A decent crossover with a bad name

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Performance

Ford’s Taurus X has enough horses under its hood to be competitive, but the engine takes on an unrefined feel and sound at higher revs. There’s adequate grunt available to make general cruising worry-free and on-ramp merges safe and predictable, with the six-speed automatic transmission providing smooth gear changes behind the scenes to help it all get done. There’s no sport or manual mode; although a nice touch, that particular feature is admittedly not something the majority of Taurus X buyers would expect anyway.

Those buyers are likely more interested in fuel economy. The EPA numbers aren’t terribly impressive to begin with, but we were hoping for more than the 15.4 mpg we saw after a week of varied driving. Still, that’s better than what we’ve recorded in full-size SUVs, vehicles from which many Taurus X shoppers will certainly be trading out of.