My Second Car – 1989 Ford Taurus

Welcome to my second installment of "To all the cars I’ve loved before…" If you missed my awesome account of the 1988 Plymouth Reliant K Station Wagon, you can read about it by clicking here.

The second car I owned was a 1989 Ford Taurus with a 3.0L V6. My Dad had originally bought it for my brother Eric, but my Reliant K unexpectedly died and Eric was still in Florida. Don’t cry too much for my brother, he ended up getting a cool 1986 Chevrolet Camaro with t-tops, so I feel like he got a pretty sweet deal.

I had a lot of fun in that Taurus after living with a four-cylinder car for so long. In fact, I probably got pulled over more in that Taurus than any other car. Fortunately, half the time Hannah was in the passenger’s seat and I got out of getting a ticket. Don’t ask me why, but having an innocent-looking girl in the seat next to you helps. Ha ha!

I had a love-hate relationship with the Taurus. First off, I wasn’t a huge fan of the color burgundy and second, the interior was okay, but not great. It also had some weird quirks to it, like the time I tried to install my radio. I had worked so hard to take the dash off and install my stereo, only to have the stereo shut off whenever I turned my headlights on. Sure, this was probably a simple solution for a car guy to fix, but I was too lazy. So I had to be content with a cassette adapter which hooked into my DiscMan, which was soon replaced by my first iPod.

The Duct Tape Bumper

In the pictures you’re probably wondering why there’s a ton of duct tape on the front bumper. Well, me and that car had a few hard times. The front bumper was busted when I was paying more attention to an accident off to the side of the road rather than watching the road. I looked in front of me, saw a truck, and slammed on the brakes. Sadly, the Taurus’s bumper was crushed. Fortunately, I didn’t have to file an insurance claim or anything because the truck’s bumper was pretty solid and didn’t have any damage. So I took the cheap man’s way out, I used duct tape.

I also managed to bust up the rear bumper to in the winter when my Dad left a nice mound of snow behind my car. I tried backing up, but couldn’t get over the snow. I don’t know why I didn’t grab a shovel and just remove the mound of snow, but instead I grabbed some tow rope and the keys to my Dad’s 1991 Chevy Blazer. I put the Taurus and neutral and used the Blazer to pull it out. Unfortunately, I didn’t think of the fact that the Taurus had no way to stop. So, as you can guess, it hit the front bumper of the Blazer and once again, the Taurus was the only one with injuries.

The one thing I do know about the Taurus is that women didn’t date me because of my car. Ha ha! I don’t know if Christina ever loved or hated that car, but I do remember her Dad making me park it in the street so it wouldn’t leak transmission fluid on his driveway. The man was generous, he gave me two options: park it in the street or grab the drip pan and slide it under the car whenever I came over. Well, since I was over there a lot, I didn’t want to have to run in the garage and grab the drip pan every time, so I opted for the street.

The Car’s Demise

I don’t remember exactly what happened with the Taurus. I do remember that one night I hit a pothole and the CV joint broke on my front driver’s side, causing the wheel to not respond to the steering wheel. Fortunately a Sheriff drove by, we jacked up my car, kicked the wheel so it would straighten out, and then pushed it in the driveway of the group home.

Even though we fixed the CV joint, I think the big reason we got rid of that car was because of braking system and the transmission.

I miss that car. I wasn’t wild about the interior or the exterior, but it got me around and served me well… farewell dear Taurus, you truly were awesome.