With a big push from CEO Alan Mulally, the 2010 Taurus has been redesigned to target aspirational buyers once again. Families go elsewhere for their utilitarian transport these days—mostly to crossover sport/utilities. The new Taurus looks longer, lower, and wider, because it is lower, at least, and its styling borrows side surfacing from the rear-drive Interceptor concept, which proved too costly for Ford to build in these trying times. Overhangs are shorter than the Lincoln MKS’s. Like the ‘10 Fusion, the new Taurus mixes the North American three-bar grille design with Ford of Europe’s three-trapezoid lower fascia.
While the new competition includes the Chrysler 300 and Hyundai Genesis, the new Taurus remains front-drive based. It will come with only a 3.5L V-6—though an EcoBoost engine is inevitable—and six-speed automatic. All-wheel drive will remain optional. A new SHO version looks like a stretch.
By the time it goes on sale in the summer of 2009, the Taurus X and Mercury Sable will be history. Design chief Moray Callum describes it as Ford’s new flagship: “Only in the U.S. do you get full-size cars that are not premium,” the Scot says.
SE and the popular SEL trim levels may not be premium, but the Limited will have a Mercedes-like list of standard and optional features, including adaptive cruise control, pushbutton starter, automatic high beams and rain-sensing wipers, heated second-row seats, ambient lighting, forward warning and collision mitigation, head-up display, blind-spot radar, 2400-song jukebox, Sony audio system and Sync with new features including interactive traffic directions and real-time shopping, the kind of spur the economy needs. Some of these features will be available on lower-level models, as well.
The SE and SEL models should be priced only a bit higher than the ‘09 Taurus, but it seems a loaded Limited could easily breach $40K. Ford is confident, though, that buyers won’t cross-shop the MKS.
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