Automotive News is reporting that Ford will rename the Five Hundred sedan as Taurus. The change will be announced tomorrow at the Chicago Auto Show.

Is this a Better IdeaTM?

 

Ya... that will solve some of the problems with the car and the company.

Geez, all this will do is cause more confusion.

I can understand bringing the name back, since it was a top seller... (well... over a decade ago, anyway ) but wait for the Five Hundred's replacement to do that.

 

This is the US auto industry in a nutshell. Executives spending their time considering whether or not to rename a car that no one loves after another car that no one loved.

People bought millions of Tauruses (Tauri?) for the same reason they bought millions of Maytags. People would do the same for 500's if there wasn't a million better alternatives.

How about making a practical sedan that people might actually like to drive?

 

The Fusion isn't too bad, actually. And neither is the Five Hundred, though it's extremely bland and has needed something to get people's attention. This name change might be it.

I think it's a (very small) step in the right direction.

 

Agreed.

 

If they were going to 'fix' any name, I would've switched MKZ back to Zephyr asap (and mailed out new badges to anyone that's already bought an MKZ )

I think it's the right idea to bring back the Taurus name, and the Five Hundred is a decent car now that it's got an engine capable of hauling its full-size body around. But the timing of doing it in the middle of the production run is a bit questionable. Perhaps it will go along with the mid-cycle refresh and new motor the car just got.

 

I always saw the Taurus as a car for people that do not care about cars. So marketing to them has to be a serious challenge.

Maybe if they add "recognizable" to "bland and dependable", that will do the trick, but I'd rather focus on a superior product.

I do agree with the opinion on the Fusion, that does seem like a good step. But in the world of 260 hp Accords and Camrys, the big 3 need to step up.

 

Darth, the Taurus was a top 10 seller as recently as 2004, but a lot of that was fleet, so I don't think it negates your point. Nonetheless, I think this is a good idea. Taurus has good brand recognition. There are people out there (non enthusiasts, yes, but they are out there) who "always buy a Taurus" and I think will be more likely to replace their Taurus with a "Taurus" than a 500 - even if it's the same car.

 

It's been a while since I saw an opinion so wrong. People who bought Taurus, liked Taurus, and it was a superior product in it's class.



The volume car market is all about dependable transportation that has alot of value. That's exactly what the top selling cars in the US has been since at least the 70s. These cars are only bland to people like us, who favor hot handling and hot accelerating cars. We make up only about 5 to 10% of the new car market, if that.

Taurus is the last American car that was able to go toe-to-toe with Japanese imports without a big campaign to convince the public. It's also the last American car to sell at volumes that Camrys routinely do and we can only dream of today. Till a couple of years ago, Taurus was made at two high volume factories, and not including the Mercury Sable, sold over 400,000 per year. Compare that to GM's best selling car, the Impala (289,868 last year).

Taurus was killed last summer, and it STILL managed to sell 174,800 cars. There's alot of brand equity in the name that Ford spent over 20 years creating. It's been the American family car, it has a reputation for value, it even had a performance version (SHO) that did quite well as the "Executive Express".

The people who threw the name away (as well as kill off the Zephyr name in favor of MKZ) should at the very least be taken out and flogged.


It's great to see Alan Mullany acting quick to straighten Ford out. This decision happened in less than a month:
http://web.camaross.com/forums/showt...ghlight=taurus

We should also be hearing about the Mondeo coming here soon (before the middle of next year it seems). I understand that's also on a fast track.


BTW: as far as fleet sales go, Taurus did sell alot of cars to government agencies, universities, various state departments, & a large number of corperations as company cars. But Taurus was no more likely to end up a rental car than any other product from GM (which actually cornered the rental market in recent years) or Chrysler (which sold even higher percentages of their cars to rental agencies till the LX cars came out). Even rental agencies couldn't buy up half of Taurus' production till production wound down the final few years.

 

Bet they don't call it a "Contour" this time, though.

 

So this change will coincide with the new nose/grille?

I wish they had seen this coming ahead of time. Obviously Taurus is a valuable name and shouldn't have been dismissed in the first place. I just hope it isn't confusing for Joe Consumer. Just think what sales they might have had if Five Hundred were named Taurus from the onset. For a lot of buyers, they are lost when their car is killed off. They know what that car's about, what its repuatation is and Taurus had a stong one. How many "I would have bought a new Taurus if they still made 'em" sales did they lose?

 

Your emphasis on the past tense seems to validate my opinion rather than contradict it. Perhaps I should have been more clear. Back in the mid-80's the Taurus was damn near revolutionary in the segment that they were aimed at (though never something an enthusiast would care about), and the SHO's were genuinely cool cars. I was referring to the last cars named Taurus that were the gutless, bland, fleet manager's dream.

The Taurus name came to represent a cheaper, less desireable, poorer performing and uglier Camry. Not something I would choose to strengthen my brand with.

What percentage of Taurus sales were fleet over the past 5 years? The fact that it may have been only slightly less than a majority can not be a positive reflection on a model's desirability.

 

The real failing here is that they did not keep pace with the competition after setting the bar.

 

I am glad that Ford may re-use the Taurus name. I've thought all along that they should've kept using it. Personally, I own a 1997 Taurus SHO and have always liked it. It rides nice, has 4 doors for my family, and has a little extra performance to boot. My wife and I bought it brand new and have 109,000 trouble free miles on it. If Ford made another Taurus like it (i.e. performance model), I'm sure we would consider buying one.

My personal feeling is that the previous generation of Ford management neglected the Taurus while they focused the company efforts on SUV's and trucks. I don't know for sure but I kind of felt like they abandoned the SHO model because they didn't want it competing with the then new Lincoln LS V8. Ford walked away from alot of brand equity when the discontinued the Taurus and I for one would be happy to see them return to it.

Brian

 

Over the last 2 years, something like 99% fleet.

Ford has the data, so I'm not going to argue with their decision. But IMO the Taurus name is extremely well known, but not very well regarded.