Regular Tauruses were pretty much crap, but I had a Taurus SHO (Super High Output) with the aluminum Yamaha engine and a five-speed manual transmission that was a lot of fun to drive. That car would really haul...
The Taurus has it's problems but in general it's solid and reliable and most of all DIRT CHEAP to drive if you run up the miles ...
The brake pulse is due to the dual-metal rotors (copper? cored) that dissipate heat better than all steel rotors , unfortunately they tend to pulse badly as the outer steel layer wears off and thins ,, new rotors are only $30 for the solid steel cheapies at the local auto parts store.
The 3.8L motor was too much for the AXOD tranny ,, the best engine is the weakest , the 3.0L pushrod "vulcan" series motor ,, especially if you do the maintenance , compared to the 24V motor alternators starters and water pumps are simple to change out..
Mine is a 3.0l vulcan powered 98SE with 140K , the handling is solid (SE is similar to the SHO in that regard) , the 4 wheel discs with ABS work fine but I too will need rotors next pad change,, no major problems, no rust , only current issue is 1 window motor (rear) that's inop and that's probably just a $3 relay.
As far as the reported paint problems that's been going on with all US made cars since the late 1980's when the new EPA standards for VOC's went into place ,, the foreign built cars still use the better (older) paint formulations as the standards don't apply to them...
The Taurus is a wonderful car in that you don't ever even think about it, the control layout is intuitive , everything works exactly right...
Every car has it's problems ,, some of the best known luxury brands totally s*ck ,,
The SHO was a special car, at the time I was impressed and I don't even like Fords.
Ford killed the SHO the day they deleted the Getrag stick shift.
I'd love to have one of the originals.