Ford Five Hundred to be renamed Taurus

LeftLane News ^ | 6 Feb 2007 | Unknown

[Spktyr]

Ford will announce on Wednesday plans to rename its Five Hundred mid-size sedan "Taurus," according to a report by Dow Jones Newswires. The name change will be announced at the Chicago auto show.

A month ago, a report in BusinessWeek suggested Ford could revive the Taurus name, but it seemed unlikely at the time.

CEO Alan Mulally was quoted as saying Ford should have never dropped the nameplate in the first place. "I havent had time to do the deep dive on why we stopped investing in Taurus, but I'd like to," said Ford CEO Alan Mulally. "The Ford Five Hundred should have been the new Taurus."

In the same report, Ford's new marketing chief Barry Engle expressed a similar sentiment. Asked why Ford doesn't rename the Fusion or the Five Hundred "Taurus," Engle said, "stranger things have happened […] I don't know why we invest hundreds of millions of dollars in a name over 20 years and then walk away from it."

Ford revealed the redesigned 2008 Five Hundred at the Detroit auto show in January. Ford gave the sedan new headlights, taillights, and its three-bar signature grille.

[Spktyr]

OK... so we redesign the 500 to make it a much better car.... then we chase all the buyers away by renaming it "Taurus," which immediately conjures up images of truly awful rental cars. Yeah, that makes sense...

They should have called it the Galaxie. Nobody remembered the "500" nameplate.

[AppyPappy]

Wierd. It was a high price model with AWD. Nothig like a Taurus really.

[fishtank]

AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

You beat me to the "Galaxy 500"!

[rhombus]

The Taurus was extremely popular with the senior-set.

[Spktyr]

Because it was CHEAP, the same reason the rental fleets bought tons of them - not because it was good.

The 500 isn't anywhere near as cheap to buy as the last Taurus was.

[nctexan]

Sounds like Ford has more "identity issues" than the Duke lacrosse accuser's Cousin Jakki.

[fishtank]

[NonValueAdded]

This is bull. _{taurus ... bull ... get it? hehehehehe}

[LIConFem]

Geez, why don't they just name it Edsel and get it over with?

[Brilliant]

Deck chairs.

[Spktyr]

Exactly. The 500-now-Taurus is a V6 FWD or AWD sedan in a market segment that is getting owned by V6 or V8 RWD cars. Even GM is coming to the same realization and has a crash program to make the next Impala RWD.

[reagan_fanatic]

Well, there goes that model. Nobody in their right mind will buy that car after being tarred with a Taurus nameplate.

Real smart move there, Ford. Real smart.

[VA_Gentleman]

Perhaps one of these days Ford and GM will realize that if they design cars that people actually want to drive, that might help with their profitability.

My grandfather has worked at GM for over 50 years; because of that I'm eligible for the GM employee discount on any of their cars or trucks. I've never taken him up on it.

[Alouette]

The Five Hundred is much pricier than the old Taurus. It's a very nice ride, but BORING!

Give me a Pontiac Grand Prix.

[Spktyr]

You can have it, the GP isn't much better, and it still is a scion of the GM House Of Useless And Ugly Plastic Bodycladding.

[KC_Conspirator]

Actually, the Taurus had good sales and became well known as the standard in fleet cars.

[bannie]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1779796/posts

Just give me a car.

:-p

[Kirkwood]

I think it is a pretty smart move - at least relative to all the other not-so-smart moves they made lately. Only old geezers remember the Galaxie mark.

[pnh102]

No way... they should make this car instead!

[taildragger]

You didn't see the 08' @ the NAIAS, not so boring, go test drive one.