Yes, it was sarcasm.
But the new Taurus has a more refined 3.5 V6 that the 500 did not have.
Now whether that makes much difference at all.....
I don’t know.
No, it’s not going to make a difference.
They had the right idea in the first place, get rid of the Taurus nameplate.
*Everyone* in my age group (thirty-somethings) associates “Taurus” with “crap.”
Also, looking at the other cars in the class (bigger-than-Camry sized), almost everyone else has an optional V8, rear wheel drive, a manual transmission, all-wheel drive or some combination of the above for the same price as the FWD/AWD V6-only Taurus.
The Taurus cannot win against the Chrysler 300 or the Pontiac G8.
The 3.5 does make a difference as does the 6 speed.
In fact there are 500 engineering changes, things like overhead lamp switches that do not have tolerance stack up issues and work.
Power steering ratios are different, it steers better and the ride is much better. A friend of mine worked on the rear suspension redesign for the smoother ride and handling, I'll spare you the details why it works.
Look....
The car is is basically a Volvo X90 underneath, It is 5 star crash, it handles well, and now has ample power. It is not the prettiest girl on the block, but it far better than the last generation Taurus was.
The follow on in 2010 will build on these refinements and will probably be much better looking. That one will be a contender for sure.
But you are missing a bigger picture here.
This is not a recommendation but this is what I hear. Ford bottomed at 5 and change and is up around $7 a share again. If you take the one time events out of the 2 Billion+ loss that actually did fairly well compared to loosing 12 billion last year. Add to that a new F150, The "Flex" and a New Lincoln, there is much more "product" than the naysayers claim. And Yes the Verv, New Taurus and updated Mustang in the wings. The point is Mulally is changing the company and it may be on the comeback trail.
And that may finally quell the "found on road dead" types that post here constantly. Then again maybe not, these things are to big conceptually to grasp for their tiny brains....