Rolled off the line in Chicago last week.
Good riddance. It was nothing but a V8-less old Volvo . . . Wholly useless for racers and street machiners.
Sure, Taurus made plenty of coin for FoMoCo over the years. But it was in some respects the anti-car. If Ford's "DNA" (a dumb marketing cliche, to be sure) was set by legends such as the T, the A, the V8[!}, the '49, the original Thunderbird, the Galaxie, the Mustang . . . Taurus added almost ZILCH. It was a tepid, disposable FWD that likely embodied everything Old Henry Ford would have hated about a car.
Perfect for rental car fleets, the Taurus was exceptional at almost nothing. It was unattractive for hot rodding and grassroots motorsports (even in SHO trim). It was mostly useless as a parts source. After the first generation, the styling was (a) weird, (b) awful and then (c) geriatrically generic.
When that dude from Boeing (Alan Mulally) resurrected the nameplate for the automotive orthopedic-shoe-of-a-car in the mid-00s, no one much cared. It was one of Mulally's few missteps.
And now it's gone. Unlamented. Unloved. Unnoticed.
Maybe if and when that clueless Steelcase chump "Buddy" Hackett is canned, someone with some power to change things will figure out that legendary sedans need utility along with a sporting character. (and no that doesn't mean slapping 19"s and TRD badge on a Camry . . . .https://www.caranddriver.com/feature...hat-to-expect/ ) Maybe someone will actually drive a RWD German sports sedan and "get it." Maybe someone will figure out that the Mustang platform is good for more than just sporty coupes (not that a Mustang-based sedan should ever bear the "Mustang" nameplate).
Let's just hope the bland Taurus formula remains dead, dead, dead . . . .
Yes, Taurus is dead . . . and that's good news.
Good riddance. It was nothing but a V8-less old Volvo . . . Wholly useless for racers and street machiners.
Sure, Taurus made plenty of coin for FoMoCo over the years. But it was in some respects the anti-car. If Ford's "DNA" (a dumb marketing cliche, to be sure) was set by legends such as the T, the A, the V8[!}, the '49, the original Thunderbird, the Galaxie, the Mustang . . . Taurus added almost ZILCH. It was a tepid, disposable FWD that likely embodied everything Old Henry Ford would have hated about a car.
Perfect for rental car fleets, the Taurus was exceptional at almost nothing. It was unattractive for hot rodding and grassroots motorsports (even in SHO trim). It was mostly useless as a parts source. After the first generation, the styling was (a) weird, (b) awful and then (c) geriatrically generic.
When that dude from Boeing (Alan Mulally) resurrected the nameplate for the automotive orthopedic-shoe-of-a-car in the mid-00s, no one much cared. It was one of Mulally's few missteps.
And now it's gone. Unlamented. Unloved. Unnoticed.
Maybe if and when that clueless Steelcase chump "Buddy" Hackett is canned, someone with some power to change things will figure out that legendary sedans need utility along with a sporting character. (and no that doesn't mean slapping 19"s and TRD badge on a Camry . . . .https://www.caranddriver.com/feature...hat-to-expect/ ) Maybe someone will actually drive a RWD German sports sedan and "get it." Maybe someone will figure out that the Mustang platform is good for more than just sporty coupes (not that a Mustang-based sedan should ever bear the "Mustang" nameplate).
Let's just hope the bland Taurus formula remains dead, dead, dead . . . .
Yes, Taurus is dead . . . and that's good news.
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