RIP Ford Taurus

Well, they were called Tauruses, but the NASCAR models had nothing to do with the production car. The NASCAR ones were V-8, rear-wheel drive and the bodies were just sheetmetal attached to a heavy-duty frame. I doubt there was one part that was shared between the track and production versions.

 

Poin, they were good solid, well made cars from the onset to about, oh, the mid 90's or so. They had nice little touches (like a grocery net) and there seemed to be some intelligence behind the design details.

At the time, the wagons were perfect 'cause my three kids were all in hockey so you could fit all their stuff in. Plus the wagon had a built in roof rack.

They just let the damn thing go to hell in a hand basket.

 

In the mid 80's, North Americans were still driving big honking hulks like the Chrsyler Cordoba:

 

I like the Tauruses (Tauri?) that came out from 1996 on. (Which basically copied the Mazda 929.)

 

I must have lived in a different North America in the '80s. I don't know of anyone who owned a Taurus and I certainly don't even think I saw a Cordoba.

Not including fleet sales, did the Taurus/Cordoba outsell Japanese cars?

 

Taurus' suck. Not as badly as the Tempo, but still a piece of crap vehicle.

My parents owned a Taurus. I eventually owned a Tempo.

I'll never buy a Ford again.

 

Nothin better than a crappy Taurus grill/front headlight set... faded, milky, crappy..

 

My wife's Taurus was totaled by a guy who ran a red light about 12 days ago. It was a good car and it kept her safe in a pretty bad accident. That said, I probably won't be replacing it with another Taurus.

 

About one out of every four cars sold in the U.S. during the 1980s was an import, and Japanese cars made up the largest portion of those imports.
That still leaves you with 75 percent of 1980s auto sales being U.S. cars.

 

Well, unless you don't count the Audi 5000, which it strongly resembled.

The Taurus was a milestone car in the American market. As OTD pointed out, look what it replaced -- that was a representative American car of the time. The Taurus brought modern, aerodynamic styling to middle America, along with handling -- it was very sophisticated for its time. It was a big seller, and from 1992-1995 was the best-selling car in America. Then they redesigned it and it lost popularity; I'd argue because it was hideous.

 

The NYTimes article seems to have disappeared.

I don't have the numbers but I would guess that Taurus was one of North America's best-selling cars '86 to the early 90's. They started getting a little tired after that, mostly because Ford neglected them.

Now, if I had a choice between my Camry and a Taurus from the early days, I'd choose a Toyota in a heartbeat. But the Taurus is still one of the best N American cars I've owned. Did I mention reliable?

 

You're right about the Audi.

You hit on something; it brought contemporary styling to Middle America. Believe it or not, particularly at the beginning, there was a degree of sophistication about them.

Mac, I think part of the problem was they DIDN'T redesign it. They neglected it and the original design started to look old and tired.