RIP Ford Taurus

"Sometime next week, the assembly line at a Ford plant near Atlanta will come to a halt, signaling the end of a family sedan so revolutionary that its 1985 debut changed forever the way cars look, feel and drive.

Say goodbye to the Taurus.

After 21 years and sales of nearly 7 million cars, Ford Motor Co. is giving up on what some call the most influential automobile since Henry Ford's Model T. The Taurus is credited with moving America away from boxy V-8 powered gas-guzzling bedrooms-on-wheels to aerodynamic, more efficient cars with crisper handling."

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-The-Last-Taurus.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Had two station wagons, an '86 model and a '89 one. Good and reliable although the four cylinder (which I didn't own) was grossly underpowered.

And as the article says, once Ford got greedy and focused on SUV's and trucks, they let the "brand" die a slow, painful death.

 

After 21 years and sales of nearly 7 million cars, Ford Motor Co. is giving up on what some call the most influential automobile since Henry Ford's Model T. The Taurus is credited with moving America away from boxy V-8 powered gas-guzzling bedrooms-on-wheels to aerodynamic, more efficient cars with crisper handling."

WTF? Makes no sense whatsoever. The most influential automobile since the Model T?

I think by 1985, one or two americans had already caught on to driving Hondas or Nissans.

 

Poin, I think the writer's point (badly phrased) is that it was, for the Ford Motor Co., the most influential car.

You can't underestimate the influence it had on automobile design after it first came out. It was pretty revolutionary.

 

Geez, what's Hertz gonna stick me with next time I rent?

I read somewhere a while back that they hadn't run one ad for the Taurus in a couple years. The article's right though, when that sucker came out, it was huge, and it made Ford a ton of money. Now I know very few people who buy American cars (as opposed to trucks or SUVs).

 

The writer didn't say no Americans were driving Hondas or Toyotas.
The lede is accurately phrased.

 

You could always tell a Taurus fleet car. They were (up here, anyway), this godawful shade of dark blue--electric blue.

One of my colleagues had a Taurus company car in the mid 90's. Damn thing didn't have power locks or a tape deck. They were stripped down to their bare essentials.

And Ford wonders why they're shitting the bed.

 

Really? I don't get it. I never drove one, but I just assumed it was a knock off of a Honda Civic. What did it bring to the table that a Civic didn't?

And I'm no car buff, but the Ford Mustang was less influential than the Tauras? The T-Bird was less influential?

 

No, it wasn't a knock off of anything. From a design standpoint, it was a breakthrough.

The T-Bird & Mustang were more "niche" cars. The Taurus was designed for the Everyman. Point is, it had a domino effect: the other automobiles followed suit. The whole aerodynamic styling is a direct result of the Taurus design which was frankly, a jaw-dropper at the time.

 

poin:

I would say no on the T-Bird. The classic, stilish T-Bird from 1957 is what people think of but I swear, the T-Bird kept growing and getting bigger to the point where, when I rented one in 1977, it was a full-sized car which bore no relationship to people's image of the T-Bird from 1957.

Am I crazy, or do popular cars seem to always get a little bigger until they bear no relationship to go what they were originally. The Mustang got bigger in the 70s and became more of a plain car until they decided to restyle it.

 

I'll take your word for it, you seem to know what you are talking about. Honestly, before this thread, I've never heard one single person say anything either positive or negative about a Ford Taurus. I just assumed they massed-produced them for rental car companies. I've never even met anyone who drove one.

 

Maybe some of our gear heads can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think in the 90s I read the NASCAR Fords were pretty much Taurus bodies. I remember an article which used graphics which would compare a Taurus on the street to the Taurus racing in NASCAR, with a lot of horsepower.

 

This is a first-model Ford Taurus:



This is what it replaced:



Yes, when it came out, it was revolutionary.