Listing snapshot
| Spotted | June 2023 |
| Asking price | $14,500 |
| Mileage | 49,000 |
| Listed on | Cars.com, dealer |
| Drivetrain | 3.0-liter Yamaha V6, five-speed manual |
| Status | Ad expired. This page is our archive of the listing. |
We came across this 1989 Ford Taurus SHO on Cars.com in June 2023. A dealer had it priced at $14,500 with 49,000 miles showing. The ad has since expired, but we keep the record here. A first-year SHO with low miles doesn’t come up often, and a real asking price with real photos helps anyone trying to price one.
What this car was
A silver-gray first-generation SHO sedan with the darker gray lower body cladding and factory alloy wheels. From the outside it looks like a regular Taurus, which was always part of the appeal. The paint looks even in the photos, though the old write-up mentioned some sun fading.
Inside, it had light gray cloth sport seats with power adjustment. The carpets, door panels and dash plastics look clean for a car that was 34 years old at the time, with no obvious tears in the seat fabric.
Under the hood sat the engine that made the SHO: a 3.0-liter, 24-valve V6 built by Yamaha, with the long tuned intake runners that fill most of the engine bay. Every 1989 SHO came with a five-speed manual. The listing mentioned some recent work:
- New tires
- Brake work
- A tune-up
- A new windshield wiper assembly
Was $14,500 a fair ask?
It was a confident price for a Taurus, but this isn’t a regular Taurus. Most SHOs were driven hard, modified or used up as cheap fast sedans, so clean, stock, low-mile first-year cars are the ones enthusiasts hunt for. The light mechanical refresh helped. On the other side, it was a dealer price, and a buyer would want records for the timing belt and other big-ticket maintenance before paying it.
A little Taurus SHO history
SHO stands for Super High Output. Ford added it to the Taurus range for 1989, using a Yamaha-built DOHC V6 that turned a family sedan into one of the quickest American four-doors of its day. An automatic only arrived in 1993, paired with a 3.2-liter version of the engine. The SHO ran through three generations, ending after 1999, and the name returned on the Taurus for 2010.
More cars from the archive
- Every Ford Taurus SHO we’ve spotted, with asking prices
- 1990 Ford Taurus SHO, another Ford Taurus
- 1993 Ford Taurus SHO, another Ford Taurus
- 1989 Ford Taurus GL, another Ford Taurus
- 2003 Ford Taurus SE, another Ford Taurus
