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The Ford Taurus proved immediately upon its launch in 1986 that it was what consumers wanted from a midmarket, midsize family car. As we’ve discussed, there were several trims available, and many standalone options that were most often packaged into Preferred Equipment Packages for easier ordering. The first generation Taurus was such a breath of fresh air that it would prove to be the most successful generation ever. Let’s take a look at its impressive sales figures and accompanying pricing information.

The Ford Taurus was still going strong in the latter half of its first generation. It spawned a new Lincoln Continental in 1988, and Ford’s SVO performance division created the SHO sedan for 1989. All models wore slightly revised exterior styling that year, which took a keen eye to notice. But the big news was the SHO, as Ford delayed interior revisions and engineering upgrades until 1990.

The first generation Taurus of 1986 launched in four trim levels and offered a wide array of optional extras. Many examples were equipped with one of Ford’s Preferred Equipment Packages (PEPs), that bundled popular options together at a cost savings and made ordering vehicles easier for dealers and customers.

To keep the (very high volume of) customers flowing Ford updated the first-gen model a few times over its six-year run, and added a sporty variant and Lincoln sedan along the way.

Last time we explored the four trim levels on offer at the launch of the Ford Taurus in 1986. The L, GL, and LX were the mainstays, while the MT5 was the short-lived way to get a manual transmission and the only four-cylinder engine in a wagon format. As noted, options and packages were shifted throughout the early run as Ford figured out what bundling was best suited for each trim. Beyond the standard features and options by trim, there were a bevy of separate à la carte options and grouped features called Preferred Equipment Packages. Let’s dive even deeper into Taurus trim.

We resume our Ford Taurus coverage today and wade into the multi-faceted arrangements that were trim levels and options at its launch in 1986. Ford didn’t have it all figured out right away, and there were small changes made here and there throughout. So while the brochures might have specified this or that feature or appearance as part of a trim, a Taurus on the lot may have been slightly different!

After a lengthy and costly development period while Ford’s finances were nearly underwater, the Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable debuted to great fanfare in 1986. On their exteriors the two models had more differentiation than one might expect, and shared only doors and a roof. There were differences between the two models on the inside, too. Almost unbelievably, Sable owners looked at a different dashboard than Taurus customers.

When the Taurus sedan and wagon launched in 1986, the space-themed event included an upscale sibling that arrived as Mercury’s flagship offering. More aerodynamic looking and with nicer trim, the Sable was intended to appeal to a slightly more daring customer with its design. Let’s take a little diversion into Sable styling.

The development of the new Ford Taurus was the largest project Ford had ever undertaken. At great expense and during a time when the company was in a product, quality, and financial rut, the Taurus was make-or-break. After five years of development, the Taurus was ready for its public debut.

We wade into a new Rare Rides Icons series today, with a vehicle that was heralded as a revolution when it arrived in the mid-'80s. Pitched into a changing family car market, the Ford Taurus was something entirely new from the Blue Oval. Front-wheel drive, aerodynamic, and designed to be family-friendly and practical. It could be selected as a more capacious wagon, a more economical manual, in a sportier trim, and as the slightly more upmarket Mercury Sable. The Taurus was all things to all families, for a time anyway.

Since 1996, OBD-II has been the standard to which all passenger vehicles in the United States must comply. A standardization move that was led by the government of California, OBD-II was a direct replacement for the mishmash of methodology and proprietary information created by automotive manufacturers in the '80s as each of them wrote their own (code) book. It’s been a good 30-year run, but now it’s time for OBD-II to be replaced by a new on-board diagnostic methodology: UDS. Let’s find out about these so-called Unified Diagnostic Services.

The era eventually deemed OBD-I was a difficult one for consumers and independent mechanics alike. Between about 1981 and 1995, manufacturers created their own proprietary vehicle data connections, diagnostic tools, code parameters, DTC numbering, and display methodologies. It created a tangled web that was a relative nightmare for anyone without access to an OEM diagnostic computer. Paper clips in hand, Americans dealt with the system until standardization was forced upon the industry by California’s Clean Air Resources Board (CARB). OBD-II was mandated for 1996 model year vehicles and introduced a whole new problem for the independent and shade tree mechanics and aftermarket parts manufacturers.

We began our deep dive into the history of on-board diagnostics last week. OBD began in earnest on the 1967 Volkswagen Type 3 when it launched with an engine that featured electronic fuel injection. Regulation pushed things forward over the years: Emissions standards and monitoring were required by law, and manufacturers had to implement some sort of system to provide diagnostics. What resulted was a proprietary connector that linked the car to the proprietary OEM diagnostic computer, and it provided real-time information. It would later be called the OBD-I era.

The modern automobile contains many complex systems, and is designed to identify its own issues as they arise via on-board diagnostics (OBD). Since 1996, nearly every potential fault within those systems is coded by OBD-II into one of four areas: Powertrain (P), Body (B), Chassis (C), or Network (U). But it wasn’t always this simple, as each manufacturer created their own Wild West of individual error identification methodologies, codes, and proprietary diagnostic devices. And the entire system is about to change again, as OBD-II is replaced by a more complex framework. Let’s dive in like we just pulled a P0420.

We conclude our coverage of the Jeep Wagoneer today, and close out a series that began in February. Last week, we reviewed sales and pricing details for the SJ Wagoneer in its long run from 1963 to 1991. Today we take a look at the same information for other types of Wagoneers Jeep offered to various levels of success from 1984 through today. It seems that since the '80s, Jeep pretty consistently underestimated the attachment owners had to the SJ Wagoneer, yet overestimated the draw of the Wagoneer name when applied to other vehicles. 

During the first four years the new Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer were on sale, Jeep shifted around engine options but left the exterior unchanged while it worked on branding plans. At its 2026 refresh, the base Wagoneer was eliminated. Soldiering on alone was a revised Grand Wagoneer in regular and L long-wheelbase flavors, stripped of some equipment at lower trims for price parity with the cancelled Wagoneer. The exterior edits also removed Wagoneer branding from the front and rear, as Jeep gave up on the idea of Wagoneer as a standalone sub-brand. Today we’ll talk about a casualty of that abandoned sub-brand idea, the Wagoneer S.

Over the past two weeks we took a deeper dive into the blocky exterior details of the 2022 Jeep Grand Wagoneer and its yacht-violin inspired interior. The Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer would have entered their fifth model year in 2026, accompanied by a refresh. However, Jeep celebrated the occasion by dropping the most popular model of the two.

Prior to the highly anticipated relaunch of the Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer there were several years of delays. Some of those were the fault of FiatChrysler and Stellantis: It seemed they could not decide the product’s positioning internally, nor upon which base the large SUV was to sit. Other delays to launch were global in nature, as the COVID pandemic occurred at the approximate time Stellantis wanted its new product to debut. But the new Ram-based SUVs finally made it to market in 2022, and their exterior styling was (and is) the cause of some debate.

After the unsuccessful relaunch of the Grand Wagoneer nameplate on the ZJ platform in 1993, the storied model name was put on ice. The years rolled by as SUVs of all sizes continued to gain popularity and morph into the adjacent Crossover Utility Vehicle (CUV). This was great news for Jeep, which saw its sales increase throughout subsequent two decades. During that time the Grand Wagoneer name was not entirely forgotten: Various projects aimed at resurrecting a Grand Wagoneer came and went but never moved past the ideation stage. But that was about to change.

Once in a blue moon a vehicle surfaces that’s so rare and special it demands memorialization on the internet. Such a vehicle appeared at auction last week, so today we pause our Wagoneer coverage and revert to the original style of the Rare Rides series: coverage of a singular vehicle. Stopping us in our tracks is a flawless Cadillac Seville Gucci from 1979.

Jeep introduced its new midsize Grand Cherokee in 1993 to great fanfare. The family SUV segment was about to explode, and Chrysler’s offering was right on time. Suburban families eagerly snapped up the Grand Cherokee, but there was an additional and exclusive version on offer as well, and it wore a storied nameplate. The Grand Wagoneer returned!

In our last Jeep Wagoneer installment, we reached the end of the line for the antique SJ Grand Wagoneer. Designed with user-friendly roots and launched in 1963 with relatively few frills, it soldiered on through 1991 and concluded its run as a wood-clad beast of burden with a luxurious interior, a carbureted engine from 1970, and the aura of desirability among its wealthy customer base. Jeep’s new owner Chrysler was eager to recreate the Grand Wagoneer magic, and did so as soon as the Grand Cherokee launched.

We return to the Jeep Wagoneer in 1987 and its 25th anniversary. As the Wagoneer remained on sale in its dated but popular guise, parent company AMC was at death’s door. Under ownership by Renault, AMC was in massive debt as the Renault-AMC lineup of cars proved unsuccessful. Chrysler stepped in during March to purchase AMC-Jeep for a huge sum, assuming all of AMC’s debt from Renault. On June 20, 1987 the American Motors Corp. ceased to exist, and was renamed to Jeep Eagle Corp.

We last left the Jeep Wagoneer at a branching point in 1984, where the SJ Wagoneer Limited was rebranded as the Grand Wagoneer, and the new XJ Cherokee donned some fancy trim and became the base trim Wagoneer and upmarket Wagoneer Limited. AMC’s desired outcome was for the XJ Cherokee to replace the SJ in all ways, and send the old Wagoneer off into the sunset. While that strategy worked for the Cherokee models, buyers were not keen on the expensive and compact XJ Wagoneer. Sales of the new Wagoneer never hit 25,000 in a year and dropped off quickly. Meanwhile, AMC was forced to continue selling the old and outdated but profitable Grand Wagoneer.

“People in the auto industry never go away,” a friend said to me with some bitterness in his voice. “They leave one company—sometimes because they weren’t doing a very good job—then before you know it, they show up somewhere else with a better title.”

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Friend of the site Connie Peters drives the 2026 Nissan Leaf.

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Jeep had its only all-new product debut since the Sixties when it introduced the compact XJ Cherokee in 1984. Designed with packaging and fuel efficiency in mind, the unibody Cherokee was a departure from the way SUVs were traditionally designed. Also launched with the new Cherokee range was an all-new Wagoneer.

Friend of the site Connie Peters drives the Polestar 4 EV.

After a career that spanned more than two decades at CNN and years as an independent producer, David Bernknopf found himself looking for work and found it running an investigative unit at a TV operation in Alaska.

Your Future Machine is your go-to destination for cutting-edge technology, transportation, and innovation. From the latest advancements in electric vehicles and autonomous machines to the future of mobility, and everything in between. We bring you engaging content that connects you with the world of tomorrow. Our mission is to inspire curiosity and excitement by showcasing groundbreaking machines and tools designed to shape the future.

In this episode of the VWIDTalk Podcast, we analyze real-world data from a mountain ski trip in 20+ inches of snow.

In this episode of Spare Parts, we take Jon’s classic British sports car to Eclectic Motorworks for his first-ever dyno day—and the first time the MGB has ever been on a dyno.

Our K-Tuned supported K20 turbo Integra finally hits the dyno and chases that elusive 500whp mark.

The 2026 Honda Pilot Elite levels up Honda’s flagship three‑row SUV with sharper exterior styling, a more premium cabin, and meaningful tech upgrades that family‑SUV shoppers search for.

As we learned in our last Wagoneer installment, the SJ weathered the storm of the first (1973) and second (1979) oil shocks. The latter of which forced AMC to reinstall an inline-six and a manual transmission into its luxurious utility wagon barge, to advertise a lower cost of entry and better fuel economy figures. After more than 20 years, AMC was ready to move on from the Wagoneer entirely, and had a plan to do so which it implemented in 1984. Welcome to the new XJ.

In the late 1960s, Opel had a problem. Not a mechanical one, but a spiritual one.

A South Korean software company is pushing AI-powered kiosks that could eventually replace human sales representatives at your local dealership.

Tyler Reddick won the Autotrader 400 at EchoPark Speedway with his No. 45 Toyota Camry NASCAR Cup Car.

The Ford Starliner and Sunliner are not cars that are often spoken about when discussing Ford’s performance history but they should be.

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Subnado from Waydoo is a compact and versatile water mobility device made for people who love spending time on and around the water.

Chris Russo, SmartCharge Clean Energy Program Manager at Con Edison wants to give you money as SmartCharge incentivizes off-peak charging to balance grid demand and make everybody a winner.

Welcome back to another episode of VW ID Talk! We sit down with Zervan and Taylor, the adventurous duo behind the "Sun Buzz." They are on a mission to travel to the lower 48 states in their VW ID. Buzz, and they are already halfway there.

We return to our Wagoneer coverage today at a turning point in the greater automotive market. The introduction of the lower-priced Jeep Cherokee in 1974 allowed Jeep to push the Wagoneer into more luxurious territory, an effort cemented by the arrival of the Limited trim in 1978.5. A few months later all Jeep vehicles were restyled with a new front clip, bringing the lineup to a more cohesive and modern appearance for the ‘79 model year. But world events during 1979 would change the course of automotive history and pull the rug from under the Wagoneer in some ways.

NEW YORK -- One of the things I love about New York City -- and other big cities, like Chicago or LA -- is the constant motion. Yes, sometimes it can overwhelm. But sometimes, it feels like all the motion isn't just the routine beats of daily life -- it feels like some sort of progress.

The 2026 New York International Auto Show gave off that vibe.

Paul Jacobson, executive vice president and chief financial officer of General Motors, made a telling observation about GM’s current approach to electric vehicles at last week’s  Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s 32nd Annual Automotive Insights Symposium in Detroit.

If you’ve ever spent any time around South American car culture, you’ll know that it’s built on an intoxicating mix of necessity and lunacy.

The 1st generation Ford Fusion. This was a mid size Sedan that was slotted between the Ford Focus and the Ford 500. Ford built this car to compete against the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord.

After their purchase of Jeep in 1970, American Motors began diversification of the newly acquired brand’s product line. The company saw the potential in Jeep for a much broader offering of passenger utility vehicles: Utility wagons, recreational utility vehicles, and trucks. The former two would gradually converge together in nomenclature to be called SUVs, a term Jeep created in 1974 when it marketed the new Cherokee (an SJ Wagoneer derivative). Part of the product diversification was refinement of the Wagoneer platform and experimentation with luxury trims after the Super Wagoneer failed to see much success. In 1978 AMC launched a new luxurious Wagoneer trim, and this time it worked.

There’s of course, a lot of great journalism out there, but if you look at your newsfeed, there’s a lot of crap too.

Coming this summer as a 2027 model, Volvo released yet another battery electric vehicle, the EX60.

The EGO Power+ MB1005-2 electric mini bike brings something familiar and practical to electric riding by using the same 56V batteries found in EGO’s popular power tools.

In our last Wagoneer installment of Rare Rides Icons, we began the journey through the frequent and sometimes confusing updates Jeep made to its flagship utility wagon. Edits to the SJ Wagoneer began in 1964 and continued through the end of its life at the 1991 model year. However, the most important change to the Wagoneer occurred as a side-effect of Jeep’s ownership. We pick up in early 1970.

The Mercury Bobcat. It was Mercury's first subcompact car sold in North America and yes, it was a rebadged Pinto but it gave Mercury an inexpensive model that had good gas mileage numbers.

We're modifying a 2024 Toyota Prius Prime in an attempt to improve the handling and appearance and turn it into a hot hatch.