The taurus had some early transmission problems back in the late 80's and very early 90's. But all in all it was a good car. Stable on the road. Great gas mileage, and comfortable. I never owned one but we rented one a couple years ago for a 2500 mile vacation and we were very pleased.
We really like the Fusion. I think the 500, er Taurus is a scaled up model of the Fusion. I suggest trying one out before criticizing the models. Just as good as toyota camry, but priced somewhat lower. I guess thats why Ford is losing 12 Billion Dollars.
The Fusion is a totally separate all new car, and not related to the Five Hundred at all.
I've posted this before - the Fusion and its corporate siblings the Milan and the Zephyr/MK Z are excellent cars (as reviews and consumer reports agencies have shown). I still don't know why Ford hasn't been promoting the fact that the Fusion has been scoring better than the Camry in multiple venues.
The Five Hundred is a continuation of the old Taurus line and it really is a POS. Most of the Tauri in rental fleets were under 20K old. If you got one with more, you got to see just how badly and just how quickly they decayed.
Not quite,
Fusion is based on the Mazda 6 chassis and the Taurus is based on a Volvo Platform.
I enjoyed my Taurus SHO very much...
If Ford truely wanted to save the company...they would bring back the LTD...with no changes. It was the only 5-star car they ever made. My dad would swear by the series...toughest car ever made...real steel...and they drove forever.