Mmmmmmmm… Taurus
Ford Taurus is the Homer Simpson of cars– or at least that's what Ford's head of product development thinks. Earlier this month in Detroit, Alan Mulally told a seminar a "fabulous" new Taurus is coming that "is the one we should have made originally." MSNBC reports product guru Derrick Kuzak was a bit more direct when speaking to a group of analysts. He showed a slide with Homer Simpson standing above a Five Hundred, along with Superman and Mr. Incredible above smaller drawings of sleeker versions of the Taurus and explained "As you walk from a Homer Simpson design to a Superman design, it's all about millimeters matter. That's only delivered when the engineering team does not dumb down the design because of engineering and manufacturing feasibility concerns." Analysts like marketing prof David Koehler were surprised and encouraged by the Ford exec's newfound candor: "It wasn't a rogue V.P. that was frustrated with the lack of innovation." Hopefully once they've finished polishing the Taurus, they'll turn their attention to the Marge Simpson Focus. [thanks to starlightmica for the link]
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All major car companies focus on profit. Oddly enough, people who invest money like to have a return on it. Let he who doesn't care about his retirement plan returns cast the first stone...
RobertSD: "The designers have been set free. And who set them on their initial path? Mark Fields. I know you’ll hate to hear that." I do hate to hear that and furthermore I refuse to believe something so positive could come at the hands of Mark, I would still be spending $50K a week to fly to Miami on the corporate jet if I hadn't been called out, Fields.
Sleek or not, where are the Taurus buyers going to come from? The car isn't selling now, and hasn't sold worth a hoot (except to rental car fleets) since the late 1990's. How many of y'all have seen any Taurus or Sable ads recently? Ford neglected both of the cars for years, and now isn't any different. Does Ford really believe that ppl will trade in their Camry's and Accords en-masse for a Taurus? It'll never happen.
They'll be coming from the same place that Chrysler got those 300C/Charger buyers from. People didn't start flocking over to CamCords in one day, I don't expect them to flock back as quickly either. Gotta start from somewhere.