Introduced in 1985, the front-wheel drive Ford Taurus was a radical change for the company’s North American division. The family sedan featured rounded “jelly bean” styling, FWD and a focus on quality that lead it to become the country’s top selling sedan.
The radical all-new third generation model, unveiled in 1995, took jelly bean idea to its natural zenith, but it was too much and too impractical for the buying public who left it in droves. An emergency redesign in 1999 made the car more palatable, but the name was finally killed off in 2007, and replaced by the square-rigged and not exactly popular Ford Five Hundred.
As part of CEO Alan Mulally’s turnaround of the company, the Taurus badge was revived and applied to a facelifted version of the Five Hundred in 2007.
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News, Reviews, Features
- Ford Taurus production ends in the US, continues in China
- Ford kills Fiesta, Fusion, Taurus in US; only cars left are Mustang, Focus Active
- Ford Taurus, Fiesta and C-Max could be axed in the USA by 2019
- Ford Taurus may be axed in America or imported from China
- 2016 Ford Taurus debuts in China, has super-sized Fusion looks