Ask the Best and Brightest: Why Is the Ford Taurus Selling So Well?
“Consumers increasingly are noticing that the Ford difference is our great products, our strong business and our leadership in quality, fuel efficiency, safety, smart technologies and value.” So sayeth Ken Czubay, Ford’s vice president of U.S. marketing sales and service. Am I reading too much into it, or is “strong business” a euphemism for non-teat-suckler? Anyway, the spin is the spin, and the facts are the facts. The Blue Oval Boyz report that sales of the new Ford Taurus rose a staggering 141 percent, from last October’s 2517 to this October’s 6076. A big ass one-month jump does not a runaway best-seller make. And these numbers aren’t all that spectacular for a mainstream automaker (especially compared to the original Taurus). But you can’t take that away from them. Or can you? What’s going on here? My guess: Ford’s getting a big lift from GM and Chrysler defectors. Or maybe the Taurus has simply hit the sweet spot, as SUVs continue to fall out of fashion. Fleet sales (hidden as retail, as Ford/Mazda is wont to do) may have a little something to do with it. Could be all three. What’s your take?
More by Robert Farago
Comments
Join the conversation
Okay, so the "new" 2010 Taurus does use the same chassis, motor, and with the exception of rear shock absorbers, suspension as the 2008 and 2009 "old" Ford Taurus. Glad we cleared that up. p.s. - Every automaker makes changes to stiffen chassis' and to reduce NVH. This does not make a new platform. p.s. x2 - Ward's best is pretty much a giant running joke, but that's just my opinion. I'd sure love to hear from those in the know how Ford's Duratec 3.5l is better than Toyota, Nissan, Honda or BMW V6s.
----From a couple quick searches I’ve found the change from the 1998 S-Class to the 2005 S-Class is on par with the change from the 2005 Ford Five Hundred to the 2010 Ford Taurus. So Flashpoint, you are driving a car with a platform essentially from 1998.----- The S550 chassis is spot on. besides making the drive more sporty - which I doubt they can considering the size and weight of the car, I don't think they can improve it much more. Its tuned for comfort and quiet. I nver knocked the Ford on its ride quality. My problem is its interior space isn't as good as cars smaller than it. Even the Camry has better driver spacing. The Taurus cockpit style seating makes the position feel like an egg crate.
ohsnapback, you're missing the point. The platform of the old Taurus was not its weak point. It was the boring styling and cheap look and feel of the old car. The new Taurus completely changes this and I see no major issue with the new Taurus. First where are links to all those articles you claimed to have criticized the Ford 3.5 engine? Second what makes an engine "better"? Fuel economy, power, refinement? Ford, Toyota, Honda, and Nissan V6 engines all come vary close to one another in these respects and they are not different enough to choose a car based on the engine itself. BMW does not make a V6 like you say. Their inline 6 is not a proper comparison, but I think a BMW V8 against the Ecoboost V6 makes more sense (both having similar power and fuel economy). Flashpoint, I'm sure the S-Class chassis is great and there isn't much to improve on. It's much different now designing everything with complex software than it was 20 years ago. The improvement gains are going to be less and less as time goes on. I agree with you Ford should not have picked their ways of styling over interior efficiency as much as they did. But I think they would only do so if there was something to gain from it. The previous Taurus was slightly smaller on the outside but was slightly larger on the inside. Still, the Taurus has more total space than those other cars. I'm reminded of the Honda Accord trunk. It's been the same size since 1998 even though the car has gotten significantly larger on the outside. The Taurus trunk is about 1 and a half times larger.