The Ford Taurus SHO has a very special place in my heart. I’ve owned numerous Gen 1 and Gen 3 SHOs in the past and I’m still thinking of getting one. I recently stumbled upon this one on Ebay and It seems like a pretty clean example, you can find the listing here. The SHO nameplate stands for Super High Output and debuted in 1989. At the time the Ford Taurus was the legendary vehicle that essentially saved ford due to overall slumping sales. The SHO is the top of the line, high performance version of the standard Taurus!
The engine with the snakes is what makes this car super popular. At 3200 RPM the secondary open and thats when this car really starts to move. Even though it was FWD, this family grocery getter was a potent Mustang killer. It rivaled the BMW 5 Series at the time and from a standing start, it can reach 60 mph in 6.7 seconds. Its top speed is a mind blowing 143 mph. While this today isn’t impressive back then it was the “bees knees” of cars. This example seems like a very clean example with 187k miles on the clock. The gen 1 SHO’s all had manual transmissions and this one is no exception. According to the seller the engine is clean and unrestored, however the Intake seems to have been painted in a weird gold color. The original color of the intake matches the valve cover color of metallic gray. The power-plant in this generation of the SHO is fairly reliable as long as the 60k maintenance interval is completed every 60k. If you’re deciding to purchase this specific SHO, I’d look into it’s maintenance history.
Exterior wise this Taurus SHO looks pretty clean. Has a relatively rust free electric red paint job with a few paint chips here and there. Finer examples have sold for cheaper prices in the past but this cars are getting harder to find in relatively decent condition. Keep in mind this is a 30+ year old Ford product. It seems the rubber bits have lasted pretty well for being how old it is. This car would be a great candidate for a restoration project if you decide that it needs to be perfect.
For a 30+ year old car the interior in this SHO is fantastic! The leather seats on these are notorious for rips and tears this one seems to have kept it together for 180k+ miles. The interior is all original with the cassette player and the optional mini disc player in the dash. The climate control buttons all look nice and fresh however the shift knob can be replaced as it looks weathered. Also some SHO models had a 5 digit cluster and would turn over to 0 after 100k miles. Make sure to get the Carfax report if thinking about buying this car!
The undercarriage seems to be relatively rust free but you can also see upgraded suspension components. The rods you see welded were an aftermarket option to stiffen up the chassis. It seems the previous owner did some tasteful mods to this car.
Overall I like this SHO. Is it worth the $12,500 buy it now price? It’s worth what someone is willing to pay for it. In the past year there have been a couple of really great examples going on Sale for $9-$12k and I’m assuming the pricing for this was based on those previous sales. Whether you buy this or not whoever does we they enjoy the sweet purr of that 3.0 Yamaha V6 for years to come!
