullet unless it’s something interestingly rare and/or weird— say, an MT-5 model with manual transmission or a factory-hot-rod SHO or a Groovalicious Purple Princess of Peace wagon— and today’s Junkyard Find certainly qualifies. This wretched-looking hooptie began life as a top-trim-level Taurus LX with just about every possible option, found in a Denver-area self-service yard recently.
The LX was the king of Tauruses in 1987, lording it over the lowly GLs, MT-5s, and Ls. The MSRP on this one started at $14,613 (about $38,410 in 2022 dollars), while the Taurus L sedan listed at $10,491 ($27,575 now). But, as we’ll see, this car cost far more than just $14,613 when the first owner signed on the line which is dotted.
We’ll start with the digital instrument panel. I didn’t even know the Taurus had such a thing until I discovered a 1987 ad for the Aromalyte cigarette-lighter-powered air freshener, which featured a rad 1980s dude behind the wheel of what was clearly a Ford equipped with a digital dash. This “Electronic Instrument Cluster” cost 351 bucks extra ($922 today), and fell somewhere between the staid Toyota Cressida digital dash and the video-game-style Subaru XT digital dash on the 1980s Digital Dash Silliness Spectrum. This is the first Taurus digital cluster I’ve ever seen in person, but I didn’t buy it for my hoard collection.
Why didn’t I buy it, you ask? This poor car was completely trashed by the time its days on the road ended, and I have enough experience with fragile 1980s Ford electronics to know that there’s no way a complex assembly like that cluster could have survived years of polarity-reversed jump-starts, projectile-vomiting passengers, angry fists pounding the dash during traffic jams, neighbors’ glue-sniffing cousins replacing gauge light bulbs using only Vise-Grips for the entire procedure, hantavirus-vector rodents nesting in the wiring harness, and all the other abuses that must have taken place during this car’s final years.
At some point, the final owner parked this Taurus in a lot whose owner called a towing company, and that’s all she wrote.
Someone did put a fair amount of work into a three-tone rattlecan paint job, which demonstrates a certain level of affection for this once-illustrious Ford. Did it have a name?
Air conditioning was standard equipment on the ’87 LX, but you had to pay $183 extra ($481 today) for these electronic controls.
If you wanted to do justice to the amazing music of 1987, you couldn’t get the LX’s base AM/FM radio (or get 206 bucks back for the radio-delete choice). This $137 ($360 in 2022) auto-reverse cassette deck with Dolby was the ticket.
If you wanted a power antenna on your ’87 Taurus, you had to pay 76 dollars ($200 now) and you had to use this switch to operate that antenna.
Ford’s distinctive keyless-entry system had been around since 1980 (and still exists today), and this car has it. It cost 202 frogskins ($530 today).
My reference books don’t break down the contents of Ford’s numerous “Value Option Packages” for the ’87 Taurus, but I’m sure the power windows and locks came in every one of them. If purchased individually, the cost came to $491 ($1,290 after inflation).
Ford zealot Sajeev Mehta tells me that these cornering lights are among the rarest of all options on the early Taurus, and he experienced great sadness when I sent him photos of this car. Since they were only 68 spondulix ($179 now), I don’t understand why more Taurus buyers didn’t get them.
On and on the options and upgrades go, and I didn’t even check for stuff like the extended-range fuel tank or heavy-duty suspension.
We can assume that the out-the-door cost of this car must have been pretty close to that of a new Lincoln Mark VII by the time the dust settled over the options list.
One thing that didn’t cost extra on the ’87 Taurus LX was this 3.0-liter Vulcan V6, rated at 140 horsepower. Lesser Tauruses got the 2.5-liter HSC, which was two-thirds of a 1962 Thriftmaster straight-six.
The only Tauruses to get manual transmissions were the El Cheapo MT-5 (available only for the 1985 through 1988 model years) and the high-performance 1989–1995 SHO. In 1987, the LX sedan and all Taurus wagons got a four-speed automatic with overdrive, while the other two-pedal Tauruses received a three-speed automatic (unless their buyers forked over a stack of 672 greenbacks— 1,765 current greenbacks, that is— for that extra overdrive forward gear).
It appears that this car was sold new in this area, at a dealership about 13 miles to the northwest of its final parking spot just south of Denver. The Crusher is conveniently located, as you’d expect.
My guess is that this car was treated well while in the hands of its first through third owners, but its value hit triple digits about a decade back and commenced a long downward spiral into its current condition.
As good as this car looks, it won’t take you to the cleaners… unless you want to go there.
The Taurus did look futuristic in 1986 and 1987 (though Audi beat Ford to the flush-windows rounded look).
We get a brief glimpse of the digital dash in this ad.
For links to more than 2,200 additional Junkyard Finds, take a look at the Junkyard Home of the Murilee Martin Lifestyle Brand™.
[Images by the author]
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When Ford’s takeover of the world is complete, Ford will choose mismatched fonts for all of us…
…and then we will all go blind.
[CLIMatE COntROL??? I count at least 6 different fonts on the dash.]
My parents had a powder blue 90 with the V6 but not the electronic dash. However, it died around 2010 of multiple electrical failures. After that, my mother switched to Nissan.
A few of these 1st-gen Tauruses are still on the road, even in salty Pittsburgh.
You can see the European influence in the panel controls and switchgear on the all new Taurus almost Merkur like.
Mom had an ’86 LX. Grey with a matching leather interior. It was a loaded car, digital dash, climate control, even had the coveted cornering lights. The alloy whhels were a bitch to clean because of the detailed pattern, but if I wanted to drive it…. I had a buddy whose Dad was an engineer for Ford at the now-demolished Brook Park engine plant in Cleveland. Dads company car at the time was a GL with a 4 banger.
The Taurus was the first car resulting from introduction of a new quality culture at Ford. Between 1979 and 1982, Ford had incurred $3 billion in losses. In the Spring of 1980, Ford Chairman Donald E. Peterson initiated a new “team” approach to the design and manufacture of automobiles at Ford, that eventually resulted in the creation of the Ford Taurus. Ford’s newly appointed Corporate Quality Director, Larry Moore, was charged with recruiting the famous statistician, W. Edwards Deming to help jump-start a quality movement at Ford. Deming told Ford that management actions were responsible for 85% of all problems in developing better cars. Based on Deming’s advice, Ford management was charged with primary responsibility for automobile quality. Ford also adopted a quality culture employing statistical process control across all aspects of automobile design and manufacture. The Ford Taurus was the first Ford model resulting from this statistical approach to manufacture. In a letter to Autoweek, Donald Petersen, then Ford chairman, said, “We are moving toward building a quality culture at Ford and the many changes that have been taking place here have their roots directly in Deming’s teachings.” This new emphasis on quality in the manufacture of the Ford Taurus was reflected in Ford’s advertising and marketing. The New York advertising firm Wells, Rich, Greene took on the Ford account in 1979 and Robert Cox was assigned to the Ford account and by the summer of 1981, “Quality is Job 1” became Ford’s calling card in marketing. This emphasis on quality was used heavily in marketing of the Ford Taurus.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Taurus
Thank you for the behind-the-scenes information. I was in high school at the time, but even to a teenager, Ford’s slogan implied, “Our cars are crap, we know it, and now we’re trying to improve what we make, because Japanese cars are so much better!”
I’m sure this acknowledgement was not good for the value of used Fords.
40 years Later and it’s deja vu all over again. Ford is recalling Bronco, Expedition, Mach E as well as billions of older vehicles. Last Ford I owned was a 92 SHO. It was one of my favorite cars but was in repairs for a month out of 24 month lease, and racked up thousand of dollars in repair bills.
A shame to see it in this shape, as I am very familiar with these cars and this is probably the most loaded Taurus of that generation that I’ve seen. I am guessing it also came with aluminum wheels, unless it was ordered with the seldom-seen factory wire wheel covers. I am also guessing this might have been a dealership’s sales manager or other executive’s demo, or maybe ordered as a Ford zone office company car.
“This is the first Taurus digital cluster I’ve ever seen in person, but I didn’t buy it for my hoard collection.”
Man, I feel sorry for your kids after you pass. “OK, who wants Dad’s dashboard collection? Or do we just divvy it up, that’s….5 boxes each?”
I had a 1987 Mercury Sable wagon, purchased new. It was the upscale trim and had an electronic dashboard and a “trip computer” with a bunch of buttons just to the left of the instrument panel, to use for mileage computation, etc. It was so futuristic (especially with the front grill replaced by the light bar) that my neighbors (who only bought European cars) all thought it was an Audi. Electronics were more reliable than the head gasket and transmissions on this Taurus/Sable. Interestingly, about 1/3 of all of the sales were station wagons. Remember that the minivan was only a few years old and almost every make had several wagons for sale. By 1995 my wife had had enough of roadside waits for towing and I traded it on a new Windstar minivan. (First year out). This was built on the Taurus/Sable platform without regard to the increased weight on the front brakes or front suspension (with predictable results). I never again volunteered for the human experimentation that Ford called “completely new model”.
Although my parents never owned a Taurus, it was a very common sight when I was growing up in the 90s. A few relatives owned Tauruses, most notably a fairly loaded 1st model year MT-5 sedan painted gold with the polycast wheels, a/c, power everything and of course the 5 spd manual. Another relative had a brown 88 sedan wih the Vulcan/4spd auto at the same time.
Honestly I thought the cornering lights were standard on the LXs; can’t recall seeing any of those w/o them.
There were crank windows, but very few buyers went that route. This was mostly on the base L trim.
Also the 4 spd auto was standard with the V6. The 3 spd was standard only with the 4 cyl.
I had a ’91 Taurus wagon that I bought used from a charity donation center. All that I could tell that it needed was a hubcap. The plan was to clean it up and sell it for a little profit
It drove fine for a little while, and the only problem was the sticky ooze from the black plastic steering wheel. They sure didn’t Q1 that materials decision.
Before long the transmission went out on it, and I learned the hard way about how unreliable AXOD transmissions are.
The wagon wasn’t outstanding in any particular way, and wasn’t inspiring to drive at all – it felt as exciting as tapioca pudding.
I wonder how many other potential Ford customers were driven away from that company’s products by the Taurus.
If I recall, the MT5 was pretty much the bargain basement version of the Taurus. I had a new 86 GL wagon and while people can’t imagine it now, these were flat out futuristic looking when they came out. They also drove well and were comfortable.
Oddly enough for a car saddled with the horrible HSC engine, the MT-5 wasn’t a base stripper at all. Its standard level of equipment was between GL and LX (it was like a GL with a couple of option packages), and it could be optioned up with almost anything you could get on a GL. Most of the ones I saw had alloys and most available interior options.
+1 on that terrible HSC engine. Not only was it laughably inept on any kind of hill, but it wasn’t reliable either. My aunt had a nightmare trying to keep her 86 GL running.
The Vulcan 3.0 lacked punch down low, but other than that, was a pretty solid engine for the time.
When the second kid arrived, we bought a 1984 Sable Wagon new. On the plus side it rode well, could swallow huge amounts of stuff and did pretty much all we could ask of it. On the minus side, it came with the 3.8 V-6`s magically self destructing head gaskets and the transmission that did not want to shift out of first gear on cold, damp days – a real plus in the Pacific Northwest. It literally started to fall apart (did you know that the exhaust system was one piece? You could not replace just the muffler – you had to do the whole thing.) and we replaced it with a Maxima – it was like cars from different planets.
The Taurus/Sable didn’t debut until 1986, and the 3.8L wasn’t an option until mid-1988. :)
I wanted to mention that—even Murilee mentioned a “1985” model in the article text!
I’m surprised to see what looks like a fan control next to the climate buttons without some sort of AUTO indicator. So only the temperature and the air distribution must have been automatic. I thought it was fully automatic. Of course, heaven only knows what modifications may have been done to this car to address any issues!
Sajeev is wrong about the cornering lights. They were standard on the LX throughout the first two generations, and also on the SHO. They were only rare as a standalone option on lower-trim cars.
What is truly rare on this car is the floor console. My ’87 GL also had one, and it was the only one I saw after looking at probably 25 cars when I was looking for the car.
I really, really wanted an LX, but they were pretty rare, and the only one I saw within my price and mileage range had an engine issue which scared me away. (It did have the digital dash, which was fully functional when I looked at it.)
Late edit: Your way of phrasing the transmission choices is odd. You got a three-speed auto with the four, or a fouir-speed auto with the V6. There wasn’t a separate option for the four-speed auto.
Ugh! “Quality is Job 1?” What a joke! I had a ‘91 Taurus that ate transmissions. I spent a fortune trying to keep it on the road. I should have given up much sooner than I did, but I was young and foolish. Live and learn, I guess!
Man, this thing led a hard life. I’m surprised some local ruffians didn’t affix the word cl-t over the Taurus emblem on the trunk! It looks like it suffered pretty much every other indignity.
I don’t see many of any pre-1990 midsize sedan, but despite their big sales numbers I see almost no second-generation (92-95) Tauri on the road. Strangely, the oldest car I see more than one of per week might be a post facelift K-Car. In fact, I don’t even see many of the gross ovoid ’96-99’s or 2000s blah ones. What I do see a decent number of still are late-cycle GM A-Bodies and the 92-95 Camry. Were the Tauri that disposable? I feel like most were gone by the time Obama took office.
The AXOD (and its early successor) transmission in these era Taurii/Sables was a piece of junk. I’d imagine the 92-95 have long since been almost entirely discarded by now.
Plus, quite a few T/S were sold with the self-destructing Essex 3.8 too. Combine that with that bad tranny and its no surprise there aren’t any around.
They were great little sedans to drive though. Solid handling, nice ride. I had a couple used ones—the first one lost a seal on the front of the engine and sprayed oil everywhere, and the second one, the rebuilt transmission died. But I liked driving them when they ran.
I figured there had to be a mechanical thing plus they must have depreciated quickly. I find it ironic that the son of X-Car cockroach Cieras/Centuries are still relatively common although that may be their Greatest Generation ownership base passing along relatively low-mileage well-maintained cars.
I think the Essex accounts for more deaths of second-gen cars than the transmissions. The product mix moved steadily heavier and heavier toward the Essex throughout the first and second gens, while the transmissions got somewhat longer-lived with revisions in 1993 and again in 1995.
The product mix moved back toward Vulcan when the uplevel option became the expensive Duratec, and you still see a lot of the Vulcan-powered third-gen cars out there.
I’ll be driving a ’95 Sable to work tomorrow. The air is still ice cold but the blower motor very recently decided to stop blowing under hard acceleration and resumes normal operation when I let off the throttle. Don’t know if it’s worth chasing down. I’ve put about 4,000 miles a year on it since 2017 and it’s been pretty darn reliable at that level of use.
I’ve long been fascinated by the life cycle of cars, and how what was once common virtually disappears over time. I do occasionally see another Sable of my generation, but NEVER the corresponding Taurus. I’m guessing that like mine, the Sables were bought by older folks and became grandparent hand me downs, whereas the Tauri had less considerate and younger owners who used them up.
The only K-cars I see around are LeBaron convertibles, many of which seem to have avoided their date with the crusher. Haven’t seen a legit K in probably close to 15 years.
You have a vaccum leak. Common problem. The hard plastic vacuum line that runs into the car that controls the airflow direction has cracked.
I bet you’ll find when accelerating if you put your hand on the defrost opening it’s blowing out of there. The. When rpm settle it returns to the direction you want.
My German father moved to the U.S. in 1963, the year before I was born. During my childhood, he only purchased three Ford wagons, stripped down with manual transmissions and power nothing. However, in 1987, he purchased a demonstrator Taurus LX, his first nice car and first car with an automatic transmission. He had it for six years, then purchased his final car, a 1993 Taurus GL, not as nice or refined, which I inherited when my mother died in 2001 and sold in 2004. The main problem with the 87 Taurus was weak air conditioning, otherwise, it was fine for the 70,000 miles he kept it.
Parents had an ’87 LX wagon, Spinnaker Blue over Regatta Blue, pretty highly equipped like this one (no floor shift since it was a wagon). Think the only options ours didn’t have was the InstaClear windsheild, power passenger seat, picnic table, and the cargo cover. Car made it to 2003 and 365k miles.
Hey Murilee, if you ever stumble across an ’86 Taurus with a solid (non-split) bench, make sure to document it. In 1986 you could order all vinyl trim, and the non-split bench is the giveaway. I’ve only seen one Taurus so equipped and it has to be one of the rarest options on any Taurus of any year.
A friend of mine in high school had an ’87 L wagon with a non-split bench covered in mouse fur velour. She was much shorter than me and on the infrequent occasions when she did the driving I felt jammed into the dashboard.
Overnight the Taurus made GMs entire lineup look like antiques. Thats how big a deal it was. Even today it looks modern.
As deservedly bad as the Chrysler Co. Ultradrive was, the AXOD should rate on the same level of garbage slush boxes. I did 3 gearboxes in 120K mi. Glad I had the extended warranty, I’m sure there was a pink slip for the actuarial department estimating extended warranty premiums for the Taurus / Sable models. 3.8L FUEL INJECTION – that is another pile of steaming head gasket blowing manure to discuss.
Ford Taurus hit it out of the park blockbuster car of the future.