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Yes, and Christina says she will change her name to Rosie O'Donnell . . . |
Posted on 02/06/2007 7:34:06 AM PST by Spktyr
Ford will announce on Wednesday plans to rename its Five Hundred mid-size sedan "Taurus," according to a report by Dow Jones Newswires. The name change will be announced at the Chicago auto show.
A month ago, a report in BusinessWeek suggested Ford could revive the Taurus name, but it seemed unlikely at the time.
CEO Alan Mulally was quoted as saying Ford should have never dropped the nameplate in the first place. "I havent had time to do the deep dive on why we stopped investing in Taurus, but I'd like to," said Ford CEO Alan Mulally. "The Ford Five Hundred should have been the new Taurus."
In the same report, Ford's new marketing chief Barry Engle expressed a similar sentiment. Asked why Ford doesn't rename the Fusion or the Five Hundred "Taurus," Engle said, "stranger things have happened […] I don't know why we invest hundreds of millions of dollars in a name over 20 years and then walk away from it."
Ford revealed the redesigned 2008 Five Hundred at the Detroit auto show in January. Ford gave the sedan new headlights, taillights, and its three-bar signature grille.
Apparently Ford did not learn from the "New Coke" fiasco years ago. No wonder they lost so much money.
I've had Fords, GMs, Dodges, Toyotas, and Hondas. Right now I'm driving a Ford truck and I love it. If only Ford and GM could really compete. I think it's less the cars they design and more about the union they support.
And everyone that had to drive one as part of a fleet hated them.
Yours truly included.
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Yes, and Christina says she will change her name to Rosie O'Donnell . . . |
The taurus had some early transmission problems back in the late 80's and very early 90's. But all in all it was a good car. Stable on the road. Great gas mileage, and comfortable. I never owned one but we rented one a couple years ago for a 2500 mile vacation and we were very pleased.
We really like the Fusion. I think the 500, er Taurus is a scaled up model of the Fusion. I suggest trying one out before criticizing the models. Just as good as toyota camry, but priced somewhat lower. I guess thats why Ford is losing 12 Billion Dollars.
It's still FWD/AWD with a front bias, and its still a V6 in a class that's lead by a RWD sedan with a V6 or V8. It's still boring.
My guess is the named it the "Five Hundred" to have names that all started with "F" as in Focus, Fusion, and Freestyle.
There are still a ton of them on the road.
Didn't Ford just rename Crown Victoria.... "Mustang"?
"Powerful like a gorilla, yet soft and yielding like a Nerf ball..."
I was referring to the Five Hundred being renamed Taurus (which, you'll note, doesn't start with "F" ;o) ).
The Fusion is a totally separate all new car, and not related to the Five Hundred at all.
I've posted this before - the Fusion and its corporate siblings the Milan and the Zephyr/MK Z are excellent cars (as reviews and consumer reports agencies have shown). I still don't know why Ford hasn't been promoting the fact that the Fusion has been scoring better than the Camry in multiple venues.
The Five Hundred is a continuation of the old Taurus line and it really is a POS. Most of the Tauri in rental fleets were under 20K old. If you got one with more, you got to see just how badly and just how quickly they decayed.
Get the GXP version for quite a thrill for a 4 door sedan.
Not quite,
Fusion is based on the Mazda 6 chassis and the Taurus is based on a Volvo Platform.
Nope, they backed way the heck off of that plan once people started threatening to burn down the Ford HQ.
i remember my grandpa's galaxie 500. i bought a used ford 500, got a good deal on it and i like it. then again i quit drag racing quite a few years ago.
Exactly. Even the Pontiac Solstice, a very cool looking vehicle (if you can get past the Pontiac front end) could be a winner, but for some inexplicable reason GM cheaped out on the quality of the interior. Hard to fathom.
I rented a Taurus. Hated the name but thought it was better engineered than the GMs I'd always rented. I couldn't understand why Ford stopped producing the Taurus either. I hoped they'd bring it back with a better look and possibly a different name. Funny confessional from Ford exec.
R.L. Polk says otherwise. There are a lot of them on the road, but that's because they sold a lot. Percentage-wise, not so much, most Tauruses that were sold are dead now - something like 20% or so is all that remains, IIRC.
Not good, considering that the Corolla still has 50% of its sold copies still around.
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