Cars - Ford Taurus

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	Cars - Ford Taurus

The Ford Taurus (from Latin "bull") is a mid-size car sold by the Ford Motor Company in North America. Introduced in December 1985 as a 1986 model, Ford sold nearly 7 million Tauruses during its 20 years of production. The Taurus also had a Mercury sibling called the Sable. Most Tauruses were built in either Chicago, Illinois (until 2003, until the plant was retooled to build the Five Hundred), or in Atlanta, Georgia.

This model was a bold new step in American automobile design. For the first time in many decades, an American manufacturer was building a world class car, inspired by successful European designs, which were making huge inroads in the American premium sedan market. Ford took a huge gamble in basing its bread and butter car on the 1984 Audi 5000, which in turn was patterned on the radical 1975 Citroën CX.

The car was given a major facelift in 1992 and a major redesign in 1996, followed by two design updates in 2000 and 2004. Between 1992 and 1996, the Taurus was the best-selling car in the United States, losing the title in 1997. During that period, the Ford F-150 remained the country's best-selling vehicle, leading sales along with several other vehicles not classified as "cars".

Introduction and competition

In the 1980s, Ford was in a freefall tailspin. Their build quality was atrocious, and their sales were plummeting. Ford tried releasing new models, like the Tempo, but these were hit with early recalls. Ford needed something, and they needed something fast. They called in Tempo designer Jack Telnack, to create a car that would one-up Chrysler and General Motors while allowing the United States to finally be able to keep up with the imports from Japan and Europe.

Design and development

The Taurus's designers set out to create a car that would appeal to everyone, so they set their goals to take everything bad about American cars and improve it. They set out to correct the primary flaws of American cars: boxy styling, floaty rides, and terrible handling. They tested many imported models . They noticed that they were the exact opposite of the American models, they were sporty, they offered innovations like cupholders, storage trays, bucket seats (almost every American car had a front bench seat at the time), and on top of it all, they were fun to drive.

Ford created some early prototypes of the Taurus/Sable and went out showing the car to everyday people, asking them about their opinions about the car, and asked about to ideas on how to improve it. The early prototypes were not very well-conceived, however.

Ford kept changing the design until it was along the lines of the Taurus that went into production. Along the way, the people surveyed told Ford to add such things as woodgrain trim, and minor touches here and there.

Design differences

The Ford Taurus's design was revolutionary: Its doors curved over into the roof, the back end sat higher than the front, making its aerodynamics better, and the Mercury Sable had a drag coefficient of just .27, making it one of the most aerodynamic cars on the market.

The Ford Taurus started a design revolution that led up to the aerodynamic cars we see on the streets today. While many people argue that the "Aero car" trend was happening in Europe with the Ford Sierra, the cars in the United States were boxy and conservative at the time of the Taurus's release.

The Taurus's interior was also a selling point, because it had more design differences than any car on the market. Its dashboard wrapped around the driver, and the doors wrapped into the dashboard, creating the feel that the driver was in a cockpit. The buttons for the power windows and power locks were flat on an inclined part of the door, with a raised end for rolling the window up and a sunk in end for rolling it down, making the buttons easy on women who had long fingernails, and able to be used in the dark or without taking ones eyes off the road.

Pre-release beliefs

In 1985, the Chrysler Corporation issued surveys to predict the success of their upcoming Dodge Dynasty and the redesigned Chrysler New Yorker (both of which wouldn't appear until 1987 for the 1988 model year). According to Chrysler, the surveys predicted that the Taurus and Sable would be hopeless flops, and that the Dynasty and New Yorker would take the sales lead. It turned out to be the exact opposite, with the Taurus/Sable twins selling very well, while the Dynasty and New Yorker needed rebates right from the start because of slow sales. This is mostly because the Sable/Taurus twins offered sleek, new contemporary designs, while the Dynasty and New Yorker used more boxy, conventional designs. Perhaps due to this, the New Yorker and Dynasty were succeeded by new, more radically styled sedans based on Chrysler's new LH platform in 1993.

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Cars - Ford Taurus

Introduction and competition

Design and development

Design differences

Pre-release beliefs

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