Bye-bye Taurus

[NickF1011]

So...will anyone actually MISS the Taurus? I sure won't. But, I did learn to drive in a Taurus...well, two actually. We had an 87 and a 93. I took my driving test in the 93. Was a decent car for its time....but good riddance!!! Hello Fusion!! B)

[98shotoy11]

heheeh Pioneer said sho...I MISS mine ALOT!!!! I traded her in on an 04 f150. Here she was....

 

[jason8225]

What's with all the Taurus hatin' :mellow:

[98shotoy11]

uh oh...we woke Jason up :lol: Speaking of sho's.....Jason, did you get yours back together yet? Are you going to the Quaker Steak meet in Sheffield? I' will be there but wont be caravaning. I will be there a day early. My parents live right around the corner.

[buyacargetachec]

Maybe I'm one of the few 30-somethings out there who likes the versatility of a six passenger sedan and the feeling of open space that a column shifter provides? I just rented a Taurus for the first time and drove it for 3000 miles over the holiday. Overall the experience was terrific. The space, economy and comfort were great. The flip and fold console was very handy (Ford engineers some of the best setups for front cupholders). Sure, the dead pedal seemed set too far away from the wheelwell which forced me to have my arms stretched too far out for best comfort (maybe engineered like that on purpose to force the driver to sit further from the airbag?). And the suspension was floaty over the larger bumps (I like that) but jittery over the small ones. To me these seem like things that could be refined out of the design. Too bad Ford didn't provide a 6 passenger option for the Fusion or Five Hundred. The new Impala looks especially good now.

[Tico]

For beating back and forth 25 miles each way to work my '04 SES is perfect. Why spend a lot more for a car just to kill it going to work. Mabye I will try a fusion in 5 or 6 years with the Taurus reaches 150,000 miles.

[bec5150]

The space, economy and comfort were great. The flip and fold console was very handy (Ford engineers some of the best setups for front cupholders).

Your kidding, right? The reason the cup holders on the new Tauruses are "right" was because the designers jacked up the ones on the 96-99. I had a 99 and the flip and fold console actually stood at a 45 degree angle when open. The cup holders supported the front of the cup, but not the back. Anytime you pulled away from a stop your coffee spilled. It was a joke. Also, the console blocked access to the cubby area/ash tray. Again, STUPID!! The roof on the sedan on the 96-99 was too low for passengers in the back seat to sit upright. Also, the only controls and displays that were NOT oval shaped in the whole car was the steering wheel. Oval here, oval there, and none of it worked!!

 

By the time Ford "Deovaled" the all new 96 design in 2000, fixed the cup holders, raised the roof, etc; it was too late. Ford took 10 years of success and ruined it in less than three years. Sad, really.

 

As far as room, that was another problem. My old 93 Dodge Spirit had more interior room than the GENII Taurus. The Taurus, for it's bulk and weight, simply doesn't have that much room. It's nothing personal since my father-in-law owns an Oldsmobile that has the same problem.

 

The good news is that Ford learned!! The 500 and Fusion are both well designed automobiles with plenty of room and outstanding ergonomics. Let us hope that all of the customers that the last Gen Taurus alienated will give Ford another shot.

[Max]

Also, the only controls and displays that were NOT oval shaped in the whole car was the steering wheel. Oval here, oval there, and none of it worked!!

 

 

Yes, something that I've learned in the past few months after being in the market for a new car. Ford can certainly design a car for Dorks. Much like the oval them on the '96 - '99 Tauruses, you have the new Mustang (great car) but too nostalgic...finally a car for people who collect stamps, and then there's the RX-8...inside and out you have the rotary engine shape as the theme. Sometimes they just take it way too far...and it's unfortunate that great cars like the Mustang and the RX-8 have succomb to the dork's theme.

[ruteger]

The primary reason I never really warmed to the Taurus is that the success of the original 1986 model popularized the 'melted jellybean in the rain' look (which had started with the introduction of the 1983 Thunderbird), becoming the domestic auto industry styling standard ever since.

 

This might not have happened had all domestic auto styling taken such a nose-dive from 1973-1985 (thanks in large part to US govt bumper requirements) and Ford's designers, in searching for a new design direction, latched onto the styling of the 1983 Audi 5000 (which wasn't a bad looking car) and perverted it into the 1986 Taurus.

 

American automotive styling reached it's pinnacle in the eleven years from 1961-1972 (particularly Chrysler's 'fuselage-styling' from 1968-1972) and the Taurus' initial success took the possibility of returning to that kind of styling yet further away.