Ford’s venerable Taurus gets an extreme makeover

DEARBORN, Mich. – Twenty-odd years ago, the Taurus saved Ford. Can it do it again?

Ford will unveil its complete redesign of the car at the auto show in Detroit today and the company is hoping that the new flagship full-size sedan will set the pace for a whole new generation of Ford vehicles – not to mention provide a much needed sales boost in a competitive sector of the market, and at a critical juncture.

Ford limped through a 2008 marked by a 20 percent decline in sales compared to the previous year, nearly $9 billion in losses through the third quarter and an increasingly difficult time raising money.

Because of the nameplate’s up-and-down history, the launch is fraught with symbolic import.

It was, after all, the Taurus that single-handedly redefined the sedan in the late 1980s and became the nation’s top-selling passenger car. But it also was the Taurus, starting with an infamous oval-inspired redesign in 1996, that drew intense public scorn and became synonymous with cheap, uninspired manufacturing. Ford finally killed the Taurus in 2006 – only to resurrect it clumsily a year later.

“This was a car that redefined Ford, but later took the company in a very different direction,” said David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research. “Now they’re trying to go back to the way things were done.”

One of a trio of unveilings Ford has set for this week, the new front-wheel drive 2010 Taurus will share a motor, a platform and a base price ($25,999) with the current Taurus. But nearly all the rest of the car has been redone to incorporate styling inspired by Ford’s highly regarded European lineup and to bring in more luxurious features to set the sedan apart from competitors such as the Chevrolet Impala and Toyota Avalon.

The idea, said Derrick Kuzak, head of global product development for Ford, is to create a car with more options – and a higher margin.

The Taurus is one of the top-selling nameplates of all time, for any carmaker, with more than 200,000 purchased in 1986, its first year, and 1 million by 1989.

The nation was enamored of its aerodynamic design, innovative features such as a wrap-around dash with new controls that could be identified by feel, keeping the driver’s eyes on the road, and by 1992, Ford was selling more than 420,000 a year. That made it the No. 1 sedan in the country and prompted analysts to suggest that the car had saved Ford from bankruptcy.

By the mid-1990s, however, Ford’s focus had shifted to highly profitable trucks and sport utility vehicles, and its redesign of the Taurus for the 1996 model year was a disaster. It was regarded not only as unattractive, but also cheaply made.

The next year, Taurus relinquished its sedan leadership to the Toyota Camry, which has held the position since.

Enter the new Taurus. Originally slated for the 2011 model year, the redesign was accelerated under pressure from company brass, a process sped along by a new computerized design process that cut 12 months off development.