Posted on 10/19/2006 10:56:56 AM PDT by floridareader1
DEARBORN, Mich. - 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. ADVERTISEMENT
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.
To many, the Taurus' death was slow and painful as Ford in recent years abandoned the car that saved the company, focusing instead on high-profit trucks and sport utility vehicles.
"When that thing came out, it was a big deal," said Robert Thompson, professor of popular culture at Syracuse University. "It so much became kind of the template of what a modern car was going to look like."
The Taurus, so futuristic that critics called it a "jellybean" or a "flying potato," made its debut late in 1985, with 1979 gasoline shortages still fresh in consumers' minds. The U.S. economy was just pulling out of a downturn when the scalloped Taurus, initially equipped with V-6 and four-cylinder engines, hit showrooms. It was an immediate hit, with buyers snapping up more than 263,000 in 1986, its first full year on the market.
It became the best-selling car in America in 1992 with sales of nearly 410,000, unseating the Honda Accord just as Japanese imports were starting to take hold in the U.S., and it held the top spot for five straight years until it was supplanted by the Toyota Camry in 1997. Even near death in September, it remained Ford's top-selling car.
Ford also sold another 2 million Mercury Sables, the Taurus' nearly identical twin.
"It was really the last full-size American passenger sedan to dominate the segment," said Jim Sanfilippo, senior industry analyst for Bloomfield Hills-based Automotive Marketing Consultants Inc.
Ford was losing billions in the early 1980s when Taurus was just an idea. Philip Caldwell, chief executive at the time, challenged designers and engineers to come up with a radically different car that would return Ford to profitability.
"We were in terrible condition financially," recalled Jack Telnack, chief designer on the original Taurus who retired in 1998. "He said `Look, we need something really different, really new, that will kind of set the pace out there.'"
Nearly 1,000 people worked on the car, many coming from Ford's European operations. They had spotted a trend that U.S. buyers were moving away from big, cushy cars to better-handling European models, Telnack said.
Engineers met that trend with a stiffer suspension, and they also gave the car more interior room, firmer seats, better ergonomics and more trunk space, said Telnack.
The car also had a lot of new "surprise and delight" features including a cargo net to hold grocery bags in the trunk and rear-seat headrests and heat ducts, said Joel Pitcoff, the Taurus' marketing manager at the time.
It was a hit in market research tests, and sales beat expectations, said Sam Pack, owner of three Dallas-area Ford dealerships who took part in Taurus research.
The car's sales remained strong until it got a makeover in 1996. Although the second version sold well, it never matched the original's numbers.
Still, company officials said the Taurus restored Ford's reputation for quality.
Frank Ribezzo, a lawyer in North Smithfield, R.I., is selling a 1997 Taurus for $950 after running up 210,000 miles. It's his third Taurus, with the first two going over 220,000 miles.
Ribezzo said he buys them used because they don't cost much and, save for the transmissions, they're reliable.
"As far as used cars, their value just goes to hell in a handbasket in a couple of years. But they run," Ribezzo said.
In the late 1990s, the Taurus became symptomatic of Ford's current ills. The company focused on high-profit trucks and sport utility vehicles, leaving the car almost unchanged for 10 years with little advertising support. In the meantime, competitors had copied the Taurus and refined their models, and the Taurus eventually became solely a rental car and fleet vehicle.
"It didn't keep pace. That's the whole story in four words," said Pitcoff.
Ford, left with few desirable cars, was caught flat-footed this year when consumer tastes shifted away from trucks. Sales have dropped 8.6 percent through September, and the company lost $1.4 billion in the first half of the year.
"They put no money into that product for the last several years," Telnack said of the Taurus. "They just let it wither on the vine. It's criminal. The car had a great reputation, a good name. I don't understand what they were waiting for."
The lack of attention to the Taurus has angered workers at the assembly plant in Hapeville, Ga.
Earle Chafim, a 22-year electrician who repairs welding robots, said workers met company goals, yet Ford still decided to shutter the plant.
"The biggest part I hate is we got the No. 1-selling car in the company, we won so many awards for being No. 1, it's a shame. We're still outselling other cars, and we're not even taking orders anymore," he said.
Ray Daniels, a 33-year company veteran, blamed Ford for not updating the Taurus and keeping the name.
"If they'd kept the name, we'd still be here," he said.
Mark Fields, Ford's president of the Americas, said he, too, can't understand how the company strayed so far from the Taurus. He wasn't with Ford when those decisions were made, but said he knows well that Ford's 1980s turnaround was led by appealing products, something he's trying to duplicate now.
"We are very, very focused on what customers want," he said.
When the lights go out on the last Taurus in Hapeville next week, there won't be any ceremony.
"It's not a reason for celebration," said plant manager Dale Wishnousky, proudly adding that workers raised quality levels since Ford announced the plant closure. "There will certainly be tears shed. There's already been tears shed."
I actually sold both Toyota Tundra and the F-150, and think the F-150 is the superior and more luxurious truck.
Consumer Guide and Consumers Reports both put Ford ahead of Tundra. Plus there are a lot more options and more flexiblity with Ford. The sales figures aren't even close, so the market agress with me. To each his own.
Consumer Guide®
Our Best Buys include Chevrolet Silverado, Ford F-Series, and GMC Sierra. Our Recommended picks are Dodge Ram, Nissan Titan, and Toyota Tundra.
Early in the product offering, Ford had a real winner on their hands with the Contour model. Car & Driver magazine had it as one of their Top 10 models for the 1995 model year, its first year in production.
The magazine and online tests spoke highly of the vehicle and all Ford needed to do was make incremental improvements to keep it competitive against Accords, Camrys, and Altimas. My experience with my enhanced (suspension/tire) Contour has been nothing less than great. This vehicle only goes to the shop for oil, filter, brake, and tire changes. It saddens me that I have to look to a foreign manufacturer (the VW GTI) this time around to obtain the enthusiast features I seek.
~ Blue Jays ~
To all the skeptics,
Yeah, the Taurus must really suck. Ford only sold about a zillion of them. There is no denying that within five years of its introduction, almost every car manufactured looked like a Ford Taurus. So much so that I remember one auto reviewer quipping that the redesigned Ford Taurus is the only car on the road that doesn't look like a Ford Taurus.
The Taurus was a homerun that every auto manufacturer dreams about.
Yes, they did, and you got lucky.
But the fact remains that an absurd number of Contour/Mystique had warranty repairs before they were ever sold. My friend went to buy one new and when he pulled on the glove box to open it, the entire dash fell off. That's just one of many examples.
The design was great. The execution by the UAW was abominable.
They sold a billion pet rocks, too. That doesn't mean that the product didn't suck.
The base GL variant of this Ford model was purchased by tons of fleets and rental car companies...folks who are sincerely interested in NOT having breakdowns because that is money out of their bottomline. This midsized vehicle doesn't strike me as any better or any worse than similarly-priced vehicles...with the exception of the Honda Accord which seems without peer in terms of reliability.
My feeling on the "nail in the coffin" for this vehicle was the absolutely miniscule rear accommodations and the extremely loud cabin. The driver and passenger can't speak in a normal tone due to the booming road noise and rear passengers are left completely out of the conversation. Had the Ford engineers addressed those easily-handled shortcomings they would have had a runaway success in consideration of the vehicle pricepoint.
~ Blue Jays ~
I remember that there was an ovals/curves craze in car design at the time. Unfortunately, Ford decided to take the ovals craze to the next level.
>>They sold a billion pet rocks, too. That doesn't mean that the product didn't suck.
Pet rocks were a fad that lasted basically one year. The Taurus lasted 20 years and forced every manufacturer in the world to follow the Taurus' lead for a number of years. If it really sucked it wouldn't have been the best-selling car on the market for all those years.
Part of the reason it was the "best selling car" was because it was stupendously cheap and lots of rental car companies and fleets bought them, even though they were horrible POS.
If you remove the fleet sales, Taurus was only a top seller for a couple of years after introduction - which is why Ford stopped breaking down sales into fleet and normal, to make their numbers look better.
I don't believe a fleet manager or rental car buyer would seek cars with a known poor reliability record because the price was right. Breakdowns are an enormous drain on profits for a rental car company since they also degrade goodwill. The last thing they want is an angry customer stranded at the side of the road.
~ Blue Jays ~
"I believe the biggest majority of Fords are now assembled in Mexico and Canada,.."
You believe wrong.
"And some of the F-series trucks are made in Mexico, anyway, so much for that argument."
Which F-Series truck that is sold in the US is made in Mexico? (Hint: None.) The F150 is made in KC, Norfolk and Dearborn. The Heavy Duties are made in Louisville. The F-series made in Mexico are sold in Mexico and South America.
Actually, they did... but just like the domestic makes, not ALL suffered. But the rates were identical
Ford only builds a small % of their vehicles in Mexico. VERY small.
As for Canada, they build a good number there, but keep in mind the trade laws they had to face when those factories were built (and the fact that the Japanese NEVER had to deal with those trade laws).
The US gov't has done its best at times to hurt US industry.
VERY wrong... but that won't stop people from posting things that aren't true.
Thanks for the back up. Gotta go for now it's miller time. Have a good weekend.
GO TIGERS!
Given that Ford has a very successful 20-year run with the Taurus, had years of favorable reviews, and set the standard for mid-sized sedans for years, I'm sure that all manufacturers would have loved to have made the Taurus. An opinion of "horrible POS" flies in the face of available evidence.
I sure that every manufacturer in the world would love to make a car you would deem a "horrible POS" if it would be a successful as the Taurus. I don't think that they would care one iota that you didn't like it or wouldn't drive it.
The Mexican made F-150 Lobo is sold here in TX.
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