Ford CEO Alan Mulally announced in a “bold move” that he is bringing back the recently discontinued Ford Taurus as part of his strategy to reinvigorate Ford sales. The Taurus, which was launched in 1985, and was a long-time staple of rental fleets and businessmen, was shelved last October.
But Mulally’s move has had critics shaking their heads and consumers unimpressed at best. Rather than invest in the substantive engineering that made the Taurus a welcome addition to the company 20 years ago, Ford will simply rename the failing Ford 500 as the Taurus. No other change is planned for the 500, which saw sales slide from 108,000 in 2005 to 84,000 in 2006. The 500 is built on a Volvo frame, so there is some underpinning engineering and quality that will transfer to the new Taurus, but this does not seem to reassure consumers. A recent scan of the blogs after this announcement shows an overwhelming amount of consumers still critical of Ford quality.