2012 Ford Taurus problems
Owners have filed 102 complaints with NHTSA about the 2012 Ford Taurus. Steering is the most reported problem area, at 17% of complaints. Next are electrical system (16%) and body & structure (16%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 102 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Steering 17% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 1 and 3
- Injuries and deaths
- 0 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 41,000 miles 69 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 | 20 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 13 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 6 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 3 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 13 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 7 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 1 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 2 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 1 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 2 |
| 200k+ miles | 1 |
What the data shows
Of the 69 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 41,000 miles. For steering specifically, the median reported mileage is about 96,000 miles (10 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 1 complaint mentions a crash; 3 complaints mention a fire. Its complaints are less severe on average than those of 87% of model years in our database.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2012 ranks 25th most-complained-about out of 29 model years of the Ford Taurus with enough data (68 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 5 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.
Heated seat element shorted, smoked, smothered fire in seat. Did not come through leather seat - smothered within seat. No injuries. Was driving on highway and smelled smoke and then heated seat stopped working. Photo of heating element and bar code of same is attached.
Driver's side heated seat stopped working a little over a year ago. The light would go on when pressed for a second then shut off. Got around to getting it fixed. Found out it was the heating element that was not working properly. Had it replaced, and found out the old one was burned out! Scary!!
While sitting at a stop sign the engine compartment caught fire burning the top of the engine compartment and hood. It happened so fast I can only assume it was fuel related.
03/24/2012. 1st failure mileage approx.1,450: driving on I-95s at approx. 70 MPH, raining condition, wipers in use, headlights on. Suddenly the instrument panel lights went dark, wipers stopped in the middle of windshield, engine cut off. Was able to steer car from middle lane to road side and braked. Put car in park, lights still out, engine would not start. In less a minute, on the middle instrument gauge a green lighted message displayed: "power accessories..." for a very short time. Then car restarted.
Car was in motion, engine and wrench light came up and car can't be accelerated. We changed the entire throttle assembly system , still failing, an now we are unable to drive the car. Is very dangerous to drive the car because it will slow down immediately the lights come up.