2008 Ford Taurus problems
Owners have filed 240 complaints with NHTSA about the 2008 Ford Taurus. Drivetrain & axles is the most reported problem area, at 16% of complaints. Next are steering (15%) and cruise control (13%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 240 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Drivetrain & axles 16% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 30 and 11
- Injuries and deaths
- 15 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 79,000 miles 220 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 | 22 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 41 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 33 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 16 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 44 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 16 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 16 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 19 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 8 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 2 |
| 200k+ miles | 3 |
What the data shows
Of the 220 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 79,000 miles. For drivetrain & axles specifically, the median reported mileage is about 85,000 miles (38 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 30 complaints mention a crash; 11 complaints mention a fire; 15 injuries reported.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2008 ranks 22nd most-complained-about out of 29 model years of the Ford Taurus with enough data (116 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 1 safety recall campaign.
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.
I was driving from work, on my way to pick up my daughter. When suddenly the heated seat in my car began to get hotter than usual, the seat had soon malfunctioned and disburse in to flame! Luckily I was carrying a bottle of water from my job that I was drinking on at the time. I knew I wasn't fit to drive myself, and I wasn't to far away from my father's house, and was driven by my step sister to the e.r.
My 79 year old father-in-law was in a traffic accident yesterday september 5, 2019. He was at a stop sign in the city of portsmouth ohio. Upon taking off from a stop he was hit not by one car but two cars. My father in law has had this car since 2009 and they have always taken care of it. They only have this car. Anyway when he hit none of the air bags deployed, none. He hit the steering wheel so hard that we thought he was having a heart attack.
This incident occurred in a rented 2008 ford taurus. I left a restaurant, drove a very short distance to my hotel, pulled into a parking space, began applying the brake and the engine surged uncontrollably. No matter how I braked, I could not stop it. It tore out a small tree and lodged into the wall of the hotel.
I was pulling out of a parking lot, stopped and on the brakes waiting for an opening in traffic when all of the sudden my car tried to surge me forward, revving up very high. It sounded as if the car may blow up. I had to stomp on the brake pedal with both feet and fight to keep from the car throwing me out into traffic. I put the car in park and it stopped. I immediately went to the nearest service station, where they looked at it & took it for a drive.
Approximately 3 minutes after turning on the navigational system the seatbelt began to tighten on my son, the driver of the car. He pulled into a parking space and tried to loosen the seatbelt but was not successful; the car turned off and restarted to try and reset the seatbelt but all attempts failed. The driver's side seatbelt was permanently locked.