Ford Taurus News
Return of Taurus
Ford has announced it is
bringing back the Taurus and Sable nameplates. It turned out that Five
Hundred, the name picked for the Taurus' 2003 replacement, was recognized by
only 40 percent of consumers. That compared with 80 percent for the
Taurus. The name Sable was recognized by 60 percent of consumers, far
higher than Montego, the name of the vehicle that replaced the Mercury Sable.
-
Newsday,
Friday, February 16, 2007
Ford Taurus, Once A Bestseller,
Hits The End Of The Line
The last Taurus made its way
through the Ford assembly plant in Hapeville, GA, on October 27; since the model
debuted in 1986, sales have totaled 7 million cars
It was Chicago's original "bean"
- at least, according to a competitor. For five years, it rode atop the
passenger car market - the last domestically designed sedan to do so.
Last month marked the end for the car whose annual sales once topped 400,000
cars. The last Taurus rolled off the assembly line in Atlanta, finishing this
year with sales at fewer than 150,000, by Ford's best estimate.
It's the end of an era, too, because a domestic nameplate probably will never
again hold the title of industry's bestselling car - not because Ford and GM,
struggling as they are, won't recover, but because the domestics don't build and
market cars the way they once did.
The name of the game today is profitability and flexibility. Carmakers today
build several different models off the same platform, shifting production to
meet the needs of the moment. As a result, vying for the Number 1 slot isn't
possible.
This doesn't diminish the significance of the Taurus to the Big Three. It took
six years from its introduction in December 1985 for Taurus to become the
bestselling passenger car, topping the Honda Accord.
Its draw? Novel styling, with a rounded look that was called a "jelly bean" by
then-General Motors chairman Roger Smith, and a floating Ford logo that served
as the grille.
The design was a while-knuckle gamble totally different from the square boxes
turned out by GM and Chrysler. And it was a shocker, because a car without a
grille was thought to be a car without a face," said Joe Phillippi, principal
with Auto Trends.
"It took guts," Jack Telnack, vice president of design, said at the time.
Ford uncorked the champagne in 1992 when Taurus took the sales crown with
409,751 units, about 16,000 more than Accord.
To further capitalize on the jelly-bean look, Ford spent up to $50 million on
incentives in 1992 to lure folks into showrooms.
Even if the crown was bought, it gave the domestics, including GM and Chrysler,
something to celebrate - the huge dose of credibility that came from deposing
the Japanese Honda.
Success was more than symbolic.
In 1986, Ford earned a record $3.3 billion, topping GM, with a $2.9 billion
profit, for the first time since 1924.
Taurus also goes out on top, as bestselling car at Ford with sales in the first
nine months of 147,996 units, compared to 140,830 for the Focus. But while it's
tops in sales, it's no money-maker thanks to discounts to daily rental fleets.
"We sold more $150,000 Ford GT exotic sports cars at retail than we did Taurus,"
noted Ford sales analyst George Pipas.
"The domestics have sworn off having to dump cars at discounts into rental
fleets to keep the plants going when sales decline," Phillippi said.
On the other hand, Ford, which has posted a $7.2 billion loss for the first nine
months of this year, is hurting because it no longer has a car like Taurus that
can attract 400,000 buyers.
Taurus, and its cousin, the Mercury Sable, went on sale the day after Christmas
in 1985 to replace the Ford LTD II and Mercury Marquis. Taurus hit the skids
when it was redesigned in 1996 to be even more rounded. Tail lamps drooped as if
the clay on the concept had melted, a design trait that made the car look
smaller than it was at a time when people were demanding bigger cars.
"Taurus didn't keep pace. It started out as a vehicle that broke new ground with
a lot of surprise and delight features - the first car with a cargo net in the
trunk, secondary sun visors, rear seat heat ducts, split fold-down rear seats,
and rear seat head rests," Joel Pitcoff, Taurus and Sable marketing sales manager at
the time, recalled - adding that 1996 was only a cosmetic change to the outside.
"Once you surprise and delight you can't surprise and disappoint," he said.
-
Jim Mateja, Chicago Tribune, Newsday,
Sunday, November 5, 2006
4 New Vehicles Will
Replace The Taurus
The Ford Division is replacing
its highest-volume car, the Taurus, with four vehicles that will sell in much
smaller numbers.
The Taurus, an industry icon that sold 401,049 units in 1996, will be retired,
possibly as early as next year, say supplier and industry sources.
In going to the auto graveyard, Taurus will follow various other high-volume
U.S. cars that have been victims of proliferating nameplates from Japan and
Korea as well as the increased popularity of light trucks.
Meanwhile, new assembly equipment helps Ford and other automakers juggle smaller
runs of more models in the same factory.
The Ford Five Hundred, due this fall, is one of the vehicles that will replace
the Taurus and cover the mid-sized segment of the car market, suppliers say. The
others are the 2005 Ford Freestyle sport wagon, the 2006 Ford Fusion sedan and
an unnamed sport wagon derived from the Fusion for the 2007 model year.
While Ford expects the Fusion to top 200,000 units a year, none of the
nameplates will come close to the 400,000-plus sales Taurus had at its peak.
The Taurus still is a high-volume car, largely because about 60 percent are sold
to fleets. Last year, Ford sold 300,496 Tauruses in the United States, down 9.7
percent from 2002.
With the launch of the Five Hundred and Freestyle at its Chicago assembly plant,
Ford is finally adding flexible manufacturing equipment. Flexible equipment with
computerized controls allows companies to build distinct models on the same
assembly line. So manufacturers can provide more choices to consumers.
Ford is planning about 125,000 units each for the Five Hundred and Freestyle but
can adjust production to favor the vehicle that sells better. The Chicago plant
also makes the Mercury Montego sedan, a sister to the Five Hundred. It
eventually will produce a Mercury version of the Freestyle.
Nearly 20 years after a stellar debut, the Taurus has become a rental car cliche.
The 60 percent of Tauruses now sold to rental and corporate fleets is well above
the 20 percent or so considered ideal, said analyst Doug Scott of NOP World
Automotive in Southfield, Mich.
The huge supply of used Tauruses has torpedoed the car's residual values. Taurus
residuals after 36 months have plunged from 46 percent of the sticker price for
1996 models to 27 percent for 2004 models, according to Automotive Lease Guide,
which tracks values of used vehicles.
The car typically has carried a $3,000 rebate in recent years, although the
current incentive for 2005 models is $1,000.
The industry's retreat from high-volume car nameplates has exceptions. The
Toyota Camry and Honda Accord are perennial top-selling vehicles. Toyota sold
413,296 Camrys in the United States in 2003, and Honda sold 397,750 Accords
here.
The Big Three, particularly General Motors, enjoyed similarly large runs before
the Japanese auto influx gained significant momentum in the 1980s. For instance,
in 1976, Oldsmobile sold 461,951 Cutlasses. In 1976, the Big Three had seven
nameplates that sold more than 260,000 units. Last year, they had two.
The Big Three still produce high volumes of various light trucks. Ford sold
373,118 Explorers last year and 845,586 F-series pickups. GM sold 684,302
Silverado pickups.
- Amy Wilson, Automotive News, Newsday,
Sunday, August 15, 2004
This page was last updated on
02/16/07
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