It was Ford's best seller. Simple, ordinary car. Then the "consultants" and young Turks killed it. When they realized their mistake, they tried to sell a rebadged Volvo as a "Taurus". Nope. Nada. No one bought it: neither the car nor the hype.
Did Toyota ever kill the Camry? No. They still make it, and it is as successful as ever.
Third Generation Taurus was a flop, and lost the best selling car title to the Camry.
A major factor was the goofy oval styling. Failing from styling is ridiculous given how important the market research and potential buyer reaction is to the design of these cars.
They do endless amounts of buyer clinics, buyer focus groups, potential customer surveys, dealer clinics, competitor comparisons... and all the rest of it.
And they make major changes to the cars based on that research.
Maybe they need some “quality control” on market research and buyer preferences and consumer reaction.
I worked at Ford during his Administration on the Taurus Program as a Manufacturing Engineering Manager. Great Leader.