Posted on 02/06/2007 7:34:06 AM PST by 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.
taurus was and is a very dependable car and why they decided to get rid of it is a mystery....maybe the fact that regular Americans could actually afford it and could keep it for so long didn't set well with the elitist.....
There is a history of changing the name on well known product lines at Ford.
My roommates had two 2002 Tauri that would disagree with you. Most of them were horrible cars that didn't live very long.
The Taurus went away because nobody but fleets and rental agencies were buying them, and because 70% of the target market associated the name with cheap crappy rental cars - PER FORD.
Ford's collapse is what happens when you have feminized wusses runing the show.
Well, the Excursion got taken out back and shot because nobody was buying it and merely offering the model was screwing with their CAFE numbers. People didn't buy it because it wouldn't physically fit in most garages (among other reasons). The Suburban does fit in a garage, as does the Expedition EL.
The Escort went away for a similar reason as the Taurus - the name had a *bad* stigma associated with it. They had an Escort ZX2 they were selling for a while as the last Escort model, but that's finally gone, replaced by the Focus.
The Windstar got renamed because of the "name everything starting with F" thing that started under Nasser, and because it had such a hideously bad reputation.
I'll have to pass this news on to my parents. They have owned several Taurus cars for years and weren't sure what they'd buy now that Ford wasn't going to make them anymore. Personally I never liked the Taurus. I never owned one but I've driven them due to the fact that car rental places usually had them and I didn't care for them at all.
Another sign of how much trouble Ford is in. Had they just made better cars for the last thirty years they wouldn't be in trouble. The Japanese have produced far better cars that were better made, used less gas, drove better, and had better thought out interiors during this period. Now these former Ford and GM customers who were forced to go Japanese because of unexciting or poorly made products are loyal to their new company and it'll take making cars that are clearly better than Toyota or Honda to bring 'em back.
Also increasingly the Japanese are producing better SUVs than Ford and are now catching up and passing Ford in terms of trucks. The company is in real trouble.
"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"
Not so fast. The 500 still competes with cars like the Accord, Altima, and Camry price wise and they are FWD and often 4 cylinder. It also butts heads with things like the Avalon which are FWD. Cars such as the Magnum have sold well but they haven't come close to taking the mainstream crown away from FWD cars.
"Cut them some slack as they fight for survival, there are real people behind those numbers."
Thanks for the support. It is very hard to read a lot of these threads, but usually a FRiend does show up and put a smile on my face.
Is that a '62'?
"I don't get it... I've driven the Ford Mondeo as a rental car in UK dozens of times. It's the European version of a Taurus and drives much tighter than any American version."
The first generation contour was a first generation Mondeo. Not an exciting car. I've driven recent ones in Europe too and agree with you that they are pretty nice and are worlds better to drive than Ford's american sedans. I think the current mondeo would compete well with Accords and Camrys.
I recently drove a rental Freestar while my 'burban was getting some body work.
My G-d! People really pay upwards of TWENTY THOUSAND REAL AMERICAN DOLLARS for a piece of sh*t like that?
It's a wonder Ford is not out of business already!
" I still blame the union for Ford and GM's demise. "
Management deserves a ton of blame for product design. There have been some real dogs that GM and Ford have put on the market.
Oh my gosh. My parents owned that car...
You couldn't get me into a Ford dealership at gunpoint.
The problem is that they called it the "Five Hundred" instead of "500". And yes, I agree, it should have been the "Galaxie 500".
And a convertible version too...
I wouldn't buy a pig called a Taurus.....
Over the years GM and Ford have put so many more models on the market than Toyota and Honda and they've had some great cars too. Do you think Toyota and Honda will or have never put any dogs on the market? Give them time. Actually the 1973 Honda Civic that I owned was one of the worst cars I've ever owned. Nowadays Ford and GM are primarily in the business of providing health care benefits to retired UAW workers. I'd be surprised if they can last much longer without a hefty federal bailout on their health insurance costs.
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