I was crazy about the new 1996 Taurus/Sable when they came out. I won three art contests in middle school deawing those cars. 1996 is rhe best year to get because they had tons of little surprises and delights inside and out that the 1997-1999 models didn't get as they were progressively decontented year by year to reduce the price. For example, the Duratec cars featured high polished turned down dual exhaust tips, Sable LS featured Lincoln grade leather and an illuminated Mercury logo in the grill, and they all came with glass black painted rear suspension control arms to name a few. But they didn't sell as well as Ford hoped. Everybody says it was the styling. Wrong. It was the price. The base GL/GS started at $19,995 which was super high considering there were still alot of unsold 1995 SE/LX + LS/LTS models on the lots fully loaded with the old larger super torquey 3.8 V6 engines for the same price or less. They were worth the price though because you did get a top notch car loaded with nice touches and the stiffest body in production shy of a Mercedes E Class. Also the 1992-1995 Taurus/Sable were the only midsized cars that got top crash test ratings that could pass the first offset frontal crash test that changed the way cars are constructed to this day. The 1996 models passed it too but did so much better since they were larger and much stiffer. Safety is worth any penny youre willing to spend on it. Too bad they don't make em like they used to, now everything is ridiculously needlessly overpowered, overengineered and overpriced for no reason at all other than massive corporate greed. Henry Ford and Henry Ford II would knock the hell outta the guy they got running the show now for failing to manufacture affordable transportation for every family. That was their starting motto with the Model T that held true until Henry Ford II stepped down. Long lived the good old days of Quality is Job 1. Yes we know about the transmissions. No different than the unreliable units in the Accord, Camry & fwd GM products at the time.
Alot of people didn't like the ICP at first because they were too lazy to read the owner's manual or use common sense. They kept getting the audio buttons mixed up with the EATC HVAC buttons. The latter has buttons colored a different hue to visually distinguish them, still didn't help. The simpler ICP unit they used for the new Escort/Tracer was much easier to use. Still cant figure out why they didn't use it for the new Contour/Mystique/Cougar. I hate those damn Chiclet buttons on the corporate Ford Electronics single DIN head unit.
There was nothing new about the Aerostar for 1996. It got a new transmission though for the 4wd models it was the first 5 speed automatic in a minivan. Killed it in 1997.
