Freestyle to become Taurus X. :blah: No joke.

And yes, you asked for it....now you will get it.....Montego to follow Five Hundred's formula and become Sable.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...70207011&imw=Y

It's amazing that a brand like Taurus, which became so damaged toward the end that Ford dropped it, is now going to be used on not one, but two different models.

 

Wow...just, wow...

I questioned the whole 500/Taurus thing. Now? I think there's something in the water at Ford's HQ....

Wow...

 

Ford has been trying to make Mercury more distictive, while still basically rebadging Fords and slapping on a Mercury grille. I think they should have left the names alone over at Mercury.

 

I knew Sable was coming.

But renaming Freestyle the Taurus X.......... I'm stunned at that one.

One thing I did find intresting is that 80% of the car buying public knows what a Taurus is.... but yet only 40% knows the Five Hundred even exists!

I wonder whatever happened to the guy or gal who came up with the idea to drop the Taurus name.

 

They moved him to the SVT group and he started working on the Lightning and the next Cobra.

 

I wonder if naming the restyled Freestyle to Taurus X was an attempt to make the sales numbers look better, like adding Camry to Toyta Matrix.

Is Ford setting up the Taurus name to be a high volume, mostly retail name? I think so.

 

That's on Ford. When is the last time you've seen a Five Hundred commercial? Print ad? Anything? The car wasn't really marketed from the very start.

 

I would disagree. I saw plenty of commercials when it first came out with it's "command seating" and "spacious back seat". I think there were enough commercials, but the name itself is kind of hard to stick in your head. Compare something definate like Taurus to 500 . Pretty easy to see why one would tend to forget.


And I have no idea why they would do that to the Freestyle. If changing names was all a company had to do to stay in business...

 

Chrysler has done quite well with the 300 (though we'd all agree that the 300 is a MUCH less forgettable car). Maybe it was just in this area, I dunno, but Five Hundred ads seemed to be around for a couple weeks after launch...then...nothing.

 

I don't whether to laugh or cry at all of this.

It's like mass panic and chaos over at FoMoCo.

 

Taurus X ??? I would have left that one alone. Sable is just a bad move, Mercury is one brand Ford needs to work to change.

I think Taurus sales will go up, TaurusX/Freestyle will stay about the same, and sales will drop because of the Sable name. Montego is such a better name than Sable.

Please Ford Please don't rename the next gen Focus back to Escort.

 

Next they'll rename Fusion to Contour. And maybe come out with a new micro car and call it the Festiva.

Maybe they should rename the Explorer the Bronco II.

 

The commercials featured classical music -- you probably napped right through them.

 

No they will use Tempo, the public is more aware of that name.

 

Meanwhile, over at Renaissance Center, there's breaking news...

In late breaking developments, the '08 Malibu has been re-named the Corsica. Furthermore, the re-designed '09 Impala will be called the Celebrity on its debut, the G8 will be the 6000, the new Astra will be the SL, SL1 and SL2, and to top it all off, the Solstice will be re-named the Fiero. When asked why, CEO Richard Wagoner stated "we decided to return to our glory days in the 1980s when we held over 40% of the market. I was touring a Detroit Metro junkyard the other day, and came across an '87 Celebrity Eurosport, replete with 14" steel wheels, a 130hp 2.8 MPFI V6, and neat red trim. It seemed like such a great idea..."

In other news, the 2.0 DI turbo 4 is being replaced, even before its debut, with the Quad 4...