The Ford Taurus is an automobile that was manufactured and marketed by the Ford Motor Company in the United States from 1985 to 2019. From 1985 to 2009, Ford marketed the Taurus alongside its rebadged variant, the Mercury Sable. Four generations of the high-performance version (named the Ford Taurus SHO) were also manufactured from 1988-1999 and 2009-2019.
The original Taurus was a milestone for Ford and the American automotive industry, as the first automobile at Ford designed and manufactured using the statistical process control ideas brought to Ford by W. Edwards Deming, a prominent statistician consulted by Ford to bring a "culture of quality" to the enterprise. The Taurus had an influential design that introduced new features and innovations. As part of a model line revision, the Taurus and the larger Ford Crown Victoria were to be replaced with the full-size Five Hundred and mid-size Fusion sedans; the Taurus station wagon was replaced with the Ford Freestyle wagon, branded as a crossover SUV. During the 2007 Chicago Auto Show, the nameplates of the Taurus and Sable were revived, intended as 2008 mid-cycle revisions of the Five Hundred. The Freestyle was renamed the Ford Taurus X. For the 2010 model year, Ford introduced the sixth-generation Taurus, marking a more substantial model update, alongside the revival of the Taurus SHO; in 2013, the Ford Police Interceptor Sedan was introduced as a successor for its long-running Crown Victoria counterpart.
From 1985 to 2007, the Taurus was a mid-size car, offering front-wheel drive. Initially built on the DN5 platform (renamed the DN101 platform in 1995 and the D186 platform in 1999), the Taurus became a full-size car in 2007, adopting the Volvo-derived D3 platform, offering front- or all-wheel drive. The Taurus was produced as a four-door sedan through its entire production, with a five-door station wagon offered from 1986 to 2005.
All generations of the Taurus were assembled by Chicago Assembly on Chicago's South Side. Prior to its 2006 closure, Atlanta Assembly also produced both the Taurus and Sable. From its 1985 launch to its initial withdrawal following the 2007 model year, Ford assembled 7,519,919 examples of the Taurus. The fifth best-selling Ford nameplate in North America, the Taurus has been surpassed only by the F-Series, Escort, Model T, and Mustang. Between 1992 and 1996, the Taurus was the best-selling car nameplate in the United States, overtaken by the current title holder in 1997, the Toyota Camry.
Taurus and the quality culture at Ford
The Taurus was the first car resulting from introduction of a new quality culture at Ford. Between 1979 and 1982, Ford had incurred $3 billion in losses. In the spring of 1980, Ford Chairman Donald E. Peterson initiated a new "team" approach to the design and manufacture of automobiles at Ford, that eventually resulted in the creation of the Ford Taurus. Ford's newly appointed Corporate Quality Director, Larry Moore, was charged with recruiting the famous statistician, W. Edwards Deming to help jump-start a quality movement at Ford. Deming told Ford that management actions were responsible for 85% of all problems in developing better cars. Based on Deming's advice, Ford management was charged with primary responsibility for automobile quality. Ford also adopted a quality culture employing statistical process control across all aspects of automobile design and manufacture. The Ford Taurus was the first Ford model resulting from this statistical approach to manufacture. In a letter to Autoweek, Donald Petersen, then Ford chairman, said, "We are moving toward building a quality culture at Ford and the many changes that have been taking place here have their roots directly in Deming's teachings." This new emphasis on quality in the manufacture of the Ford Taurus was reflected in Ford's advertising and marketing. The New York advertising firm Wells, Rich, Greene took on the Ford account in 1979 and Robert Cox was assigned to the Ford account and by the summer of 1981, "Quality is Job 1" became Ford's calling card in marketing. This emphasis on quality was used heavily in marketing of the Ford Taurus.
First generation (1986)
thumb|1991 Ford Taurus GL sedan
thumb|left|1986–1991 Ford Taurus wagon
thumb|1990 Ford Taurus GL
The first-generation Taurus was launched in 1985 as a 1986 model to strong fanfare and sales, replacing the slow-selling mid-size Ford LTD. (The full-size Ford LTD Crown Victoria remained as part of the Ford lineup.) The release of the Ford Taurus was one of the most anticipated ever, mostly because it was a first in car design and also the start of new quality standards for Ford. At the time of the Taurus's debut, Ford had been producing mainly rear-wheel drive cars, and Chrysler and General Motors were offering more front-wheel-drive vehicles up to mid-range including the Chrysler K platform and A-body Chevrolet Celebrity. With the introduction of the Escort and Tempo, Ford was making a transition to front-wheel drive. The Taurus displayed a rounder shape than its contemporaries, often likened to a "jelly bean" or "flying potato", inspired by the design of the Audi 5000 and Ford's European sedan, the Ford Sierra, an updated appearance of a styling approach used in the late 1940s to early 1960s called "ponton" styling. It also benefitted from sharing a similar appearance to the limited-production Ford Mustang SVO introduced two years earlier in 1983.
The first generation was available with either a V6 or an inline four-cylinder engine and came with either a manual (MT-5) or automatic transmission. (The Taurus's twin, the Mercury Sable, has never offered a manual transmission in any of its incarnations.) Like its exterior, the Taurus's interior was ahead of its time, and many features originating from it are still used in most cars today. The base trim level, the L, featured an AM radio and a front cloth bench seat, while the LX, the more luxurious model, came with more numerous features as standard equipment.
The Taurus was well received by both the public and the press. In addition to numerous other awards, the Taurus was made the 1986 Car and Driver Ten Best List and was named the 1986 Motor Trend Car of the Year. Production reached over 200,000 for the 1986 model year and the millionth Taurus was sold during the 1989 model year.
Second generation (1992)
thumb|1994–1995 Ford Taurus sedan
thumb|1992 Ford Taurus wagon
The Taurus received its first redesign in late 1991 for the 1992 model year, using the same chassis and with revisions to every exterior body panel other than the doors — largely as major facelift to the first generation design, and marketed solely with V6 engines and automatic transmissions. The Taurus SHO made its return, with an automatic transmission option joining the manual transmission.
The interior was also completely revised, gaining an optional passenger-side airbag, which became standard for model year 1994 and becoming the first mid-size sedan marketed in the United States with standard dual airbags.
In a break from the familiar styling of the previous two generations (that chief designer Jack Telnack had likened to a "pair of slippers"), Ford had sought to again make the Taurus stand out for buyers of mid-size sedans, giving the vehicle a much more extensive restyling than its 1992 predecessor. Moving away from straight lines, the 1996 Taurus sought to include rounded lines, moving past the cab-forward design of the Chrysler LH sedans. Alongside the Ford Blue Oval emblem itself, the Taurus repeated the shape several places in its exterior; in a controversial design element, the rear window of the Taurus was oval, as were the side windows of the Mercury Sable. To allow better differentiation between models, the Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable were given separate rooflines; Taurus/Sable station wagons were fitted with the doors of Sable sedans.
The interior saw a complete redesign. To simplify production, all versions of the Taurus were fitted with bucket seats; six-passenger versions were fitted with a flip-forward center seat cushion also meant for use as a center console, while five-passenger versions were fitted with a floor shifter and center console. To improve ergonomics, radio and climate controls were centralized on an oval-shaped console on the dashboard.
Reaction to the third-generation Ford Taurus was mixed; Ford found that customers disliked the oval-shaped exterior. For 1996, the Ford Taurus continued as the best-selling car in the United States. At the time, 51 percent of all Taurus sales for 1996 went to rental fleets, in contrast to the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry, of which most sales were to private customers through retail outlets. In 1997, the Ford Taurus lost its best-selling status to the Toyota Camry. Ford New Zealand imported both Ford Taurus sedans and station wagons from 1996 to 1998 with success alongside the RWD Australian Ford Falcon/Fairmont/Fairlane.
NASCAR
thumb|The No. 16 NASCAR Ford Taurus of [[Greg Biffle]]
The third-generation Taurus had a presence in NASCAR, replacing the Thunderbird for the 1998 season. The Taurus became the first four-door sedan to be approved for competition. The first Taurus driver to win the Winston Cup (the NASCAR sponsor of the time) championship was Dale Jarrett, who drove the No. 88 Ford Quality Care/Ford Credit-sponsored cars owned by Robert Yates. The first Taurus driver to win the Busch Series championship was Greg Biffle, who drove the No. 60 Grainger Industrial Supply-sponsored cars owned by Jack Roush.
In total, the Ford Taurus has won three Winston Cup championships and two Busch Series championships.
Fourth generation (2000)
thumb|left|2000–2003 Ford Taurus SEL wagon
thumb|left|2004–2007 Ford Taurus sedan
thumb|right|2004–2007 Ford Taurus SE sedan
thumb|2005 Ford Taurus SE interior
The Taurus received another redesign for 2000, which replaced many of the oval-derived design elements of the previous model with sharper creases and corners, an aspect of Ford's New Edge styling language. To reduce the car's price and keep it competitive, Ford reduced costs on the car in 1999, such as giving the Taurus sedan rear drum brakes on ABS-equipped vehicles (previously, upgrading to ABS included the addition of rear disc brakes), eliminating the dual exhaust on the higher end models, and trimming many other small features.
Ford designed the fourth generation with more conservative styling. Instead of sloping back, the car's trunk stood upright, increasing trunk space by another two cubic feet. The roof was more upright to increase headroom.
The interior was also redesigned with features from the previous Taurus generations carried over. The dashboard was given a squarer design. The "integrated control panel" concept was carried over but redesigned, with a bigger, squarer shape, and it was placed in the center of the dash instead of being angled toward the driver. The flip-fold center console was also carried over from the previous generation, although it was revised as well. When folded out, it now rested against the floor instead of the dashboard, and had reworked cup holders and storage areas. Production of the Taurus wagon was discontinued on December 8, 2004; destined for delivery to S. Truett Cathy, owner of Chick-fil-A. Mr. Cathy's original restaurant was located across from the Ford Atlanta plant. There was no official event or function of any kind to mark the end of production. The Taurus was replaced in Ford's lineup by the Five Hundred and Fusion sedans, while the Taurus wagon was replaced by the Freestyle crossover SUV.