I've owned 4 Taurus's and Sables in that age range. The 1996 to 2001s with the 3.0 V6 get about 24 MPG on the highway at 70MPH. If you live in an area that has lower highway speed limits it jumps to about 27-28 if you stay in the 55-60 mph range. That little V6 isn't very powerful and you can literally feel the AC compressor kicking in and using it does make a differance in mileage at highway speeds.
I believe in 2002 Ford put taller gears in the Taurus (in that time frame sometime). The 2005 Taurus we owned average 24 MPG with every tank of fuel with mixed driving and would get about 28 MPG at sustained highway driving at 70 MPH, at 55-60 MPH it would break 30 MPG. The engine had a differant intake manifold and seemed a bit more powerful even if the rated HP numders didn't show it.
Two things to note, some of the 3.0 2V (Vulcan)engines in the 1996 to 2002 still had head gasket problems. Not nearly as serious as the 3.8 engines and as long as you kept the coolant serviced it wasn't much of an issue at all. In 2003 Ford finally put decent headgaskets in them again.
The other issue is the tansmission. The AX4N transmission is bullet proof as long as you change the fluid once in the while (Ford recomends every 30K). Ford put this transmission in the SHO behind the V8 its a good solid transmission with a little maintenance and will last forever in behind the 3.0 Vulcan engine. The AX4S was only used behind the 3.0 Vulcan engine and is a POS. Ford put both transmissions behind the 3.0 2V engine and the only way to know which the car has is the door code or looking under the car (AX4N or AXOD (AXOD stands for AX4S in the time range) is stamped in big letters on the transmission pan).
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Today's Featured Article - Listening to Your Tractor - by Curtis Von Fange. Years ago there was a TV show about a talking car. Unless you are from another planet, physically or otherwise, I don’t think our internal combustion buddies will talk and tell us their problems. But, on the other hand, there is a secret language that our mechanical companions readily do speak. It is an interesting form of communication that involves all the senses of the listener. In this series we are going to investigate and learn the basic rudimentary skills of understanding this lingo.
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