LexFather

End of Ford Taurus closes era

The car's 21-year run notches almost 6.7 million in sales when it halts production in '06.

By Eric Mayne / The Detroit News

The last Ford Taurus will roll off the assembly line in the first three months of 2006, ending a 21-year run that has racked up nearly 6.7 million total U.S. sales.

The news was relayed to employees at Ford Motor Co.'s Atlanta plant in an April newsletter distributed by United Auto Workers Local 882.

With its jellybean shape, the debut 1986 model helped revolutionize American car design and pull Ford out of a financial tailspin. By 1992, it was the country's best-selling car -- a title it held for five consecutive years.

But in recent years, as sales have waned, Ford has been pushing the Taurus out of its retail lineup and into the fleets of rental car companies. It is being replaced in dealer showrooms by the Ford Fusion, which debuts this fall.

The end of Taurus production robs Ford's Atlanta assembly plant of its last product. Production of the Mercury Sable, a Taurus twin, ends this month -- and no new product has been earmarked for the plant, which opened in 1947 and employs nearly 2,000 hourly workers.

"We all know the plans are to stop running the Taurus during the first quarter or 2006," the UAW bulletin said. "Get yourself in a good financial situation and prepare yourself for the worst-case scenario. We are doing all we can."

Ford would not confirm when Taurus production will end and declined comment on Atlanta's future.

Widespread speculation has the automaker updating the site by installing its flexible manufacturing system.

Ford has said it wants up to 75 percent of its North American assembly sites to feature flexible manufacturing capability by the end of the decade.

Already installed in locations such as Dearborn and Kansas City, the system enables simultaneous production of several different products based on two or three basic designs. This saves time and money during model changeover.

Speculation about Atlanta has centered on production of a sport wagon and a pair of Lincoln cars based on the underpinnings of the Ford Five Hundred sedan.

Ford began production of the Five Hundred in Chicago last year after the plant stopped building the Taurus and Sable.

The automaker installed flexible manufacturing technology at Chicago where workers build the Mercury Montego sedan and Ford Freestyle crossover vehicle on the same line as the Five Hundred.

Ford has been discussing future investment in Atlanta with officials in Georgia.

News that the Taurus era is nearing an end was met by mixed reaction.

"It was a good car," said Mike Sereni, general manager of Jorgensen Ford in Detroit. "It still is. People still like it."

While most units are sold to rental car companies, it remains available as a retail offering. More streamlined than its predecessors, the 2005 model is on pace to record just under 187,000 sales for the year.

Where will Taurus buyers go? Sereni said they will migrate to the Fusion, while Taurus owners who are looking to move upscale are more likely to buy the larger Five Hundred.

"We'll be able to satisfy both ends of the market," he added.

The Fusion will share its underpinnings with two other 2006 products -- the Mercury Milan and Lincoln Zephyr. All three will be built in Mexico.

The original Taurus, with its rounded corners, was a stark contrast to the sharp-edged designs of competitive products. Workers at Ford's assembly plant in Chicago were so shocked they thought their jobs were jeopardy.

"I remember when that came out," said Bryon Fitzpatrick, chairman of transpiration design at Detroit's College for Creative Studies. "It was a real departure for an American car with all that oval shaping. I found it annoying."

But the look captured the public's imagination and Ford humbled competitors such as Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. The Japanese automakers had begun to dominate the midsize car segment.

"In some respects, you could almost characterize it as a car that helped save the company," said Joe Phillippi, principal of New Jersey-based Auto Trends Consulting Inc. "It was certainly considered revolutionary at the time. It was exactly what Ford needed."

In 1989, Ford spiced things up by launching the Taurus SHO -- short for Super High Output.

"In the glory days, it had quite a loyal following," said Brent Kanon, owner of Denver-based Pro Street Performance -- formerly I'll SHO U Performance.

Few people will remember Taurus fondly, said Kanon and Fitzpatrick. But Sereni disagrees, adding the car has numbers on its side.

"There will always be a sense of nostalgia about that car because there have been so many generations of buyers," he said.

http://www.detnews.com/2005/autosins...C01-154989.htm

LexFather

On a personal note, the styling and space is what attracted my folks to buying 2. A Maroon LX and then a Black SHO. And guess what, both, TOTAL, POS. I remember them driving the Nissan Sentra all the time b/c the Taurus was always broken down.

And thus we have never considered buying a Ford again.

Also, I have driven past the Taurus plant here in Hapeville thousands of times and knew a person or 2 that worked there. And they might lose they're jobs.

Iceman

In a way it is sad to see the Taurus go. That 20-year sales graph could be extrapolated to the American auto business as a whole. But what the heck is that guy talking about with "generations of buyers"? And I've gotta tell ya, it will be mighty interesting to see what happens to the quality of product rolling off that Atlanta assembly line now that those thousands of hourly workers know their only product is being killed off, with no certain future for them at all. The automakers always spin things like that positively, talking about how much pride the workers take in finishing strong, or how they will be doing their best work now in a frantic effort NOT to get laid off.

NeverSatisfied

Wow. I'm not surprised though...

GenOneGS

My dad always got Taurus's as company cars from 91-97. They were the buggest POS's. He had 3 different ones and they were all in the shop quite a bit.

STIG

i dont see any reason to pick ford taurus over toyota camry or honda accord. heck i would pick kia over ford.

Falcon LS

Interesting. I can't beleive they sold so many of them though...although personally, I think it was one of the worst Fords ever built.

mmarshall

There were actually two SHO's.....and Ford made mistakes with both of them. The first one had a high-output V6 engine and a manual transmission only.......and Ford was forced to develop an automatic for it when it turned out that most of the SHO buyers were in urban areas caught up in traffic jams or for other reasons simply did not want to shift for themselves..
The second SHO in the mid 1990's had a joint Ford / Yamaha 3.4L V8 and was introduced with the automatic that was pretty much necessary by then, but the car was unsuccessful in the long run because, at 225 ft.lbs. of torque, it was not only more expensive ($33,000), but handily dusted off by its cheaper archrival, the Pontiac Grand Prix GTP with the 3.8L, 280 ft.lbs. supercharged V6. So the second SHO was also dropped, never to return...........by then the exploding truck and SUV market had diverted Ford's resource money into other projects.

LexusChris

iTrader: (1)

I will remember the Ford Taurus as the first car I drove when learning how to drive, it was an okay car...

GFerg

My older brothers first car was a 1992 Taurus L in blue. And man, was that a POS. It was horrible. The engine would die out when driving on the highway, forcing to start it while in motion, the rear view mirror always fell off, Alternator gave out numerous times, A/C stopped working(twice), Windshield wipers stopped working in a rain storm(twice), high dash mounted radio controls stopped working, headlights always blew out within weeks, overheated a few times, needed new radiator 3 times, cold air stopped working completely, only hot air blowing out, Alinement was way off, the steering wheel was probably ar 45 degrees just to drive striaght, and many other things. The last few days before my brother donated it to charity I pushed the hell out of the car 3 blocks to my house(it broke down) and the engine started smoking when I pulled into the driveway. Thank god they came and picked it up before it exploded. Besides all the reliablility problems, it was a big roomy car and had more than enough space(samething that SICK pointed out), but it sure put him through hell. He bought it for 3K back in 1998 and probably spent around another 3-5 K to keep it running for 5 and a hlaf years.

He now has an 2004 Solara and couldnt be happier. No problems at all and has 35K on the car(yeah he drives a lot).

Despite all that, I still cant believe that Ford is getting rid of it. It has such a long history and will be greatly missed.

mmarshall

Well, the Five Hundred, which replaces it, has many improvements.....AWD, higher stance for getting in and out of, a CVT transmission on the AWD version for efficiency, better fit-and-finish, better-quality trim....the list goes on and on.

Iceman

Except that the 500 is B O R I N G. At least the Taurus had different styling when it was introduced, and then when it was restyled, standing out in a sea of blandness. I don't think we'll se many 500's on the street at all, except as underpowered rental fleet vehicles.

UDel

I thought the Taurus and Mercury Sable were very nice somewhat futurstic looking cars when I first noticed them in 87-88. They sold more then Camry's and Accords when they were first introduced because they had more room and a v-6 option where Accords and I think Camry's only had wheezy 4 cylinders. The Taurus and Sable had a torquey v-6 available which felt powerful when I rode in a Sable when I was younger. I think the Sable was slightly nicer with its wrap around full headlight treatment. They had alot of room and a smooth ride and okay interiors for the time. I remember seeing them used as cop cars in Robocop. After they changed to the smaller headlights and more conservative bodystlyes I lost interest and they were soundly beat by the competition. I never new anybody who had a good experience with one and they are way past their prime. They were pretty revolutionary when first released and car mags loved them at first.

mmarshall

Demand for the AWD model is running some 4 times what Ford expected....and that doesn't mean rental firms.

Iceman

Source? (I'm not saying I doubt your info, but I'm wondering what the expectations were and what the actual sales numbers are coming in at.)