Background: This was our family car for a couple of years. It is a 1997 Taurus SHO, a well-equipped domestic luxury/performance sedan. It has been quite a pleasure to own, but we sold it and bought a SUV (Ford Explorer).

Taurus SHO cars: While not widely known, Ford began manufacturing "SHO" (Super High Output) Taurus vehicles in the late 80s with a highly-acclaimed v6. When they changed to the newer body style in 1996, they updated SHOs to a 235 horsepower v8. These motors known to be highly reliable, and put out great horsepower. They are mated to an automatic overdrive transmission (only), as the driving market was moving away from manual transmissions. They stiffened up the suspension (it is an "semi-active" suspension, which will detect driving habits and stiffen or soften the suspension as appropriate), placed larger brakes on the car (front disks are larger, and rear drums are replaced with disk), and equipped the car with almost every option. For more information on SHOs, visit the SHOShop, SHOClub, or a review at The Auto Channel.

The only modifications I performed on the car were replacing the stock brakes with SHOShop brakes all the way around (both rotors and pads), which did seem to resist warping a little better than stock, but not much. Other than that, this car remained pretty much stock as a daily driver.

My biggest gripe about this car was the lack of resale value. The SHOs' values have dropped off a cliff. I guess it's because it's a Taurus. However, we did enjoy the car while we had it.