Once upon a time, the Ford Taurus was the benchmark of the midsize sedan class. The imports hoped to be on its level.
Times have changed, of course. Ford is no longer the juggernaut it once was, the Taurus is nothing more than a nameplate and, worse, on a car that was never intended to be a Taurus to begin with.
Hope lies however, in the fact that Ford’s American management finally realizes that they don’t have to create a new car or direction, but to simply take what has made Ford Europe so successful to our shores.
And what has made the European branch so successful? “Kinetic Design”, more progressive, dynamic, stylish, and unique than anything that has come out of an American Ford studio in years. Impeccable chassis tuning, high quality interior materials, state of the art mechanicals.
Okay, enough with the adjectives. The future Taurus is to be chiseled, with clean detailing, and none of the “bold” styling cues that were supposed to invoke Ford (i.e. 3 bar grill) but never came across as anything less then tacky. Look for the Taurus to adopt Ford’s next generation twin-turbo V-6 as well.
Even better, look for these “Kinetic Design” features to show through in all of Ford’s future models, both hear and abroad, as the automaker adopts a global strategy once again, though hopefully more successfully than in the past.
Our take? The Taurus nameplate has deserved far better than what it has had for the last few generations. Kudos to Ford.
> 2010 Ford Taurus: Mulally gets it
> http://blogs.motortrend.com/6240683/editorial/2010-ford-taurus-mulally-gets-it/index.html
I couldn’t agree more. Ford has a different reputation, deservedly so, in Europe. It’s time that Ford connect the global dots and show Americans what it’s capable of building. I am very excited about the 2010 Taurus. It should go a long way toward reinventing Ford’s image.
Not sure why, but Ford of North America historically thought that buyers here were conservative and boring. They totally misjudged their market. That is a sign of corporate arrogance and blindness. I blame the Ford family for that tradition.