This was my Sable! It has been fun to read everyone's thoughts on the car and all of the nostalgic stories. Thank you Zach for the great review, and it was a pleasure working with you.
You car is quite nice. My blue with blue interior 92 Sable LS wagon is not as nice as your wagon in this vid because the paint is very faded and peeled off on various areas except the left/driver's side. Mine also has similar options as yours except it has the 3.0 V6.
Love it! I just sold a 1993 Ford Taurus wagon with the same 3.8 litre and only 48k miles. If I didn't already have too many cars in the garage, I would've kept it. I miss cars like this. Cushy, roomy, simple, cleanly styled, and no need for fake body cladding or shame for being a wagon.
This car is so clean. The turquoise exterior and green interior are perfect. Green needs to make a comeback, inside and out. It looks so comfortable. These cars were quite a sight when the lightbar was working and you never see these cars any more. Light bars are coming back now thanks to LEDs but it's not the same as a thick bar of warm light across the front. What could be more late 80s/early 90s than a digital dashboard and fuel injection molded into the intake casting? Mercury molded into the bumper cover is 90s too.
I agree with everything you’ve said. It would be so nice to see green return to cars. The late 80s/early 90s aesthetic is also nice to see. So progressive and expressive in a retro-futuristic/nostalgic way. I think Rivian is the closest to the modern LED light bar energy of the Sable.
This Sable had really funky looking front lightbar. It really caught attention back in the 90's. That color is really easy on the eyes, more interesting than white or beige.
Bought the 2nd generation brand new. 97 with the 3.0 v6 in Pacific green with tan interior. My boys would call the 3rd seat in the cargo the Puke seat. It faced the opposite direction. The engine was a dog but a good family hauler.
4:16 I am surprised to see the small square climate control buttons still mostly intact (Max A/C, Vent etc). Most of these got brittle, cracked and disintegrated. You can see the crack starting above the 3 buttons on the left. This car lived a charmed life. Ours had these issues in the late 90's.
My beloved great grandparents had the Taurus version they owned for many years, it was one of the most hideous POS vehicles that I’ve ever seen but it somehow went forever. 😂 The Mercury versions of the Ford vehicles like this definitely look much better, really cool front ends.
Love this review! I have a 95 Taurus SE - one year only trim, final year before the bubble Taurus, 3.8L sedan. It's Emerald green metallic on tan leather with the bucket seats (adjustable side bolsters like the SHO!) and a center console (not the front bench). Mine has to be one of the very last ones with the original head gaskets, although, like this one, mine has just under 60k miles like this wagon. One thing I wish you'd have mentioned is the sound the doors make when they open and close. It's such a wonderfully satisfying mechanical sound and feeling that you simply can't find anymore in virtually any recently built car!
My mother had one of these in midnight blue. I think it was either a 92' or 93' purchased brand new, also a wagon with the rear facing seat. It was a beautiful car and very comfortable but reliability was not its strong suit. I felt like we spent more time in loaner Tempos as something was always wrong with it. My mother ended up trading it in after just a few years. Such a shame, I wish it had been more dependable.
I recently got a 1992 Sable LS wagon from a family member has pretty much every option except leather seats, sunroof, and the front passenger power seat. It's light blue with blue interior and still has it's factory AXOD on it with over 200,000 miles. I've been trying to find a 1986 Ford Taurus LX wagon in medium canyon red but have had no luck with that. Gen 1 models are so hard to find now. I'll enjoy the Sable in the meantime as I try searching. There is a wagon identical to this one in my neighborhood though it has a tan interior.
Color keyed interiors were so far superior to the boring dull drab grey and black which is all we can get today It can't be overstated how radical the Taurus and Sable looked when they debuted in 86.
That is a throwback. These were super popular. My parent's had a base model 1992 Taurus L sedan (manual locks and windows, etc.), and my grandmother had a beige-on-beige Sable sedan. The exterior design has aged pretty well, but it's amazing to see generally how much better affordable, practical cars have gotten over the years. Still such a nostalgic trip for anyone who lived through the 90s. I spent a lot of time in the middle front bench seat and rear seat in both of the aforementioned cars. My parent's had two Ford Taurus options on the lot that were on sale that they were deciding between when they bought theirs...a purple/red on maroon and a gray/blue with gray interior...they went with the latter, lol
pretty sure my aunt had a green 94 3.0 sedan was super nice leather interior , the digital gauges was so cool i was just ga ga over those . i have always been obsessed with fuel economy so i felt like that car was built for me , minus the automatic. my aunts car even had a carphone. unfortunatly the headgasket blew and it still blew after it was fixed . sad . it was a vulcan so probably just a botched job . i always had a bad taste of 3.0 vulcan and taurus sables. but it is cast iron so after a new updated gasket set both 3.8 should be good . in fact i know of some one had a 90s thunderbird withthe 3.8 untill able it was passed around like carpet cleaner with over 250k miles.
When I was in college, I drove a 2001 Sable wagon with every option but the center console and sunroof. It was slow and unreliable but very comfortable and incredibly roomy. It was a turd but I miss it and I'd get another if I needed a cheap beater. I also had a CB in it and a big antenna on the roof.
Ford hit a home run with the first generation Taurus and Sable , and they were as well received in the market as free guns at a prison break. Sometimes it is hard to catch lightening in a bottle twice. Sure enough, the successor generation rated somewhere between weird and just ok. Unlike the Japanese, Ford didn’t jump right in and fix the problem. They chose to stand pat, ride them into the ground as fleet cars.
That was because SUVs became huge and US automakers always chase after the next big thing and let their previous success die for the sake of he next big thing. Huge mistake.
When I worked at at local Ford dealership, one of the sales managers told me he once messed up an order for 30 of these Taurus wagons. Instead of ordering the popular green with tan interior, he accidentally mixed up the interior exterior boxes and ordered 30 tan with green interiors. Luckily he was able to sell most of them to a rental car agency, but there were a couple that ended up getting repainted to a green exterior so they could sell them on the lot.
We had a 1992 Sable sedan before RU-vid ever existed. It was an overall fantastic car, had hardly any repairs, it looked good, had good power and was smooth riding. Miss the old days sometimes...
I had a 1993 sable. But the sedan. It was actually a POS. Had like 75k miles on it. Yeah it was the 3.8 liter and the head gasket was going. Something broke in the suspension driving on the highway . Spun out and smashed into a guard rail. I ended up junking it. Only had the car for 3 months. That was in 2016. Car was a very comfortable ride and luxurious but had too many problems
US: I can't believe it's a WAGON!!!! All of Europe: Wagons literally everywhere. Because they're the best and most versatile body style of car to ever exist! ❤ (And still keeping a low body line, which helps with looks, feel and economy.)
That is one car that just SCREAMS "late-80s/early-90s" to me. Makes me want to get my mom to drive me to the mall to pick up the latest Nirvana CD then go back home and watch the latest episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Great video Zack but you're nostalgic for a period in retrospec and not memory. I grew up in the 80s and let me tell you this was not a spaceship. Even back then it was a grandma car, because my best friend's grandma had 2 Mercury Sable Wagons in a row. Even though it had green digital gauges and power everything, the Sable was long, wide, and soft. Minivans were spaceships to me and they were all so different in the 80s and 90s. The Caravan and Voyager were dominant but the Aerostar, Astro, Lumina APV, MPV, and Previa were all such different takes on minivans. It was peak minivan. In the 80s station wagons were already old, by the 90s station wagons practically went extinct.
Yeah it was available only on the Sable LS for the Gen 2 92-95 models and the flex fuel Taurus GL. Gen 1 Taurus and Sable models of almost all trims depending on the year could get it.
My grandma loved her Taurus wagon. She was mad when they stopped making them. Now she's upset the Taurus gone . Only car she bought since Taurus came out. She got a 2018 now
My mother had a 93 white 3.8 LS Wagon with the digital dash and grey interior. It had a ton of torque (enough to smoke the tires) but no top end breathing with a tractor like red line and it understeered like turns were against the law. Great mileage for the time (27.8 or so overall). It's head gasket let go at 78k ruining the engine and we traded it in for a Pontiac GP GTP. That bean counter decision to save a few cents on an inferior head gasket ran my family away from Fords for life. The Vulcan 3.0 V6 had the same 140 bhp but no torque.
Man, Ford really milked the Taurus/Sable for a good decade. Remember when this can out and asking myself ‘how is the really different from the 1st generation?’
Definitely not turquoise, more of a mint green. I had one that color. Turquoise is more blue. And I’d take the 3.0 all day, they run forever. That 3.8 is trash.
I still remember when these things were everywhere. My Mom's friend had the Taurus wagon version of this Also how does a 30 year old car survive Michigan???
Love this! My first car was a '99 Sable wagon, dark green exterior and tan leather interior. It's fun seeing all of the differences and similarities between the two generations. The dome light and steering wheel are the same, but I think that tan and gray were the only two interior color options by '99. I hope I'm wrong. The trunk floor and latch, and the spare tire side hump, are also similar if not the same. I do find the brake light/rear washer nifty, since the '96+ wagons had a top swing wiper that did not make the best use of the spray that also came from the top.
I owned one. It was a nice wagon all around and the 3.8 litre was full of pep. Unfortunately he is correct about the head gasket problem which is costly to replace. My wagon went through two when I owned it...
What an amazing survivor example! I never really appreciated these vehicles since I've never really been able to get a good look at one. I'm actually in love!
Never in my life would have I guessed you would do one of these. My parents had a burgundy one for years! The oldest memory I have is watching our sable get unloaded off a truck after moving from Texas too Michigan. When I was a kid it was the coolest car ever. I cried when we got rid of it. Someone spun out in the snow in front of my dad and he t boned him.
i had a 95 taurus wagon. best car i ever owned until my 08 lexus, which i'm driving now. that was my salesguy car. i drove it into the ground. when one thing broke on that it all broke. the car seemingly went to shit in one day. it still looked immaculate though.
My parents had a 91, previous generation. It was a navy sedan and it was plenty roomy. We only had it for a little while, my dad get t-boned when he tried to cross and didn't see a car coming on a busy street.
My father had a 1992 Taurus wagon as a company car. Once he was done with it he sold it to my brother, who kept it for another 15 or so years, drove it into the ground.
My family had one and we would Go on the search for hub caps that fell off. He steering wheel locked in place while driving killing the car and almost crashing it.
Learned how to drive in one of those :). Had the rear facing row. So fun. Pretty sure the note on the cup holder was due to the front bench seat/potential for a center passenger. I sat there as a teen and practiced my steering :).
I remember being stuck in the back seat in the summer. Those big windows created a greenhouse effect and the ac never reached back there from the front seat. I was so excited when the head gasket blew and Ford offered my dad full value for a trade on a Windstar.
At least the head gasket was done. Add a transmission cooler and keep the trans fluid changed and it will last. We had a 93 Taurus wagon aka purple slurp. Miss these cars so much.
When I was in elementary school one of my friends mothers had a white one of these. I remember she got pulled over for driving it on the wrong side of the road. I saw it happening.
The weak point on the 92'-95' Ford Taurus's and Mercury Sable's was the automatic transmission. I owned a 94' Ford Taurus sedan. Around 80k miles the transmission started slipping and eventually went out. Other people who owned these vehicles told me the same thing about their transmission going bad around the 70k-80k mile mark.
@@RangerMan2002 The 94' Taurus I owned was used. It was about 2 years old when I bought it from a local dealership in Duluth, GA. Two months after I got it the transmission started doing what I stated in my comment above. Luckily it was still under warranty from the dealer I bought it from. Since the car was just a couple of years old they had to order a new transmission from the Taurus/ Sable assembly plant located in Hapeville, GA.
@@kebabaluba I would expect so. I had a Grand Marquis for a while and knew all the parts that *didn't* interchange with the Crown Vic... It was a short list. With a few odd exceptions, most parts from 1992-2011 could be swapped between them, and even more after 1998. Unfortunately between young kids and work I hardly have the time or energy to change my own oil anymore, but I'm hoping as they get older and more independent I'll be able to get out to the garage more and work on my weird projects, and maybe even have them help a little when it's safe.
