2003 Ford Taurus problems
Owners have filed 1,524 complaints with NHTSA about the 2003 Ford Taurus. Suspension is the most reported problem area, at 22% of complaints. Next are wipers, windshield & visibility (14%) and drivetrain & axles (11%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 1,524 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Suspension 22% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 78 and 20
- Injuries and deaths
- 76 and 3
- Typical mileage
- 78,000 miles 1,294 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 72 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 109 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 214 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 264 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 215 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 169 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 121 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 70 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 36 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 12 |
| 200k+ miles | 12 |
What the data shows
Of the 1,294 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 78,000 miles. For suspension specifically, the median reported mileage is about 85,000 miles (312 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 78 complaints mention a crash; 20 complaints mention a fire; 76 injuries reported; 3 deaths reported.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2003 ranks 10th most-complained-about out of 29 model years of the Ford Taurus with enough data (595 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 3 safety recall campaigns.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
While driving 50 MPH the vehicle was involved in a front end collision. None of the air bags deployed. One occupant in the vehicle was killed and one was injured. This was a rental car. *nlm... *nlm
Vehicle was traveling southbound in the outside lane of a 4 lane hwy. Vehicle changed lanes abruptly and went left of the center of roadway entering into the nourthbound lanes of traffic, continuing in a southbound direction, the vehicle departed the east side and collided with the end portion of a guardrail. The inside portion of the right front tire caught the outside of gaurdrail causing the car to straddle the top of the rail until the undercarriage of the car caught on a post of the rail causing the car to…
When coming home from picking up my daughter from work, my car could not shift gears and luckily I was able to coast to a stop and put the car in park. The car runs but I cannot shift into any gears. And it had to be towed to a gas station. I was advised that the problem is with the transmission and I see by your website that there are quite a few complaints regarding this issue with the transmission on the 2003 ford taurus.
I was just driving along and all of a sudden the rpms just went up and I started to slow down,pulled over to the side of the road and tried shifting in reverse and then drive and would not move,rpms just went up when I stepped on the gas.