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Ford also rebadged the Windstar to the Freestar with nearly no changes. More recently, they quit making the Excursion, but extended the Expedition length. Ford also quit using the Escort named, opting for the ZX or something like that.

There is a history of changing the name on well known product lines at Ford.

[Spktyr]

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.