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So many of us have had good experiences with the Ford Taurus. I have had both a Sable and a Taurus and between my wife an I got over 400K miles on them combined.

So, what did Ford do? They began their decline by cheapening the design and the product. They took away the classic European look (after all, the line was designed in Germany originally) and gave the Taurus a smiley face and a round dashboard. I wouldn't look at one and even refused to rent one after that. So, Ford, in all of their collective wisdom, came out with the 500. Is that like 200 better than the Chrysler 300? They tried to give it back the European look like Toyota and Nissan are giving their cars now (the extruded bubble shape is long gone) but apparently the 500 lacks everything the original Taurus had, sales.

The 500 is really intended for one notch higher in the market place, IMO, competing against the Toyota Avalon, for example, rather than the Camry. The Ford Fusion is the real replacement for the Taurus. And by most accounts it's pretty good - competitive with the Accord or Camry and nicer than the last model Taurus, IMO.