The Ford Taurus SHO Was a Cool 1990s Sport Sedan
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Ford Taurus SHO review! Today I'm reviewing a 1990s Ford Taurus SHO, which was a cool performance sedan from my youth. I'm going to show you the quirks and features of the Taurus SHO, and then I'll drive it and review the driving experience.
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![1993 Ford Taurus SHO | [4K] | REVIEW SERIES | "The Big SHO"](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/0HIMw-rc6wk/mqdefault.jpg)
![1993 Ford Taurus SHO | [4K] | REVIEW SERIES | "The Big SHO"](/img/tr.png)
Goes from driving a Carrera GT to a 90's Taurus. This is why we love Doug!
And still relevant hahaha
Was about to come and comment the very same thing, talk about contrast!
*Driving HIS Carrera GT 👌
should have bought this instead of the Carrera GT :P
For real he has a lot of variety. Next week he gonna have lambo
Would personally love it if Doug reviewed the latest Taurus SHO, the updated 2013 and on one. The thing is an absolute bargain when you look at the equipment and performance.
Lincoln MKS Ecoboost I think would be interesting aswell
Absolutely. I had one for 3 years and it was my favorite car I have owned. Practical, fast, very underrated
A client drove up in a beautiful one the other day. I geeked out over it, and she seemed surprised that it was a performance icon. She had bought it (new) because it was the nicest sedan on the Ford lot.Time capsule condition, and she said with a smile, “75,000 miles and we’ve never had a problem.”
Personally i have a 2013 Taurus interceptor 2013(police pack) i got i for 5200$ cheap Canadian $ and this car is a fast work horse! Well it make me feel like i run a mustang awd with 4 doors!
my one buddy had one but it was always in the shop for one reason or another. his last repair bill was $7500😱🥶before he got rid of it. but he's got bad luck with literally EVERYTHING so i don't blame the car🤣😂
Man, I had a 1990 SHO. Bough in 2000 in my Junior year and sold in 2004. Had many upgrades, high flow MAF, subframe reinforcements, SHO Shop chip, Cobra wheels for a Thunderbird, Koni Struts w/Intrax springs. I learned so much on how to wrench with this car. It was a beast. My screenname carries on forever thanks to that car.
👍
Same here man. Learned so much with this car!
LUCKY. You had plenty of car buddies with that whip back then. Even in 2000 car geeks knew wassup. And JDM dudes if they knew didn't challenge ya
@@mattraulerson1318 Taurus SHO on GT2 Original Version, u can change this car to Mark Martin's 1998 NASCAR CUP SERIES Stock Car.
@@kevincollins8620 at one point in HS we had 4 SHO's. GSRs always had the SHO, but it was still close. 5.0's and Camaro's of the time were easy stuff. People's expressions getting whooped were always priceless.
Being a teen in the early 90's, anything over 200hp was considered performance. I remember seeing these sleepers. Man, what a miserable time for horsepower. I thought my cousin's 5.0 sporting 225hp was a monster. My Mustang now is pushing 535. Thanks for posting these videos, Doug. A good walk down memory lane.
Ford detuned the sho v6 to 220hp as to no step on thefox body 5.0 225hp
I inherited a D4 A8L Quattro- replace the turbo cartridges as part of a design flaw with the oil distribution block with the RS7 versions, bigger heat exchanger, and a mid-level tune; 650+ hp & 700 ft-lbs is not an issue
Power to weight ratio
Cara nowadays weigh more and are bigger than cars from back then
Theres a chance that your 500hp mustang and your 235hp 90s car actually make similar power to weight numbers
Dont be fooled by hp figures on their own
Dude there were still 70s muscle cars being used as daily drivers back then. That's what me and my buddies drove. We would beat the 💩 out of 5 0s.
The 1992 SHO was my first car back in 2005. I had NO idea what it was when I got it, but I found out pretty quickly when I hit 130 on the interstate. This and my 1995 Audi 90 Sport Quattro have been my favorite cars I've ever owned. Absolute legend.
Same
@Anne Frank Vape Pen that's a legit shaggin wagon combo. Now if only you could do that with an RS6 Avant.. and if only I made 200k a year...maybe...
@Anne Frank Vape Pen Those 3.8's were the engines to have over the 3.0. My boy had one in his Sable.. Lots of torque!
I loved the Audi 90's. My first car was an Audi 4000S.
@Anne Frank Vape Pen My grandma had a red one wit a red interior all through the 90s. I would love to find one just like that for the memories.
I honestly think that this is a really cool car, due to it's design and it's Yamaha V6. Now I see why Conan O'Brian had a Ford Taurus SHO for more than 15 years
Conan had so many fun segments on the show involving his SHO. :)
Yeah its good af
Tim Allen had one too, drove it in ''the Santa Clause"
Conan still had it recently.
@@StreamerBTW99 with parts availability not so much anymore
The SHO has sport suspension. The ride was very firm. My brother had one back in 96. A coworker used to buy them and put 300k on them and then buy another one and do it again. The motors were really tough.
☝️☝️C0NGRATUIATl0N FAN, Y0U W0N A GIft 🎁, MESSAGE ME TO CLAIM YOUR PRIZE....
I heard it was well made & had some 🥊. Sedans are not flashy but are practical.
@@DavidLLambertmobile these cars were pretty flashy.
My SHO's suspension was nowhere near such terms as "sport" and "firm". May be it was by American standards, but even low-spec Ford Mondeo was in different league of sportiness. Still, I agree on reliability - no breaks for five years and it was already brought in similar shape that this on the video. Great car.
In 1989 the only sedans that were quicker than the SHO were the M5 and 750i. That was very impressive at the time. The manual transmissions were also significantly quicker than the autos. Regarding the suspension, there was a number of upgrades over a regular Taurus.
Doug is that type of guy who reviews his Carrera GT one day and Ford Taurus the next one 😁
Your snobbery is showing Mitt
@@integritypriority4472 Who is Mitt?
@@integritypriority4472 and your comment is pointless
@@integritypriority4472 Stop 👏 The 👏 Cap
@Radek Vechet.. Get it correct.. Ford Taurus SHO!!
What I love about watching Doug Demuro is that one day we are looking at the best Porsche that ever was (his dream car) and the next minute he's geeking out on a Ford Taurus with the same enthusiasm
On paper, the Taurus SHO kinda reminded me to Gran Turismo 2. Shiki Wakana drove this car as an opponent in Luxury Sedan Cup.
True to that!
Taurus SHO still pales in comparison to even Shelby GT350R.
My first car I got in 1999 was a 1990 SHO. I LOVED that car. It was amazing. It was WAY faster than all of my friend's cars. Ford dropped the power down to 220hp. It was originally producing over 300hp. Also it would hit 140mph easy. The boost that would kick in over 3900rpm was insane. They are great cars.
Love it. I was a Ford engineer during this time, and always had a soft spot for the first generation and early-90's refreshed Taurus (DN5 program as it was known internally). When the 1996 model (DN101) was released, I'll be honest...we all thought it was a styling disaster. The sales numbers following the redesign agreed. Nice to see one of these come up for sale on your channel.
Curious to know what Ford internally considered the 1992 refresh (i.e. facelift vs. overhaul). I have a 1992 wagon but I presume the either of the 1986 or 1989 front ends would bolt right up, considering the radiator support is stamped "RD 1986."
Had both a 95 and 98 SHO. I thought the styling of the 98 was not...terrible? The slight changes to the SHO front end helped a lot. Also I generally felt that car to feel a lot more solid. From the way the doors closed to the reduction of wind and road noise, and an improved ride. Really my only complaint was the 3.4 V8 felt a little more sluggish off the line, and didn't give that sense of sudden urgency past 4,000 like the V6 cars did with their dedicated short intake runners. I also remember the steering in the V8 SHO to be miles ahead of the V6 car. I think I read somewhere that Ford put a rather expensive ZF sourced rack in the V8 SHO. Mine never succumbed to engine failure like some cars did, but rather 14 years of Michigan winters took their toll on every other part of the car, unfortunately. :(
It's too bad we didn't have modern 6-speed transaxles back then. I often wonder how the car would have performed with something like a newer 6F50 or Aisin 6 speed. My mother still daily drives a 2010 Fusion Sport with the Aisin 6 speed and it's been absolutely bulletproof. I think it's generally the same transmission that Toyota used for a long time in their FWD V6 cars.
I have a 95 SHO with auto and 2012 Fusion Sport, the SHO would B so much better with the Aisin 6 speed the SHO's faster top end but the Sport is quicker and more fun to drive on a curvy downhill road in the manual mode
Younger viewers would not know this, but when it came out the SHO was an absolute legend.
Same era thunderbird was cool too
@@chriskhall Thunderbird Super Coupe
@@chriskhall and the Mercury Cougar which was based on the same platform as well... there's a local guy where I live who still has one.
Had more horsepower per liter than a vette
@@DalHarpJr didn't it have a baseball sized shifter with stitching? First time I ever heard Metallica's One from Justice for All was driving in that car with two older young people from my church. Combination of the awesomeness of the car, the song, and the fact that I was in the tiny back seat with these guys made me feel like a king
Finally. I've waited over 4 years for this video alone I've had my '90 SHO as my first car back in late 2018 and have kept it this whole time, even after buying the V8 '99 SHO in better shape, I could never get rid of this car. This is my Carrera GT. Thank you so much for finally bringing the SHO to a wide, modern audience, these just don't get love anymore
I'm a huge SHO guy too. After he did the Caprice SS I REALLY wanted him to do a SHO because I know how much better the SHOs are. They get overlooked by many. My 97 SHO was so awesome. I miss it.
@NicciNicciExtraThicci.. You have two gems! Yamaha V6 + 5Spd. manual and a Yamaha V8.. I would never get rid of either of them!
I was into motorcycles and boats, as well as cars, when I was younger. At 19, when I heard that Yamaha had collaborated on the motor I wanted an SHO badly. Sleeper and super cool. Thanks Doug!
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When the Taurus first came out it looked like a space ship. I was blown away. It changed car design forever. No more boxy shapes and sharp corners that chewed up your wash sponge. Every car design today can be traced back to the original Taurus in the 80's. The first time I saw one, I had the same look on my face as the those 2 boys who watched Cindy Crawford drink a Pepsi.
I am glad you like it, but I think you are missing a few "American" in your post.. i.e. "It changed American car design forever", etc. Many euro cars had similar designs way earlier, of which many were sold in the US... if you are talking about a true ground breaking production design for cars, the Audi 100 C3 would be it, and to a lesser extent the Ford sierra of a few years later.
@@GoldenCroc I'm sorry but the Euro designs you mentioned did not look as modern and futuristic as the Ford Taurus in 1986. That Audi still had lots of 80's square design details and the Ford Sierra (sold here in the U.S. badged as a "Merkur") did as well. The Ford Taurus was a generally groundbreaking design, love it or hate it.
@@GoldenCroc agree.
@@GoldenCroc you Eurotrash can't do anything without American, in fact you'd all be speaking Russian right now if we didn't save you.
They changed for the worse. Boxy cars for life.
I'm still ovah here being the happiest i've ever been for a complete stranger knowing that Doug achieved his dream. Great job, dude, and keep the quality quirks and features coming.
right!!
But just Doug right? You aren't happy for other complete strangers for achieving their dreams?
Love the old car reviews so much. Please do more of them Doug also congrats on your new Carrera GT. 😎
I think the new ones are higher quality
I was just gifted one of these cars and let me tell you it only has 110,000 miles on it. No leaks and it runs like a dream. I am so blessed to be part of the Ford Taurus SHO community now and I was totally gifted it for free and it’s in good condition.
The SHO was the fastest FWD car in the world when it debuted, cost $20k and the only 4 doors IN THE WORLD which were faster were the BMW M5 and 7series ($50k and $70k). It really shone at high revs- Doug's test drive didn't get it up very high on the tach. The manual was a blast to open up.
I drove the SHO and regular Taurus quite a lot, the suspension on the SHO was quite a bit stiffer and car was more planted. I bought my 91 SHO in Germany in 2002, the original owner bought it in the USA and registered it in Germany 6 months later, then sold it to someone a year or so before I bought it. Car still kept up with most anything but a Porsche on the Autobahn, it was fun to set the cruise at 90mph. It got up to 100mph quick, took a lot of open road to get up to 135mph. :D Most Autobahn exits are "cloverleaf" style, it's always easy for people to come into the corner too fast after long cruising but if the SHO was down in 3rd gear I knew I was ok.
it reved like a yamaha
I had this exact SHO. I bought it from CarMax in 1997. Even then you could see the different shades of the plastics in the vehicle. I loved that car. I felt like the car had way to much torque steer. Great times. Doug made the right call by doing this review. Thanks Doug.
This Taurus is exact same car as it was from GT4.
My grandfather had one of these in a manual. When I was a kid it sure felt fast and sounded good as he flew through the gears.
manual usually always feel feaster than auto.
With a manual I bet these are pretty fun.
@@dk2853 Yeah, I drove one of these (not sure what year) with a manual. I remember it accelerating pretty hard. I think the auto is doing this car a disservice.
Generic premium sound... better than generic regular sound! 😅 Oh Doug it's these little things that keep me coming back! Good stuff!!!
SHO's that had the optional JBL system got a "JBL" sticker in that spot. Just fyi
And the JBL sounded pretty darn good back in the day too.
@@TeijoKhanfan Yeah it did. I think they had a dual driver 6.5 in each front door, two 5x7's in the rear deck, and a baby 6.5" woofer in a small box back there too. But it was rather impressive. A lot of modern cars have a lot worse sounding stereos with 9, 10, 11 speakers. I replaced all the speakers in mine with Infinity's, crammed an 8in Polk sub in the factory box and fed it with a small JBL mono amp in place of the factory sub amp, and used a Pioneer Premier headunit (for the mp3's I had burned to CD...remember burning mp3's to a CD?), and it sounded really good. I actually still have that factory box with it's Polk sub in a closet somewhere, as a kind of memento.
Doug I can’t explain how happy I am for you to see how far you have come as a content creator you have given me countless hours of enjoyment and I appreciate every second of it. Congratulations on getting your dream car sir! You are in inspiration to people like me and I appreciate how you have never strayed away from how you started doing things but instead mastered how you do it and it’s so amazing to be a part of this journey with you!
Sit down and shut up he is Jay Leno's son. Life's sooooo hard!
@@klowenstein483 👍👍👍
I absolutely loved my '94 SHO. It looked great, was relatively quick and I got respect from folks who knew what they were. A great whip back in the day!
Hahah! Glad someone made a RoboCop reference!
We used to have a graysih blue Taurus, we later added some black paint to it's middle section...it looked very much like a futuristic cop car.
It was amazing the range of people that knew what the car was. I had a women (in her 60's) I didn't know ask me if it was my car when I said yes she started rattling of the specs of the car. I was shocked she knew so much about the car.
@@timbergen8526 Tim, the 1999 SHO TAURUS was also the one mostly used by Shiki wakana as an opponent on Luxury Sedan Cup.
I own a Taurus (Jellybean 97) here in Brazil and they are pretty rare in my country (only about 10,000 cars across generations) . Glad you finally reviewed this iconic car!
Fun fact: there was a magical time when E30s were cheap and Taurus SHOs were available in junk yards. A trend developed where SHO side skirts were bought for ~$15 each, modified slightly and fitted to E30s to make a nice looking, inexpensive alternative to the unobtanium M Tech aero.
I've owned 3 Tauruses (Tauri?): a 1991, a 2001, and the 2011 my son currently drives. Perfectly fine vehicles, but I absolutely craved the SHO versions when they were out there.
Thanks as always, Doug!
My favorite thing about the first-generation Taurus is that someone thought it looked _so_ futuristic, they used them as the cop cars of 10 years into the future in _RoboCop,_ which came out when the Taurus was new and still relatively uncommon. Of course, by the _real_ 1997, cops were still just driving Crown Vics like they always had, but hey! :)
@MF Nickster Heh, my local police department got a Camaro at around the same time, and there was a brief uproar until the chief released a statement explaining that they hadn't paid for it, but rather -stolen- "forfeited" it from some minor criminal or another.
It was. Ford spent quite a huge amount of money designing the Taurus and Sable. The tech and shape/design was so far ahead of it's time it could have easily been a mid 90s car despite coming out i the mid 80s.
@MF Nickster Indeed. 🧐
As someone who owned a 5.0 swapped Ranger, the SHO swap was the holy grail....
Had a 93 manual black on black. Loved it! As I recall, the Yamaha engines were designed after F1 engines and could wind up the RPMs to well above the redline if you utilized underdrive pulleys because the belt-driven accessories couldn’t handle the revs but the engine could.
I love these reviews on the 80’s and 90’s cars. Keep ‘em coming!
DUUUUDE!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had a '95 JUST LIKE THIS!! I drove it for 8 years before buying my 2004 Mercury Marauder, of course in the correct Silver. Then in 2012 I bought my 2005 Viper - in Silver. Oh Doug you made my day!!
So glad you mentioned the latest generation SHO and actually sang it some fairly high praises, despite it being the underappreciated one. I drive the Lincoln version of this, the MKS Ecoboost which is basically the SHO in a tuxedo and 5 less HP. Absolute sleeper, especially if you have one like mine that does not have the Ecoboost appearance package. Just looks like a regular old man's Lincoln MKS... until you think you're gonna race ahead of it once the light turns green from the turning lane in your Challenger R/T and end up facing oncoming traffic for a lot longer than you anticipated. With AWD I have never had tire spin, just instant launch, every time.
Those MKS' are nice looking cars, even the non-ecoboost ones scoot along pretty well. Can only really gripe about how small the interior feels for the overall size of the car.
@@flurpoid Yeah, interior packaging design in general was a bit... strange, I must admit. I have the very first year of the EB engine, 2010, and the car is roomy inside, width-wise, but the front and rear seats are a bit closer together than you'd think they'd be in such a large car. Front seats might push your knees against the dash depending how tall you are, and I'm only 5'7" but my knees are a lot closer to the drivers dash than they probably should be. Trunk is massive but has a very tiny opening, which makes no damn sense.
@@man_on_wheelz Almost bought a 2012 Lincoln MKS Ecoboost not too long ago and read online that all those Ford 3.7L and 3.5L V6's have internal water pump designs that kill the engines due to oil/coolant contamination when the water pump wears out - I priced the water pump job out as preventive maintenance and it's supposedly a massive job on those engines with a really high labor rate so I just passed on it. Really nice cars though but if the research I read is true then might want to budget for a water pump replacement ahead of time.
Theyre definitely cool cars and I'm not hating but man...an R/T is a pretty low bar haha, you'd easily gap one with a 8 Speed V6 Camry.
that's why comparing cars from different eras isnot a good idea. That's what a decade of innovation, weight reduction and powertrain improvements do
I've Been Waiting For YEARS! 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
My buddy had one in the 90s. We were in high school and I worked at the local mall. He would stop by occasionally and hang out. Good times! Good review Doug! Great memories!
Arguably the sickest car cameo ever in 'The Santa Clause' with Tim Allen :)
Fun fact: About 20 years ago in Minnesota a friend of a business partner had one of the original SHO wagons, it was dark green, manual transmission, and he let me borrow it for a weekend. It was really fun to drive, and had some fun racing other cars as it was really a sleeper.
The wagon's were all put together by enthusiast's. They were never production. Just saying that wagon was more rare than you previously thought. :)
"Fun fact"...
That wasnt very fun.
@@therealpimpskillet Yeah he told me it was "made from two" or something along those lines.
@@nikosyn5238 Honestly, most SHO's that are still around are a product of several. My black / black 5 speed 93 is made from about 7. :)
Thank you!! I sooo remember that car and haven’t seen one since! Glad to see a review
Now you definitely gotta review a 6th gen Taurus SHO. Preferably '13-19, after the facelift. I've owned a '13 SHO for the last 2 years and it is an amazing car. Very comfortable, great sound system, tons of power, reliable, and people always move over when I'm behind them on the highway (for obvious reasons). Also technically, there is a wagon version of the latest SHO. Both the Explorer and Flex (same base architecture as the Taurus) offered the same powertrain as the SHO; Explorer Sport and Flex Limited. And don't come for my head Crown Vic fanboys, but I believe the latest Taurus SHO is the best sedan Ford ever made.
Taurus SHO 1999 has 277kph top speed.
You forgot to include the Lincoln MKT which has the same Ecoboost motor.
@@purwantiallan5089 Here in the USA, it is speed limited to 144 mph. I don't know of any other 235 hp. 3.4 litre NORMALLY aspirated four door sedan in that year that could perform like that!! GTP guys..............you needed a BLOWER to get 240 out of that 3.8 mill !!! LOL
Hey if you live in California, give him your car to review
@@pwnranger3496 Sorry, in MA. here...............that would be quite a trip for him (O:
Bought a 1994 red SHO in 2001 as a college grad to replace my Sunbird and it seemed so fast and so cool at the time. I loved that car but it did require some significant maintenance to keep on the road even then. Great intake sound though at 4,000 rpm when the secondary runners opened up! I did take it drag racing once and it ran 15.4 @94mph which was right with stock Mustang GTs of the era. Thanks for bringing back the memories!
Never had a chance to drag race my 94 SHO MTX (moonlight blue) when I owned it between 2006-08 as an undergrad, thanks for letting me know what it was capable of!!!!!
Most people on here probably don't remember the Sunbird, but my cousin had one when they were new and I remember riding in it. As bad as the 2nd gen Taurus interior was, it was way better than the Sunbird was!
Honest report there, thank you ! My 1997 ran a best of 15.6 @ 89 which is right where they are supposed to run given the weight, final drive ratio and HP. (O:
I had a black 1991 SHO in the early 90s. A few years later my dad bought red 1994 SHO. Both 5-speeds. Great cars with one of the most beautiful engines ever!
I had a black on black 92 5-speed, it was wicked fun, got me more than a couple speeding tickets.
@@GeorgeWhittam I think you had the best looking version of the SHO! First Gen. shape, with a manual and those gorgeous cookie cutter wheels!
My family had a black on black ‘93 5spd back in the day. I learned to drive manual on that car. Just awesome. As I’m watching this and you’re reviewing the interior, your subtle movements are causing things to creak in a way that inspires nostalgia
I remember the black interior 2nd gen cars being highly sought after even in the early and mid 2000's. Most 2nd gens seemed to have either the grey or tan interior. I rather liked the green and tan combo on my 95. I felt it was a lot nicer than the grey. Black always looked so sporty though.
@@OnTheRocks71 At the time they bought it our family was in the process of moving from Philly to LA. They ordered the car in Lansdale and had the factory deliver it to Bob Wondries Ford in Alhambra, CA. Apparently, it arrived there before we did and the dealer prepped it and parked it out front. Three different people tried to buy it out from under us on day one.
I always like the way those old Taurus cars looked. I think it is kinda cool that such an old car is still easily able to contend with modern traffic (especially CA traffic) since it was originally the "fast" model. Kind of like an old fast computer from 15 years ago that was amazing but now all it can do is keep up.
The company I worked for in the 90s allowed the sales guys to get their own cans, but they would not let us get an SHO. Damn!
Thank you so much for this review! My father, who passed away in 2021, had one of these in the 90s. The nostalgia of seeing this review brought back so many fun and great memories!
I remember seeing lots of regular Taurus sedans and wagons driving around when I was kid, but the SHO was the rare "cool" Taurus I was always excited to see, only for those in the know.
My grandma had the wagon version through the whole 90s. I'd love to have one and swap parts from a SHO into it.
Had the same experience working at a car wash in high school with the final generation SHO.
Always a pleasure having a Doug video to watch
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I had one of these "Sequential Harmonic Oscillation" and it was cool, leaky valve cover gaskets aside
I had this exact car. I bought it new off the lot in 1996 for 10k off sticker. The engine manifold was truly beautiful - I opened the hood of the SHO all the time. The only problems were horrible torque steer and a manual transmission that was far too small given the SHO’s performance. In 80k miles, I had many many transmission rebuilds.
One of my old bosses friend had a blue one. He said one time years before I knew him the guy let him drive it, while he was also in the car. Said he just sort of casually took off no flooring or high revs to speak of, shifted in to second, rolled in to full acceleration and once the pedal was down all the way the transmission flew apart. Your story reinforces the fact that I believed him. I drove a 1994 base model at the time and he was warning me to just go ahead and stay away from the SHO's.
And the oil leaks, oh God the oil leaks.
Two points. The intake plenum is what you were admiring and two. User error caused your clutch/trans issues.
@@shonole Yes!!! I almost forgot about the oil leaks because my next car was an e46 era 3 series and that drank a quart of oil every month or so.
@@iamatlantis1 Ford in the 90s undersized all their manual transmissions (unsure about the mustang though.) A friend with a manual F150 went through 4 transmissions inside of warranty around the time I had my SHO.
One thing I love about Doug is that he has a Carrera GT, his dream car, and he still geeks out over cars like a SHO, albeit this might have been a pre recorded video but I love his simplicity, he still records by himself, just a camera and a tripod and him.
I love how Doug geeks out about the 94-95 model years having paint matched door handles. Love it!
These are the reviews I'm here for! Appreciate you doing these even if they don't get the views
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My first real job - I was a lot boy at a Ford dealership the summer I was 16 years old. Got to drive all the new and used Fords including this SHO multiple times. Man that car was cool back then and it hauled ass. I have a 6 figure corporate job now but always daydream of the young days of being a lot boy without a care in the world - other than cars and girls. Seeing this review brings back memories.
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Doug I had a 90’s Taurus my mother had bought for me in around 2002. It was owned by this older gentleman she knew and it only had 38K on it. Only problem was he lied. He had it parked in his garage for 7 years at least and NEVER started it periodically to keep the engine lubricated and the parts moving occasionally. He said he did but it was very evident after I started driving it that he didn’t do any such thing. The car was great at first and it was so comfortable it was like sitting on your couch and driving a car at the same time. Acceleration was adequate…no speed demon but you could enter highway traffic with no problems.
Then one day it started to overheat. I pulled over and popped the hood and I added coolant to the overflow reservoir.
I waited about 10 minutes then my wife and I started back on our way. No lie…less than 5 minutes later this absolutely horrendously thick bluish grey smoke started spewing from the rear exhaust pipe like an effect only seen at concerts. It engulfed the entire 3 lanes of the highway to the point that I could not see anything behind us. Cars were pulling over because they couldn’t see anything and it was so embarrassing. I pulled off the next exit and had it towed back home. That was it for my Taurus.
Regardless of the low mileage the guy lied and the engine oil just sat in the pan for 7 plus years and apparently from what my friend who is a mechanic said, that is literally one of the worst things that you can do to a car. If you’re going to store it than it needs to be started and the engine needs to run occasionally for a little while and if you don’t….well you get what I got. The engine seized apparently and it was just a total loss. $2200.00 she paid and with the low mileage we figured I would have it for years to come. Nope, only a few months at best.
But I will say it was certainly comfortable. Lol
These were pretty cool sleepers back in the day. I knew someone who had a red manual one in college, and I was probably the only other person who knew it was special.
Doug is the reason why I got into cars and car reviews. He’s just seems like an approachable, authentic guy and I love the humor he puts in his videos. So happy for your continued success, Doug!
He's a goof. But we still watch
This is definitely a car where one with a manual is sooo much more fun to drive. 4 speed autos just sap every bit of fun. I think the new transmissions with 8-10 gears make a lot of us forget how much 3 and 4 speed autos sucked on a "fun" car.
Yeah, 1 second slower to 60 was pretty good and expected back then. A lot of times it was worse than that. 1 or 2 seconds slower to 60 is the kind of performance differential that you really notice.
The four-speed auto in my Mustang is such a slouch, it will sometimes take a full two seconds to downshift when you open the throttle and it's very, very reluctant to even approach the redline, even though it's only maxes out at 5300RPM. Moving between the instantaneous shifts from the DSG in my GTI to the laziness of the Mustang's transmission is polarizing.
I know you had said you don't enjoy doing these retro car videos as much because of the difficult research, sourcing them, and negative comments, however I much appreciate them! Thank you!
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Growing up my dad had a white ‘93 and it was the coolest car to me. Great review Doug, brought back a lot of memories
Doug the type of guy to deserve everything he has. Congrats on your cgt Doug!
I’m truly impressed with this review; nailed all the details, even the door handles. It hit harder for me in that I was trying to be different back then and owned two of these (‘93 and ‘98) but I don’t miss them as much as I thought I would thanks to their failure rates lol. Doug should review the early MN12 Thunderbird next; SC would be the generic choice(which I’d greatly enjoy) but if he could find a ‘90-91 LX 5.0 the quirks and features would get interesting .
I'd love to see a profile of an early 90's Chevrolet Lumina Z34. As I recall, Chevy dug deep into the parts bin and cobbled together a home-grown 4 cam, 24-valve V6 called the "Twin Dual Cam" that they threw into a Lumina with a bunch of racy body cladding as an attempt at an SHO fighter. I wonder if any of those even exist anymore.
In white or red those z34 looked the part thpugh i hear the 3.4 dohc was doo doo
I loved this review! Please do more older, quirky cars they're the best!
It’s amazing just how far interior quality has come since the 90’s
Yeah this is really good inside
Not really with Ford.
Interior quality now is ridiculous. It's good but ridiculous how much it drives up the MSRP. Who gives a rats ass about panel gaps? It's all soft touch material with an ergonomic sculpted design. Nobody cares.
nope, 2022 interiors are garbage, just a computer yelling at you.
Lets see how they hold up in 28 years !!! The SHO was using the same materials, real leather, vinyl's and plastic. Things have not come much further except for shapes.
Congratulations on the carrera gt doug!!
And thank you for working so hard for the amazing car reviews content you serve us. KEEP IT UP!!
My grandfather had an ‘89 SHO. Yamaha engine and Mazda manual transmission. This car got my mom to the hospital to give birth to me after her water broke during the price is right. I can still remember sitting in the middle of the back seat when I was around 4 or 5 and the backs of my legs getting stuck to the center vinyl portion on hot days.
Thank you Doug!!! A 92 lx taurus was my first car! Love seeing this review and memories!
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my first car was a police package 94 ford taurus, such a fun car. I remember driving it somewhere with my dad and the speedo only went to 85, but we wanted to see what would happen if we got it to that speed. We were going 75 and the engine was handling it easily, we floored it, speedo gauge stopped going up but we kept increasing in speed hit a guestimate 105 and had a good laugh about it
I had a 1993 SHO with a 5 speed, it was my first car after I turned 16. I found one with a nice exterior but the interior was hurting. The HVAC controls got super brittle and some one broke all the button covers. $2500 but it cost me close to $5000 in repairs over the next 5 years. New clutch, valve cover gaskets, injectors, cats, god damn this car was a nightmare but I loved it.
Haha, I love that... I did all that to my 1992 PLUS a differential that blew its guts out on the highway, and more. I had it for 3 years until I just killed it dead.
Well that's because the SHO was never meant to be a daily driver lol When you buy a SHO you also buy a GL and you park the SHO until Saturday hits. You drive the GL to work everyday. I thought everyone knew this lol
@@headliner733 well no one gave this 16 year old a heads up when he bought it from some shithole car dealer lol
@@LiLGhettoSmurfOG right no one told me either hahahaha I bet it didn't take you long to figure it out huh? Lmaooo! I bet you loved that car too I sure did I miss it.
The SHO and the Gran Prix GTP always had such an element of coolness about them. I always loved seeing them back in the day!
Thanks for that little trip down memory lane, Doug!
When I was in college I had a summer job that paid me way too much for changing lightbulbs in huge office buildings. I thought I was loaded.
When it was time to pass the '91 Lumina I was stuck driving at the time on to my brother, my father unwittingly helped me by a 3 year old 1992 SHO with 5 speed manual. In the 3 glorious years I owned the car I learned a very tough lesson about "performance" car ownership: Change the damn oil on schedule! I had a bad influence buddy in college who was a car geek and he introduced me to "chipping" the computer. So I did. Now I could rev well past the 7800 RPM redline with gusto, slamming the car into 2nd and chirping the tires with glee. I took him with me on at least one 130+ MPH run on I81, passing semi trucks like they were parked on the shoulder. I also learned that the engine ran very hot so it killed starters and alternators, and had other heat related failures (maybe I should have changed the oil more often).
Because it didn't have any type of limited slip differential it (I) LOVED to smoke the inside tire to kingdom come... and I did it a lot. I did it so much that one time driving on the PA Turnpike NE Extension the differentially decided to lose one of the bevel gear pins and tear a whole in itself 100 miles from home. I made it off the freeway, stuck in 4th but with a working clutch managed to pay my toll ticket, and limped to a McDonalds. That was the first VERY expensive repair I had done to the car, around $3000 by memory in 1998. From there things just got more expensive... when I finally spun the main bearing of the crankshaft. I sold the car to a SHO fan for $1000.
I bought it for $11,000, spent around $10,000 keeping in the road for 3 years, so I spent as much as a new SHO.
The next car I was allowed to drive was my grandmother's 1989 Buick LeSabre (until I killed the tranny).
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I'm so glad to see you finally reviewing a much more normal car. I used to have a white one with a manual transmission. I have deduced from your detailed description that I had the earlier version. I got pulled over after only owning it for a few days, and the Police impounded it, and I didn't have the money to get it back. I miss it. This is the best version of this generation of Taurus. I much prefer this Taurus to the new one. Thank you.
That sucks that the police stole your car but what were you doing to have it impounded? Usually they just write tickets unless you're doing something serious.
A couple friends had these back in the day. I loved these. The Yamaha intake is art. It cruises. Would pull most everything back in the day. It would totally keep up and piss off c3/c4 vette guys back then. Thanks for the memory flashback mr. D!
Doug I like that you talk about cars like they got personalities. Since I was a kid I didn't connect with people, but I love to appreciate all sort of cars for their shape and sizes and functions. Cars to me were more interesting than people. Thanks for getting excited about a special car like this one. 👍
I took my road test in my parents' 2002 Taurus wagon, and before that, they had a '96 Taurus wagon and a '91 Sable wagon. The Sable/Taurus was pretty much my ride from birth til college, so I always get nostalgic seeing them. You can really see how Ford's build quality was lacking at the time because of how few are still on the road. I'll see countless Camrys/Accords from the late '90s/early '00s every day, but seeing a similarly aged Taurus nowadays is a rarity.
My college car was an '01 Sable wagon with every option but the sunroof. It was slow and unreliable but comfortable and could fit a ton of stuff. The only reason it was still going 20 years later was because it had super low miles when I got it. It had been owned by my great-grandmother who only drove it to church. I have a new car now but I miss that Sable and I get happy whenever I see one of those ugly oval back windows going down the road. I was never sure if it would start or if a wheel would fall off but but I miss the column shifter and the thin pillars.
My dad had a cool-ish looking black 89 Sable and my mother had the ugly 1993 newer bodystyle like the one in the movie Coneheads lol, I remember that they both needed transmissions fairly early and they overall just turned into hoopties pretty quick, but I'll say they always started up and ran at least - The Sable ended up being my oldest brothers first car in 2000-2001 but was a rust bucket and didn't last much longer and my mother junked hers after the 2nd transmission went bad again. My parents replaced both with Camry's like you mentioned lol dad got a blue 2000 and my mother got a white 2001 Camry Solara and they both still drive them.
The build quality in those Ford's back then was actually pretty good. The reason why so many have disappeared from the roads is their low resale value. A tiny little fender bender will total one out. It takes a lot more than that to total out an Accord or Camry. It's not that they weren't good cars, they were just as good as anything else and had the same problems as anything else back then, but people had to make financial decisions like is it worth fixing even though it'll cost more than what it's worth or taking a risk of having an even bigger loss down the road.
I have a similar experience with the '94 and '96 Chevy Luminas I inherited from my parents (my father also had a Taurus Wagon). I see a '94 Lumina on the road about once a year- granted it is now 29 years old- and I get all emotional. I'll take a picture if I see one parked somewhere.
@@headliner733 the build quality really wasn’t as good as Toyotas and Hondas though. Every Taurus my parents had would start developing tons of problems once it hit 100k miles even though they kept up with maintenance. By comparison the 2001 Camry my wife and I had up until a few years ago hit 225k with not much more than routine maintenance.
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Keep up the good work man 👌
I had a sapphire blue 95 SHO. LOVED that car. We had to leave the state and the field mice chewed the wiring. We didn't have the money to fix it so it sat for years and I finally said it's time to go to do it justice. Now we egot plenty of money I want it back. Love that silver
Fun fact: The sho wasn't just made because the car was popular. Ford was planning on building a mid engine sports car in collaboration with yamaha High Output V6's. The project fell through, and Ford had already purchased the engines, so they outfitted them to their most popular sedan and gave it some other cool upgrades, and the sho Sleeper was born.
Impressive
I had a white SHO… very cool car at the time…
The keypad was a great feature. Had that in my two Sable wagons too.
Loved the white with tan interior, my best friend had one and we felt cool riding in that thing, most people never knew how special that car was then, the Yamaha engine was a beast and would run forever if maintained correctly
As a former Sable wagon owner, the keypad was one of the best features on the car. I can't wait for Ford's patent to expire because every car should have something like that.
Have the keypad on my Mach-E and love it. Sadly, for whatever reason, Ford didn't offer the keypad with the keyless entry on my 2015 C-Max, which means my daughter (who drives it now) COULD get locked out of the car.
These were cool in the 90's when I was in HS. They were a hell of a lot faster than what most kids were driving back then. I envied the few people that had one. Most young kids back then were driving stuff from the 80's with like 100 HP, the SHO was like a racecar to us.
We were part of that popularity of the original Taurus…when I was a kid we owned an ‘86 Taurus sedan and then an ‘89 Mercury Sable station wagon (in maroon, no less).
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I remember when I heard the 2010 Taurus SHO was gonna have 365 HP with a V6, I told my grandpa about it, and he was like, "There's no way." He couldn't believe a V6 could make that much power, but his Suburban made like 180 HP with a V8, so it was a different time.
If only he knew the stuff that was out today.
They did eventually wagonify the SHO with the Flex. I loved my ecoboost Flex.
I LOVE THE NEW LOGO DOUG!
I love how excited this car makes Doug. Interesting old Sedan of a different time.
Great review, Doug, as usual. Having Yamaha build the high output V6 was really amazing, especially for that time. Never - ever jump another car with a Ford Taurus. Ford Taurus electrical systems are extremely fragile. Other than that, they are good cars.
Their lack of a traditional grille also gave their engines some cooling issues too, but were still capable of a quarter million miles without a rebuild if properly cared for and driven responsibly. Also, from my own personal experience, Taurus cruise controls were more reliable than GM ones from the same time period.
Also, another reason why the Taurus really got popular was Because the first Robocop came out 1986 and they used the Taurus as their police cars
That's exactly the reason for me. lol The bigger headlights look better to me.
That was a big reason but also back in 86 NOTHING on the road looked as futuristic as them, EVERYTHING outside of some exotic cars were still boxy and had sealed beam headlights. The first generation Taurus/Sable interior design was equally as futuristic looking. Compare them to a Chevy Celebrity/Dodge 600/Toyota Cressida/Nissan Maxima and any other mainstream midsized sedans of the time and they all looked like dinosaurs by comparison.
@@Stressless2023 Glad to see another person out there that isn't ignorant of automotive history and the Taurus. I really want to find an 86 Taurus LX station wagon and save/restore it. Been really hard. I have an easier time finding the 89-91 SHOs over the regular sedan and wagons now and it breaks my heart. I was so close to snagging a white LX wagon in Portland Oregon but my dad got in the way...
Robocop came out in 1987. And used 1985-87 model Taurus GL and LX trim level cars for the first few movies in that franchise.
I remember these and being in awe of the SHO badges on the Taurus and how extra special it made these cars seem. A guy I worked with had one. Said the power was great and gas mileage incredible for such a high performance engine. Relative to the day I’m sure it was.
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I’ll jump in also…I had a ‘94 SHO with a manual back in ‘98. I loved that car! It was fast for it’s day and was a sleeper. Some had no clue what it was and it would blow them away. Thanks for the memories.
Congratulations again Doug on your dream car purchase, you deserve it
Oh man, this takes me back... My dad had a 1992 SHO in black with gray leather interior. He had the manual 5 speed... The car had such a great engine sound, and watching this video brought waves of nostalgia, and that interior is precisely as bland as I remember it...
GEN 3 interior, not bland at all !
My dad had 3 of these . One white one blue and one red 95 loved it
I'm a few years younger than Doug, but remember going out when I was ~8 years old with someone who had an SHO. I was a car nut, had never been in a fast car --- and thought this SHO was *unbelievably* fast.
This was my 2nd car after owning a 1994 Taurus GL. Once I learned of the SHO model I had to get one.
Ended up owning (2) 1992s one in white, one in black, (2) 1993s both green on tan my DD was an MTX and the other an auto. My brother owned a black 1998 SHO during that time too. What a blast.
My dad had the non SHO Taurus, it was a great car on its own. Lots of space and lasted a long time. The Yamaha was available in this model too. I hate the shape they changed it to in 96 or whatever. A lot of the SHOs Ive seen were auto. My uncle had a manual SHO though. Im glad you mentioned the Mustang because Ive always heard the SHO could outrun some Mustangs.
The manual SHO could beat a foxbody! I owned both.
90’s cars were the best. We had so much fun with so little HP! The civic, the CRX, the MR2, the integra…. I miss them
My dad had a ‘93 SHO. I also thought it was the coolest car as a kid. So glad he did a review on one from this era. Brings back great memories.
the ford taurus sho was a cool 1990s sport sedan, now it's a cool 2023 sports sedan under the name honda accord