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QUALITY | 8 out of 10
Expert Quotes:
you'll enjoy these amenities in greater silence, thanks to new baffles in the A-pillars, acoustic liners around the rear wheel housings and shock towers, and improved hood and dash insulators
Motor Trend
Interior materials have been generally upgraded, with lots of soft-touch surfaces, and optional features include hedonistic goodies like massaging front seats.
Car and Driver
improved soft-touch materials for the dashboard and center stack
Automobile Magazine
Designers have also bolted in seats with a bit more support and reworked foam for more comfort, though the buckets are still far from worth writing home about.
Autoblog
comfortable (as long as you’re not in the tight back seat)
Car and Driver
What you might expect from the outside of the 2013 Ford Taurus isn't necessarily what you'll find inside. It looks like (and is) a full-size car; but if you're very tall, or in the back seat, it might not always seem so from inside.
With a wrap-around instrument panel design and a low, wide center console that firmly splits the driver and passenger sides (and actually, taking up a lot of space), the front seating area can feel more like that of a grand-touring coupe than of a sedan. The standard seats are generously sized and comfortable for long hauls, and the available multi-contour seats (a segment-exclusive feature) in the 2013 Taurus family allow an added measure of adjustability and support.
Three adults can potentially fit in back, although there are some serious limitations. The space in back is wide, though legroom and headroom can be surprisingly tight. To blame is the Taurus' lower, sleeker roofline that it got with a 2010 redesign; it looks better from the outside, but it makes the interior feel more confining and the back seat tighter. Entry and exit in back is harder than it should be, too. The door opening is wide for feet, but the roofline is low, which makes entry and exit a little tougher than need be.
As you might be able to tell from the Taurus' silhouette, trunk space is more than ample. At more than 20 cubic feet, it's one of the few trunks that probably won't having you wish on occasion that you had a utility vehicle.
Refinement remains top-notch within the Taurus, with tight construction, impressive plastics and trims, and a ride that's on the firm side but for the most part quiet and comfortable. Ford has also for 2013 introduced a host of chassis measures that, combined, serve to give the Taurus a more quiet ride with less impact harshness and better isolation from road noise especially.
There's one caution, though: We'd recommend against the 20-inch wheels which, from our driving experience in a Taurus Limited, seem to negate some of these gains in ride and refinement. With them, the ride is a little more abrupt, with more impact harshness, but they bring no noticeable improvement in handling.
Conclusion
Ride and refinement have been improved for 2013, but the back seat remains surprisingly tight.
