2008 Ford Taurus X Review: 2008 Ford Taurus X (2023)

Ford likes the name Taurus so much he used it on bothfor sedanand its new six-passenger crossover, the 2008 Ford Taurus X. In many ways, the Taurus X is a much more sensible car than a massive SUV. It's more maneuverable, gets plenty of power from its 3.6-liter V-6, and its lower height makes it easy to access. And its folding seats mimic the utility of a minivan.

But the Taurus X also qualifies as the new king of ugly on the road. Forget Azteks and Elements, the Taurus X brings a 1980s wagon aesthetic to claim the new title. Our test car had the Eddie Bauer finish, which gave the bodywork a two-tone treatment, making it look even worse. The car has completely unnecessary large wheel arches that are unfortunately accentuated by the Eddie Bauer paint job. The C-pillar juts out of the rear doors, making it look like the cargo area has been folded up as an afterthought. The Taurus X's nose is disproportionate to the rest of the car, being too long and low. Then there are the large openings under the front bumper that appear to be covered in mesh, but Ford has run out of money for the materials.

If you're in the car, things aren't so bad. The seats are comfortable, the ride is pleasant, and our test car came equipped with a navigation system and DVD player in the backseat. And the new Ford Sync system is an option on the Taurus X. The third and middle row seats fold down, creating a large, flat cargo floor at the rear of the car.

Experience the technology: Cinema Taurus X
For our technical test run of the Taurus X, we settled into the middle row seats to watch a movie on the rear seat DVD entertainment system. This system uses an 8-inch ceiling-mounted LCD screen and player, and the audio is played through the car's speaker system or headphones. We blow up an old Peter Sellars movie,two-way stretch, in the player of our automotive theater experience.

We were seated in the center row captain's chairs, which, while not a full chair, were reasonably comfortable. We had to raise the headrests and recline the seat backs to make them perfect for watching movies. Luckily for us TV junkies, the DVD slot is in the unit, just to the right of the LCD screen, making it easy to switch between movies. Some cars have the stack-mounted DVD slot, so parents can schedule their child's viewing content. With roof mounting, it's possible for someone in the front seat to reach into the back and drop a DVD into the slot.

While this DVD entertainment option doesn't come with a remote, as many do, we had no trouble controlling DVD playback from the buttons on the ceiling-mounted unit. The left side of the unit has a four-way button that lets you choose options from a DVD menu, along with an Enter key for making selections. The right side of the top unit has buttons for play, pause and skip. This division of buttons can lead to fights between siblings, but we are civilized and do not experience fights during our visualization.

We were very pleased with the screen quality: all images on our black and white film were clearly visible, with no pixelation or artifacts. The speakers produced adequate but unspectacular sound. For this movie, we had to turn the volume up to half to hear it well. There are volume buttons on the ceiling mounted DVD unit, but for some reason they didn't want them to work. We had to get to the front of the car to get the volume up. From the front seat, you can lock the DVD player's rear controls, which should be the current equivalent of being grounded. With the LCD down, it doesn't obscure the driver's rear view too much, it just obstructs the long range view behind the car.

in cabins
We found it easy to control the gadgets from the cockpit in the 2008 Ford Taurus X. The large LCD on the center console is a touchscreen, there are redundant buttons on the steering wheel and there's voice command too. A button on the steering wheel labeled PTT activates the voice command system. You can issue commands to control audio and navigation. We found that it recognized our commands well but was tedious to use. There is a voice prompt after each command telling you which commands are available. The voice prompts help you to learn the system and once familiar with it you can skip the prompts and also recite complete command sequences such as "next audio system cd folder" which would move to the next folder of an MP3 . CD.

We don't really like the look of the maps on the navigation system, but the functionality is excellent. You can use voice command or the touch screen, the latter giving you more flexibility in entering destinations. In addition to entering an address, you can choose a location on the map, choose a highway intersection, and even enter a phone number. If the phone number is in the car's POI database, it will do a reverse lookup on the address. This navigation system has two features that we really like. The first allows you to enter multiple addresses and will optimize the route for all of them. The second is text-to-speech, which reads the names of upcoming streets. This feature is particularly useful because you don't always have to look down on the map.

The Taurus X's stereo plays music from its six-disc changer, which can play MP3 CDs, through an auxiliary input on the console and via Sirius satellite and terrestrial radio. Satellite radio's interface can be tricky to use, and it took us a while to figure out how to tune into individual channels. The preset tuning function skips through presets. The MP3 CD interface also has its drawbacks, as it lacks a folder list mode. Instead, you must move forward or backward through folders on a disk.

We like the audio system's DSP screen, which lets you direct the music to the driver, the back seats or the entire car. While it lacks the flexibility of individual fader and balance controls, its simplicity makes it safer for the driver to adjust the sound. The speaker system produces average sound quality. It has a subwoofer, but it doesn't produce booming bass. At reasonable volumes, the audio comes out clearly but without much impact. We found significant distortion at higher volumes.

We've covered the optional DVD entertainment system above. According to the Ford website, Sync was supposed to come standard on the Taurus X with Eddie Bauer accents, but it wasn't present on our test car. Ford has just launched this system and from what we've seen so far it's going to be a very impressive addition, incorporating integration with a Bluetooth cell phone (not currently available) and an MP3 player, in addition to a more complete one. voice command system.

Underhood
The 2008 Ford Taurus X is an easy driver. With 263 horsepower, it gets adequate power from its 3.5-liter Duratec V-6 engine. We liked that it uses a six-speed automatic transmission and found it to shift smoothly, downshifting when necessary. There's no manual shift mode, just idle and a button to turn off overdrive, which prevents the car from going into sixth gear. Judging by the thrust of the engine, you could probably fit six adults in the car or load it up and still drive uphill at a reasonable speed.

The Taurus X exhibited some of the sins of larger vehicles, including a little slack in the steering wheel and a little wobble when cornering. Fortunately, there is only a small amount of play, after which the administration responds. But you're not carving any canyons in the Taurus X: there's a lot of body roll through corners.

Our car was also equipped with all-wheel drive, a trim-level option on the Taurus X. Other versions use front-wheel drive. Combined with Ford's AdvancTrac electronic stability and traction control, the Taurus X has a good mix of the latest road-keeping equipment, although it was designed for slippery conditions with this car. Along with this safety equipment, the Taurus X also covers all seats with some form of airbag, with front side and hood airbags for all seats.

As for fuel economy, the EPA rates the all-wheel drive Taurus X at 15 mpg in the city and 22 mpg on the highway, not very impressive numbers. During our mixed city and highway driving, we saw an average of 17.2 mpg. We would like to be closer to 20mpg. Far more impressive, however, is theCLOSEThe car receives a rating from the California Board of Air Resources, a very good eco-score.

In short
Our test car was a 2008 all-wheel drive Ford Taurus X Eddie Bauer, a trim level that starts at $30,820. Our top automotive tech picks were the $1,995 Navigation System, the $195 Sirius Satellite Radio, and the $995 Backseat DVD Player. These and a few other miscellaneous options brought the total price to $37,110.

While the Taurus X has a pretty practical interior, suitable for transporting people or cargo, we have a hard time getting over the exterior. If you go for the top-of-the-line limited trim, at least you'll get a one-tone paint job that doesn't emphasize the wheel arches as much. On the two smaller models, SEL and Eddie Bauer, you're left with two tones. The devices in the cabin have a few features that put them above average, and when Sync becomes available, the Taurus X's technology will really shine. But given what we had here, theToyota HighlanderIt looks a little better, although it is a little more expensive.