Ford Taurus | |
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![]() 2010 Ford Taurus Limited | |
Overview | |
Manufacturer | Ford |
Production | October 1985 – October 2006 May 2007 – March 2019 |
Model years | 1986–2019 (2007 sold only to fleets) |
Body and chassis | |
Class | Mid-size car (1985–2007) Full-size car (2007–2019) |
Layout | Transverse front-engine, front-wheel drive Transverse front-engine, all-wheel drive (2008–2019) |
Chronology | |
Predecessor | Ford LTD (for mid-size) |
Successor | Ford Freestyle/Taurus X (station wagon) Ford Fusion and Ford Five Hundred (sedan; for the fourth generation) Ford Taurus (China) |
The Ford Taurus is an automobile manufactured and marketed by the Ford Motor Company in the United States for model years (MY) 1986-2019. Introduced in late 1985 for the MY 1986, six generations were produced over 34 years, with a hiatus for MY 2006-2007. For MY 1986-2009, Ford marketed the Taurus alongside its rebadged variant, the Mercury Sable; four generations of the high-performance Ford Taurus SHO were manufactured (1989–1999; 2010–2019). The Taurus also served as the basis for the first ever front-wheel-drive Lincoln Continental (1988–2002).
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.[1]
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, sales of the Taurus declined as it lost market share to Japanese mid-size sedans and as Ford shifted resources towards developing SUVs. The Taurus was withdrawn after the 2007 model year, with production ending on October 27, 2006.[2] As part of a model line revision, the Taurus and the larger Ford Crown Victoria were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.[3][4] 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.[5] Prior to its 2006 closure, Atlanta Assembly also produced both the Taurus and Sable.[6] From its 1985 launch to its initial withdrawal following the 2007 model year, Ford assembled 7,519,919 examples of the Taurus.[7] The fifth best-selling Ford nameplate in North America, the Taurus has been surpassed only by the F-Series, Escort, Model T, and Mustang.[8][9][10] 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.[11][12]
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