This week, a veritable icon of the American automotive landscape will pass into the annals of history. The Ford Taurus, which at one time was considered a revolutionary vehicle for the domestic auto industry and, indeed, the global automotive marketplace, is being phased out in favor of newer, more modern successors in the form of the Five Hundred and Fusion. So why did America’s quintessential midsize sedan not enjoy the same evergreen reputation and appeal as the Camry and Accord?

This week, a veritable icon of the American automotive landscape will pass into the annuals of history. The Ford Taurus, which at one time was considered a revolutionary vehicle for the domestic auto industry and, indeed, the global automotive marketplace, is being phased out in favor of newer, more modern successors in the form of the Five Hundred and Fusion. So why did America’s quintessential midsize sedan not enjoy the same evergreen reputation and appeal as the Camry and Accord?

In a round-about way, one could blame the popularity of the SUV on the Taurus’ decline. When Ford introduced the Explorer for the 1990 model year, sales far exceeded expectations, and the larger Expedition followed shortly thereafter. These two giants soon garnered the lion’s share of research & development resources at the company. In the meantime, the Taurus went essentially ten years with only minor cosmetic updates since its 1986 model-year introduction.

But when Ford introduced the strange egg-shaped 1997 model which tried to re-capture the revolutionary magic of the original, instead the Taurus became a running laughingstock of the automotive critics. Perhaps Ford was hoping the superficial token gestures of futuristic design would hide the fact it was lagging behind its Japanese rivals in engineering, packaging, and quality.

The beginning of the end was probably when the Camry ousted it from first place in 1997 as “Best-Selling Car in America.” But the true story was far bleaker, and much longer in the making. The sad fact is that long before 1997, the Taurus had become a favorite of rental fleets, a low-margin, high volume market segment that can produce artificially-high sales figures. The oddball redesign probably didn’t help matters against the more conservatively-styled Camry and Accord. Once again, from 1997 to the Grim Reaper’s final visit in 2007, the design was essentially unchanged save for a few cosmetic and detail changes to maintain the appearance of “freshness.” In the same time period, the Accord and Camry both underwent ground-up redesigns twice as often, helping them to maintain their market leadership. Ten years between clean-sheet redesigns is an eon in automotive circles, and in the day of CAD and rapid prototyping technologies, totally unacceptable. So it’s really no mystery why the Taurus is being put out to pasture.

Let’s hope Ford has learned its lesson and won’t let the same thing happen with the Fusion and Five Hundred. But I don’t realistically expect either of those nameplates to be around even ten years from now. Neither are bad cars, but neither have the same “wow” factor the Taurus originally did back in the 80s. Well, Ford, I’m waiting…”Wow” me again.

Alternative article:
Ford Taurus Put To Pasture
http://blogs.automotive.com/1003329/miscellaneous/ford-taurus-put-to-pasture/index.html

–Edward A. Sanchez