Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Ford Taurus returns?!

J

jeffy.dee-lux

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 19, 2003
721
0
montreal
I thought this was big enough car news to post on a computer web site:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17003763/

The 500 is definitely an underrated car. It debuted with bland styling and power that woulda been plenty appropriate 10 years ago, but that just can't satisfy today's automotive journalists. Now it has an excellent new engine and transmission, new styling that's a bit more interesting (almost even looks like the original taurus), and now a new name that will actually ring a bell for pretty much anybody. Whether that's a good bell or not remains to be seen. Hopefully, for Ford's sake, a familiar name will get people to at least look at the car, cause I think this solid car deserves more attention than it gets. The Ford nameplate is just so tainted and it'll take a couple years of decent products to get people to forget that. Hopefully they can hold out until that happens.
 
American Auto makers are more interested in Spin then the product, perhaps a new name will improve sales, or perhaps all new show rooms will do it, etc etc. American automakers are nuts or at least the management that allways makes millions wether the company is doing good or not is. They dont get it. Quality is job 1.:D
 
I like Ford cars. And with the North American companies suffering you can get really great deals. I bought a focus. I paid $0 down, got 0% financing, and got a $5000 dealership rebate. Amazing deal. The car has run well for three years now and i do alot of driving. Two friends who bought at roughly the same time got a civic and a echo. The echo while cheaper has been a complete lemon. She easily has paid more than me with over her warrenty repairs. The civic has also been in and out of the shop. Although still covered by warrenty it was quite a bit more expenisve.

I'm quite happy and see no reason why my next car won't still be a ford. The quality/cost ratio just seems too good for me to pass up.
 
My Ford Exploder, I mean Explorer, has treated my family very well for three years... and it takes a beating (2 year old, city driving and high mileage) No reason not to drive it into the ground and buy another.
 
A lot of people haven't realized that lately, Ford and other american brands have scored above average on quality studies like the JD Power "problems per hundred vehicles" survey and stuff like that. Not quite up to the Honda and Toyota standards, but pretty close, and way ahead of many european companies, like VW and Benz for example. Despite the obvious improvements, it'll take a while to lose the stigma they built up through the 90's, which is too bad. That just means those in the know can take advantage of the low demand and low prices coupled with decent cars, like i.Feature has.
 
Ford really need to consider spinning off their european arm as a separate company, before its U.S. parent takes them both down.

Just looking at another picture of this Five Hundred/Taurus on Wiki, it looks nothing more than just a facelift.

There's something odd about it's proportions though. I can't figure out if its big wheels and a short wheelbase, or big wheels, a short wheelbase and a very high shoulder line. Or small wheels, high shoulder line, and really small looking seats. Or if it's just huge, and has been designed by a five year old with a crayon.

Slightly blingy too.
 
fords problem is that their localization is all over the place and they are completely designing new cars for every region and don't really know how to save money in the process

and they sometimes have a well known name (like the mustang) and flat out refuse to sell them in other regions

nobody expects them to do boring re-badging like GM (which flat out ruined some brands -> Opel) but a little bit more plattform thinking or how to design a car which brings in customers across regions

playing safe like with the lastest focus isn't going to cut it

edit: from the shape it seems to look like a VW/skoda from like 3 years ago
 
takao said:
fords problem is that their localization is all over the place and they are completely designing new cars for every region and don't really know how to save money in the process
Click to expand...

They do seem to be going back in that direction don't they, yet back in 1993 they manufactured what was the first true world car. The Mondeo.

takao said:
and they sometimes have a well known name (like the mustang) and flat out refuse to sell them in other regions
Click to expand...

That peeved me too.

takao said:
nobody expects them to do boring re-badging like GM (which flat out ruined some brands -> Opel)
Click to expand...

And SAAB. Especially SAAB. :mad:

takao said:
edit: from the shape it seems to look like a VW/skoda from like 3 years ago
Click to expand...

And the rest... when was that shape Passat released? '96/'97???

The Ford Five Hundred never made sense to me, when they had the current Mondeo in it's stable, itself based on the Mk V Passat design (though dynamically massively superior to it's German rival) why they didn't just employ that in the U.S. market is beyond me.
 
That is big new, it means bye bye to the ....

F

Where all new Ford cars were only allowed to be named with a word starting in F. :rolleyes:

Hopefully they reverse the similarly silly thing at Lincoln which killed the names and replaced them with letters.

Just shoot the board members that voted for that sillyness.
 
Very interesting.

I never really knew why they dropped the Taurus name to begin with. Maybe they felt the brand was dying, or they were just idiots, who knows!

I guess we'll see if recycling the name will drive more sales, they definitely need it.
 
The funny thing is that by calling it a Taurus, people like my mum would never buy it, since our Taurus was a piece of junk.

Ford may have sold a lot of Tauruses, but maybe the overall quality of that car drove people to look at offerings from other companies.
 
evilgEEk said:
Very interesting.

I never really knew why they dropped the Taurus name to begin with. Maybe they felt the brand was dying, or they were just idiots, who knows!

I guess we'll see if recycling the name will drive more sales, they definitely need it.
Click to expand...
They can name it whatever they want but if its gonna look like crap or be the same old thing its not going to sell.
 
obeygiant said:
F.O.R.D.

Fix Or Repair Daily
Click to expand...

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I agree completely.

American car companys are going right down the ****ter because of the simple fact that they use cheaper parts in their cars in order to save money. Do you notice how the Chevy Avalanche (just an example) is made of freaking half plastic? And it is a very expensive vehicle too! If you take my fathers Saturn (he got it for free, which is the only reason he owns it) and you look at it from the inside, everything feels so damn cheap. The door handles are plasic, the truck door doesn't feel steady, everything about them is cheap. You might say they are nice when they are new. Every car is. But just wait until 30,000 miles and then BAM you need new suspension. 30k miles later your transmission goes out. It is simply s fact, just do youself a favor and buy a Toyota or Honda. They are such good cars, they last forever.
 
Frankly speaking, I am not a big fan of Ford vehicle. I used to drive Taurus as a company car and I did not like it. For some reasons, I find their cars' seats are not comfortable (gives me a back ache), never-ending chime if I don't put on a seat belt (very annoying; my current GM cars and other Japanese cars shut up after a few chimes), build quality is not as good as Toyota and Honda. I just cannot warm up to Ford's designs (now, it's edgy; a few years ago, it was oval).
The only Ford car I would be interested would be Jaguar models.
 
I've just never been a fan of Ford's vehicles. I find them to be uninventive, and not safe enough to justify how bland they are. Definitely love my Honda...

To me, the Taurus has always been synonymous with "****ing boring". However, it's a decent car for what it's supposed to do. I don't think rebadging the Five Hundred is going to save their butts, though.
 
leekohler said:
My major problem with Ford is, minus a few exceptions, they're ugly as sin. I mean, come on, surely they could do better.
Click to expand...
Fords styling minus the Mustang has just sucked, then they have a habit of taking a European model and dumbing it down until it looks and performs like crap then they say its perfect for the D.A. American buyer:confused: American buyer then goes elsewhere. Ford scratches his head??? Look at what they they did to the T-Bird, F,ugly, Focus doesnt inspire then they went into lets make all models look a like and like crap. Management and all of it should be put on the street and let the workers at ford design the next machines not some corporate suite. Management is Fords biggest enemy just like our Govt in the U.S. seems to be ours.
 
The thing I don't get with some companies is why they "promote" car models? With some companies, a car model that was originally designed as a small car to compete with the likes of the Honda Civic get bigger after a complete redesign. Then it's said to compete with the Honda Accord.

Take the Nissan Altima, Chevy Malibu. I don't know about you, but I remember these cars starting out fairly small. I'm not in North America right now, but I remember seeing photos of an Altima and thinking, "Damn, is that car bigger than a Toyota Camry now? What happened to it being the Corolla's competition? Funny thing is that when companies like Chevy and Nissan make a small car bigger in its next incarnation, they need to come up with ANOTHER model to fill the void in the small-car market they just made.

I feel the same with the Ford Focus. Models should have a very clear agenda. First it was released as an cool/edgy, inexpensive car that's more fun to drive than the Civic Coupe. Yes, Ford always had a sedan version, but people generally remember the original 2 door and 4 door hatchback versions. Now.....it's boring as sin, I don't know what it's supposed to compete with. Maybe it's supposed to blend in with everything else in the "indistinctive" car market, but why would you want your car to not stand out from the rest?

Civics are popular because everyone knows what to expect from a Civic. People know that despite all these years, Honda is going to design a car of a certain size, less than bleeding-edge tech features, and engine power that sits at the "bottom end" of the car market at that moment, all without sacrificing quality, reliability, or fuel efficiency. Making your model clearly defined does help.

What I'm trying to say is that the Ford Taurus/500 is HUGE. :p
 
Zwhaler said:
I can't believe I'm saying this, but I agree completely.

American car companys are going right down the ****ter because of the simple fact that they use cheaper parts in their cars in order to save money. Do you notice how the Chevy Avalanche (just an example) is made of freaking half plastic? And it is a very expensive vehicle too! If you take my fathers Saturn (he got it for free, which is the only reason he owns it) and you look at it from the inside, everything feels so damn cheap. The door handles are plasic, the truck door doesn't feel steady, everything about them is cheap. You might say they are nice when they are new. Every car is. But just wait until 30,000 miles and then BAM you need new suspension. 30k miles later your transmission goes out. It is simply s fact, just do youself a favor and buy a Toyota or Honda. They are such good cars, they last forever.
Click to expand...

Uhuh........ have you seen the latest Avalanche? No more plastic.

07_Chevy_Avalanche_frontangle_st_430.jpg


My family has had 4 GM's in my memory.

1996 Chevy Suburban- No problems. Didn't need a new suspension at 30K miles. Didn't need a new transmission at 60K miles either. Matter of fact it has never needed major repair work on it. One of the lowest maintenance vehicles my family has had.

2002 Chevy Suburban- So far mirroring the '96 one.

2006 Chevy Equinox- So fat at 17K running strong. No major problems besides a bad rear driveshaft.

2007 Saturn Aura XR- I will let you know. So far no problems at 1500 miles.

Sorry, but your closed mindedness and blindness against GM( and Ford) and bias towards Toyota and Honda is disturbing. I am not making excuses for the Big 3 past mistakes. GM at least has gotten the message and you can see it in there latest products like the Lambda's( Acadia, Outlook, Enclave), GMT-900's( Tahoe, Suburban, Silverado, etc), the new CTS, the new Malibu, the Aura, etc. But, of course perception will take time to change. It won't happen anytime soon. GM and Ford earned their current reputation and will take time to heal. They will have a hard time as Toyota and Honda make very good vehicles. Although Toyota is having growing pains as evident by its recalls they are having and the first year problems with the Avalon and Camry. But, that can be expected when a company grows as fast as Toyota is.
 
quagmire said:
Sorry, but your closed mindedness and blindness against GM( and Ford) and bias towards Toyota and Honda is disturbing. I am not making excuses for the Big 3 past mistakes. GM at least has gotten the message and you can see it in there latest products like the Lambda's( Acadia, Outlook, Enclave), GMT-900's( Tahoe, Suburban, Silverado, etc), the new CTS, the new Malibu, the Aura, etc. But, of course perception will take time to change. It won't happen anytime soon. GM and Ford earned their current reputation and will take time to heal. They will have a hard time as Toyota and Honda make very good vehicles. Although Toyota is having growing pains as evident by its recalls they are having and the first year problems with the Avalon and Camry. But, that can be expected when a company grows as fast as Toyota is.
Click to expand...

A couple of things come to mind.
First, the American "Big 3" have been and continue to be obsessed with quarterly profits rather than market share. This mentality saves money short term, which goes into the pockets of the people at the top of the company, and results in long term reliability problems that come back to haunt the company.

Second, the Big 3 use an outdated, top-down management style where decisions are made by people too far removed from the place where quality is installed in a car, such as on the assembly line. Toyota and Honda, on the other hand, solicit input from even the lowliest of their workers, especially those on the assembly line, for ways to improve. There is even a term in Japanese that every worker is trained to understand that roughly translates to: "Continuous improvement". This term is not meant as a fad or to garner quick profits, but is the company's genuine attitide. And it works.

Toyotas and Hondas aren't perfect, and there is no reason whatsoever that Americans can't build a car that is every bit as good as the competition, but it is more about attitude than brains and ability. I am a proud American, and the day that GM makes the best car available, I'll be the first in line.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back