Ford Taurus
The Ford Taurus is an automobile that was manufactured and marketed by the Ford Motor Company in the United States from 1985 to 2019. From 1985 to 2009, Ford marketed the Taurus alongside its rebadged variant, the Mercury Sable. Four generations of the high-performance version were also manufactured from 1988-1999 and 2009-2019.
The original Taurus was a milestone for Ford and the American automotive industry, as the first automobile at Ford designed and manufactured using the statistical process control ideas brought to Ford by W. Edwards Deming, a prominent statistician consulted by Ford to bring a "culture of quality" to the enterprise. The Taurus had an influential design that introduced new features and innovations.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, sales of the Taurus declined as it lost market share to Japanese mid-size sedans and as Ford shifted resources towards developing SUVs. The Taurus was withdrawn after the 2007 model year, with production ending on October 27, 2006. As part of a model line revision, the Taurus and the larger Ford Crown Victoria were to be replaced with the full-size Five Hundred and mid-size Fusion sedans; the Taurus station wagon was replaced with the Ford Freestyle wagon, branded as a crossover SUV. During the 2007 Chicago Auto Show, the nameplates of the Taurus and Sable were revived, intended as 2008 mid-cycle revisions of the Five Hundred. The Freestyle was renamed the Ford Taurus X. For the 2010 model year, Ford introduced the sixth-generation Taurus, marking a more substantial model update, alongside the revival of the Taurus SHO; in 2013, the Ford Police Interceptor Sedan was introduced as a successor for its long-running Crown Victoria counterpart.
From 1985 to 2007, the Taurus was a mid-size car, offering front-wheel drive. Initially built on the DN5 platform, the Taurus became a full-size car in 2007, adopting the Volvo-derived D3 platform, offering front- or all-wheel drive. The Taurus was produced as a four-door sedan through its entire production, with a five-door station wagon offered from 1986 to 2005.
All generations of the Taurus were assembled by Chicago Assembly on Chicago's South Side. Prior to its 2006 closure, Atlanta Assembly also produced both the Taurus and Sable. From its 1985 launch to its initial withdrawal following the 2007 model year, Ford assembled 7,519,919 examples of the Taurus. The fifth best-selling Ford nameplate in North America, the Taurus has been surpassed only by the F-Series, Escort, Model T, and Mustang. Between 1992 and 1996, the Taurus was the best-selling car nameplate in the United States, overtaken by the current title holder in 1997, the Toyota Camry.
Taurus and the quality culture at Ford
The Taurus was the first car resulting from introduction of a new quality culture at Ford. Between 1979 and 1982, Ford had incurred $3 billion in losses. In the spring of 1980, Ford Chairman Donald E. Peterson initiated a new "team" approach to the design and manufacture of automobiles at Ford, that eventually resulted in the creation of the Ford Taurus. Ford's newly appointed Corporate Quality Director, Larry Moore, was charged with recruiting the famous statistician, W. Edwards Deming to help jump-start a quality movement at Ford. Deming told Ford that management actions were responsible for 85% of all problems in developing better cars. Based on Deming's advice, Ford management was charged with primary responsibility for automobile quality. Ford also adopted a quality culture employing statistical process control across all aspects of automobile design and manufacture. The Ford Taurus was the first Ford model resulting from this statistical approach to manufacture. In a letter to Autoweek, Donald Petersen, then Ford chairman, said, "We are moving toward building a quality culture at Ford and the many changes that have been taking place here have their roots directly in Deming's teachings." This new emphasis on quality in the manufacture of the Ford Taurus was reflected in Ford's advertising and marketing. The New York advertising firm Wells, Rich, Greene took on the Ford account in 1979 and Robert Cox was assigned to the Ford account and by the summer of 1981, "Quality is Job 1" became Ford's calling card in marketing. This emphasis on quality was used heavily in marketing of the Ford Taurus.First generation (1986)
The first-generation Taurus was launched in 1985 as a 1986 model to strong fanfare and sales, replacing the slow-selling mid-size Ford LTD. The release of the Ford Taurus was one of the most anticipated ever, mostly because it was a first in car design and also the start of new quality standards for Ford. At the time of the Taurus's debut, Ford had been producing mainly rear-wheel drive cars, and Chrysler and General Motors were offering more front-wheel-drive vehicles up to mid-range including the Chrysler K platform and A-body Chevrolet Celebrity. With the introduction of the Escort and Tempo, Ford was making a transition to front-wheel drive. The Taurus displayed a rounder shape than its contemporaries, often likened to a "jelly bean" or "flying potato", inspired by the design of the Audi 5000 and Ford's European sedan, the Ford Sierra, an updated appearance of a styling approach used in the late 1940s to early 1960s called "ponton" styling. Instead of a grille, the Taurus mainstreamed the smooth grille-less "bottom breather" nose. The aerodynamic design of the Taurus made the car more fuel-efficient, allowing Ford to meet more stringent corporate average fuel economy standard applied by the United States government. The Taurus's success ultimately led to an American automobile design revolution; Chrysler and General Motors developed aerodynamic cars in order to capitalize on the Taurus's success. It also benefitted from sharing a similar appearance to the limited-production Ford Mustang SVO introduced two years earlier in 1983.The first generation was available with either a V6 or an inline four-cylinder engine and came with either a manual or automatic transmission. Like its exterior, the Taurus's interior was ahead of its time, and many features originating from it are still used in most cars today. Its interior was designed to be extremely user-friendly, with all of its controls designed to be recognizable by touch, allowing drivers to operate them without taking their eyes off the road. For example, the switches to the power windows and power locks were designed with one half of the switch raised up, with the other half recessed, in order for its function to be identified by touch. To further enhance this quality, the car's dashboard has all of the controls in the central area within reach of the driver. The left side of the dash curves slightly around the driver to make controls easily accessible, as well as creating a "cockpit" feel.
The interior offered numerous trim levels, from spartan or luxurious, as well as various seating configurations, The base trim level, the L, featured an AM radio and a front cloth bench seat, while the LX, the more luxurious model, came with more numerous features as standard equipment.
The Taurus was well received by both the public and the press. In addition to numerous other awards, the Taurus was made the 1986 Car and Driver Ten Best List and was named the 1986 Motor Trend Car of the Year. Production reached over 200,000 for the 1986 model year and the millionth Taurus was sold during the 1989 model year. By the end of model year 1991, first generation production had reached more than two million.
Second generation (1992)
The Taurus received its first redesign in late 1991 for the 1992 model year, using the same chassis and with revisions to every exterior body panel other than the doors — largely as major facelift to the first generation design, gaining several inches in length and over 200 pounds in curb weight, and marketed solely with V6 engines and automatic transmissions. The Taurus SHO made its return, with an automatic transmission option joining the manual transmission.The interior was also completely revised, gaining an optional passenger-side airbag, which became standard for model year 1994 and becoming the first mid-size sedan marketed in the United States with standard dual airbags.
The second generation become the best-selling car in the United States, maintained the title throughout its duration, and reached a production of 1.4 million before ending in 1995.
Third generation (1996)
For the 1996 model year, Ford presented the third generation of the Ford Taurus. Although not completely new, the chassis was heavily upgraded, becoming the DN101 generation. Alongside the Mercury Sable, the Ford Taurus shared its underpinnings with the redesigned Lincoln Continental and all-new Ford Windstar.In 1996, its starting cost was about $18,000.
In a break from the familiar styling of the previous two generations, Ford had sought to again make the Taurus stand out for buyers of mid-size sedans, giving the vehicle a much more extensive restyling than its 1992 predecessor. Moving away from straight lines, the 1996 Taurus sought to include rounded lines, moving past the cab-forward design of the Chrysler LH sedans. Alongside the Ford Blue Oval emblem itself, the Taurus repeated the shape several places in its exterior; in a controversial design element, the rear window of the Taurus was oval, as were the side windows of the Mercury Sable. To allow better differentiation between models, the Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable were given separate rooflines; Taurus/Sable station wagons were fitted with the doors of Sable sedans.
The interior saw a complete redesign. To simplify production, all versions of the Taurus were fitted with bucket seats; six-passenger versions were fitted with a flip-forward center seat cushion also meant for use as a center console, while five-passenger versions were fitted with a floor shifter and center console. To improve ergonomics, radio and climate controls were centralized on an oval-shaped console on the dashboard.
Reaction to the third-generation Ford Taurus was mixed; Ford found that customers disliked the oval-shaped exterior. For 1996, the Ford Taurus continued as the best-selling car in the United States. At the time, 51 percent of all Taurus sales for 1996 went to rental fleets, in contrast to the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry, of which most sales were to private customers through retail outlets. In 1997, the Ford Taurus lost its best-selling status to the Toyota Camry.
For 1996, Ford Australia imported the Ford Taurus sedan as the "Taurus Ghia" alongside its locally produced Ford Falcon EL, but imports ceased after only one year because of poor sales. Ford New Zealand imported both Ford Taurus sedans and station wagons from 1996 to 1998 with success alongside the RWD Australian Ford Falcon/Fairmont/Fairlane.