2009 Ford Taurus
This year drew an ordinary 64 complaints for a Ford Taurus — the model's median is 187. What they were about is the unusual part: 45.3% of them mention engine, against 16.2% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 64 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 187 |
| Involving a crash | 9 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 0 |
| EPA combined | 20 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- engine — 45.3% of this year's complaints, against 16.2% across the model's other years (2.8×).
- stopped — 21.9% of this year's complaints, against 6.8% across the model's other years (3.2×).
- brakes — 20.3% of this year's complaints, against 7.5% across the model's other years (2.7×).
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
WHILE SITTING WITH THE BRAKES DEPRESSED, THERE WAS AN UNUSUAL INCREASE IN ENGINE RPMS TO 4 OR 5, FOLLOWED BY THE VEHICLE ABNORMALLY ACCELERATING. THE VEHICLE WAS NOT INSPECTED BY A DEALER NOR REPAIRED. THE [VIN] WAS NOT MADE AWARE OF THE FAILURE. THE FAILURE M…
2009 FORD TAURUS. CONSUMER WRITES IN REGARDS TO VEHICLE SUDDEN ACCELERATION. *SMD THE CONSUMER EXPERIENCED SUDDEN ACCELERATION ON THREE SEPARATE OCCASIONS. HE IMMEDIATELY TRIED TO SHIFT THE TRANSMISSION INTO NEUTRAL OR PARK POSITION AND THERE WAS A LOUD CLUNK…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Ford Taurus was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2009 Ford Taurus? What happened to yours?
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