They shat the bed by not having a proper engine for it in my mind first and foremost.

As the article says in the first bit, they neglected the taurus and that really is the punchline.

If they had out a good mill into the five hundred and promoted it properly I think it could have done good.. I would have said keep the taurus name alive, if they had not have driven it into the ground first.

In my view they did a good job of confusing their customers with their lineup for a year or 2:

fusion
five hundred
taurus for a bit, then playing to fleet only
crown victoria

now they have a five hundred model that has not lived up to expectations its entire life, a huge vaccuum in sales for the taurus, a crown vic which is dying a slow death and arguably only exists to serve things like police fleets, and a fusion that they have to pin their hopes on.

I think the Taurus name has way too much baggage. For over 10 years the Taurus has been a boring car for boring people. Can’t exactly give a car Prozac and hope for an immediate personality change.

Let it die and stay dead for at least 5-7 model years. If you’ve ever driven a Ford Five Hundred, it’s no different than a Taurus. It’s boring, simple and without a soul. It too will be put down. Let it die and then come back with a really great family sedan… the Taurus.

Ford’s MO is to build a decent car and then ignore it until it fades into oblivion. The Taurus was a great car that did wonders for Ford when it was introduced in 1986. Instead of improving it year after year, they were just content to leave things as is. Ditto for the Lincoln LS. When it came out it was a very good car but Ford just let it rot until it became irrelevant. Bold moves indeed.

Bad Idea!! The word Taurus is Synonymous with cheap (both in price and build quality) boring, and slow cars. The Taurus was ruggish and as such it not be a good idea to attach that name plate to a car that is while not entirly great, is still better then a “Taurus”. Why don’t they come up with a new name that is a little more origional, Chyrsler 300, BMW 5 Series, Mercedes S500, may be they should try something that stays away from numbers as cars named with numbers seem to be out of Fords class for the moment.

Like the Cavalier name for GM, the Taurus name has been damaged by years of neglect. i find it amazing that the Asians have managed to keep the names of vehicles for so long, and have used a cycle of continuous improvement to only improve the value of the name. The first Civics shed rust as they sat in dealers lots.. now they are the standard by which small cars are measured. Hell, even Hyundai has been able to get equity in the Accent name. Makes you wonder….

The consumer buying a car today is much smarter and more diligent when it comes to research. Ford should concentrate more on making the right car and less on what they call it because that is what the consumer is looking at. Anyway, the Taurus name certainly has negative connotation. Remember how everyone complained the new Jaguar XK front end looked like a Taurus.

They heard Chrysler was reviving ‘Aspen’ and decided to avoid the outright laughter from the buying public…

The US automakers put out some market-changing models, have a random hit, then let it die on the vine as they look for the next “NEW BIG THING”. (minivans der DCX)

Not a huge fan of the vw-bug-on-steriods, but give Porsche plenty of respect for growing the 911.

There’s still plenty of equity in the Taurus nameplate. The car people remember — the Taurus 1.0 — was innovative and distinctive and extremely popular. The most recent Tauruses were dull, but aren’t remembered by anyone except Hertz customers.

Honda has kept the Accord name going for more than 30 years and not every generation of the Accord was beloved. Some were derided as dull, white-bread cars, but they didn’t ditch the name, they improved it.

Also, Ford hung the Mustang nameplate on terrible, pathetic cars for more than a decade back in the ’70s, but that didn’t kill the nameplate.

I don’t understand this impulse to discard all the equity they have, over and over, either by walking away from initially good products or casting strong brands aside to embrace names with no equity.

Most people think the Fusion is a RAZOR from Gilette, not a car.

Ford F’d up the name by not improving on it and fuglifying with the Catfish restyle in 1996.

Taurus has a rental car stigma attached to it like “Malibu” or “Impala” does. Let it go.

Who really gives a sh*t, Tauras or 500 they both are very boring. I doubt sales would have helped with the name.

I totally agree with Alan Mullaly and Barry Engle. Even though the Taurus name had become tarnished over the last several years, it, at one time, had great “brand equity”. For those of us old enough to remember when the Taurus was born, it was THE car to have for a while. In my opinion, you don’t walk away from a history like that. Can you imagine Toyota dropping the Camry or Corolla names? Or Honda dropping the Accord or Civic names? Never in a million years.

So if the Taurus has become a POS, then re-invent it into a GOOD car, and people will be proud to own the NEW Taurus. So yes, I agree that the 500 should have been the NEW Taurus. It ain’t perfect, but it’s a LOT better than the last one.

BTW—I think they should do the same thing with the Focus; I think it’s generally acknowledged that the current car is way overdue for a makeover, so when they finally do get around to re-doing it, make it a really GOOD car so people will be proud to own the NEW Focus.

Also BTW—it seems that Chevrolet is following this exact tact with the Impala and Malibu, which I think is exactly the right thing to do. I think having nameplates with a long history gives them more value than when you change the name every time a model gets old.

Oh, and one more thing and then I’ll shut up: if Ford DOES revert to the Taurus name for the 500, I think it really needs to be substantially different from the current car for the public to “buy” the name change. I don’t think they can just do a quick nose job, slap a Taurus name on it and call it good.

No no no no no. The rules are you can’t name a Ford anything that does not start with an F.
.
Name it a Faurus.

Or they could update the naming conventions they used in the 70’s with the LTD II and the Mustang II, except update it for the new millenium and call it the Taurus V2.0.1. the release a patch for it and call it the Taurus V2.0.2 etc, etc…

Now I wonder… If the 500 with a nosejob and the 3.5 gets re-launched with a huge wave of advertising as the new Taurus. Really, the 500 with a 3.5 wouldn’t be a bad car, being that the major complaint with the 500 is that the 3.0 sucks.

no i think the major complaint with the five hundred is the entire car itself. When it gets a redesign, or a heavy heavy facelift – including at least 250-280hp, then they should call it a taurus. Or a mondeo.

The problem is this company is run by monkeys who have NO business running ANY company.

You don’t do SOME work by producing a hit and then sit around and watch it rot. You work diligently every day for the rest of your working life to make something better tomorrow than you did yesterday. And you compete.

These monkeys deserve to flip burgers for the rest of their lives … there really is no competition for burger flippers. Someone else runs the business end (as the Japanese, and recently the Koreans, have shown) and the monkeys find their place in the heirarchy of skill.

The fact that some monkeys let the name “Taurus” rot with the car, then let it die, only to have someone else decide maybe it should be resurrected because there’s “new found” equity … this company is devoid of anyone who possesses any true insight and leadership ability.

Don’t they know? A turd by any other name smells just as sweet!

Impulsive hits it right on the head…..

It is amazing and a shame that those FOMOCO execs get paid the huge salaries that they do, and yet they still cannot get it right and still can’t manage to produce cars that the pubilc wants. And maybe the problem lies from the top right on down to the assembly line workers. And the funy part is: if Ford should go belly up, these same execs probably have a nice little financial package set up to take with them when they go to other positions, so FOMOCO would probably be just another lost job to them…

Bold Moves? I say “Dumb Moves”…

Taurus, Malibu, Impala, Sebring, Sonata.

Meh, all rental cars. Ford would be smart not to let the 500 follow down the same path. Give it the new 3.5 and it is an excellent alternative to the Avalon and the stodgy Buick Lucerne.

And the Fusion triplets are way underrated. They are top notch offerings in their respective classes and AWD puts them in a class of their own. Check one out if you get a chance.

Rebadging the 500 as a Taurus would do nothing to increase sales. If the 500, as a car, isn’t selling on it’s own merits for being a damn good car… it’s not going to sell any better being an underpowered and dull slug.

The Fusion is selling very well despite not having the Taurus name. The proof is in that the Fusion is on a great platform, with the right blending of style and power vs. the Five Hundred which looks like a watered down and enlarged version of the last Taurus, with about the same amount of power as the outgoing car.

The 500 needed a V8, a supercharged V6, or a larger V6. It cold still be livable with a major restyling and a hybrid drivetrain to boost torque, but it still won’t make it competitive with the RWD Chrysler’s, much less the popular import models.

Ford wants to exhibit some bold moves? Bring the Fiesta from Europe, bring the Focus from Europe, dump the current U.S. Focus and the forthcoming waste of time update they’re working on for the current car (can’t help it, the Focus sedan has always been ugly as sin, largely due to the hunchback-like rear end the sedan has), keep the Fusion (even if I like the new Mondeo’s styling a bit better honestly, the Fusion is still a success so hard to argue against it), replace the 500 and Crown Victoria with either the next gen Aussie Falcon… or go with the Interceptor drivetrain and something that looks better than it (absolutely terrible looking) for styling on top of it.

The new Lincoln concept looks 1,000,000x’s better than the Interceptor, much as the 427 did too. The Interceptor’s slab-faced front is so homely that Ford should almost teach it to drive backwards. I probably wouldn’t be against the nose detailing if they’d angle the nose back to match the Lincoln’s, but the bad part of that is… minute they go that route one of the beancounters will be like “I have a great idea…” and we’ll end up with the same badge engineering we always get (i.e. Fusion and Milan could be twins separated at H.S. graduation rather than birth).

I think the name fits it perfectly, its right halfway between zero and a thousand. Not too bad not too good, right in the middle. 500. Half way. A very average, generic, acceptable car.

My first thought when I saw the 500 was “Who in the heck would buy this thing”. I mean is it aimed at Grandpa and Grandma? A modern day Crown Victoria? Theres really nothing bold about having an overgrown boring box of a car with zero style on the outside, and average performance.
It looks enormous from the outside. It seems that most families nowadays that want something overgrown are going for SUV’s or Crossovers if fule economy is an issue. I don’t know one single person that would even consider getting a 500. To me its one of those instant fleet cars.
Atleast the Taurus had style that you either loved or hated, the 500 just sits there being bland.

why has he not posted here yet…I’m sure he wants to chime in on this one

Now now, the 500 with the 3.5 could compete with the avalon just fine. The interceptor is the one that’s meant to go up against the 300s of the world, but i wish they would replace that godawful nose with the nose from the 427. In light of this “keeping brand equity” business, do you think the interceptor would go to market as the crown vic?

While I think renaming the restyled 500 as the Taurus, or even reviving the Taurus name at all, would be a big mistake, just remember it’s FORD we’re talking about here.. The Zephyr was renamed after a successful debut year, and the only changes made to the MKZ were a larger engine and lightly restyled fasciae.. exactly the same changes we are expecting for the 500! “Brand equity” has never been a part of the Ford vernacular.

Yeah i agree with deantj, they used the nameplate until it meant nothing other than boring, egg shaped, and bland, when you drive a name into the ground there’s no reason to bring it back, however, something like the Camaro nameplate WOULD make sense to bring back, but Taurus just doesn’t mean anything anymore

agree