I just saw an ad for the new Ford Taurus. I thouht they had discontinued making the Taurus in 05. Did they come to their sences and decide to keep making this vehicle or did they bring it back? I am a big fan of the Taurus my wifes car is an 05 SEL Taurus.

 

if i remember correctly,they renamed the 500 the taurus because it is a more recognized name

 

On the advertisment they never mentioned the 500 just the new Taurus.

 

That's because there is no 2008 Five Hundred. What used to be Five Hundred is now Taurus. That's not only news, car also got new front end and 3.5L engine.

 

I originally heard it on the news on the radio,but i did find this link relative to the news http://blogs.motortrend.com/6200523/...red/index.html

 

[QUOTE=cjben]I originally heard it on the news on the radio,but i did find this link relative to the news http://blogs.motortrend.com/6200523/auto-shows/ford-to-resurrect-taurus-name-for-ailing-five-hundred/index.html[/QUOTE]

Thats an interesting article and the posts afterwards were interesting. I am a paramedic and have worked in emergency services for over 10 years. The Taurus may have a bad rep. due to being on all the rental car lots, but the integrity of that car speaks for itself. What I mean is the Taurus is one of the safest cars out there. I have worked some horrific wrecks involving these cars and they hold up well. I have seen them sustain a head on collision at 60 miles an hour with a large truck and the passenger compartment stay intact. Thats why my wife has one now. I know that you can get hurt or killed in any vehicle, but From what I have personally seen, I feel her chances of getting out of an accident alive are improved in the Taurus. I hope we never have to find out if I am right.

 

It's part of Fords "Pull our heads out of our _____" program. Why you abandon a brand or model name that had an ok reputation is beyond me. Why you allow your flagship to develop a just "OK" reputation is another question. And of course, flooding the rental lots at low prices...it just goes on and on, and hence the mega troubles at the blue oval.

My insurance man told me the same thing about the Taurus/Sable. Plenty strong. Wadded mine up, you coulda still drove it if you pried the radiator out of the motor....Sure it would drove a litte funny....

 

The 500, er Taurus, has a Volvo heritage platform, so it should also be quite safe.

Jim

 

My last car was a 96 Mercury Sable (Ford Taurus re-badged for Mercury) that was a great car and i drove the hell out of it. I would always slam on the gas, do neutral bombs, (putting it in neutral, slamming your foot on the gas, then shifting to drive) i even took it offroading (i was young), and just drove it HARD. It never gave me any problems, and it ran great. I gave it to my mom when i bought my truck. She kept it for another year or so then traded it in for a Mercury Milan. It always ran good and now i really wish i would have kept it.

 

Yup, the new Taurus is a rebadged 500.

And Ford has always put the safety aspect into the Taurus. Great cars.

Of course, this is not your grandfather's Taurus

But, close enough ... and high safety ratings too.

--

A Taurus story:

4-5 years ago, I helped my stepson pick out a used car to buy. He didn't have a lot of money, so we were hoping for something with minimal problems that could be fixed easily.

So, wound up with a black '89 Taurus with the 3.0L for $700. Needed motor mounts and an alignment. Payed a local garage another $350 to do all that (first time in my life I didn't volunteer to do it myself). So, total was $1050.

The odometer read 19,000 miles, (no sixth digit) so I figured it had 119K miles total, because it was in pretty good shape. A year or so later, I did some work on it, brakes I think, and I was looking for the owner's manual for some reason. I found a log book in the glovebox, it had maintenance documented up until 128,000 miles. So, when we bought it, it had at least TWO HUNDRED and nineteen thousand miles (no reason to suspect odometer fraud, no reason at all - why roll it back to an obvious over 100K miles anyway?). It had work done on the tranny for fluid leaks, and regular oil changes, brakes, that sort of thing. But nothing major ... Original owner.

The 3.0L in that thing ran and ran and ran - until a power steering line wore through the oil filter and it dumped it all on the Southern State Parkway Spun a rod bearing ...

But was still running until a loss of oil killed it. It would have been going far far longer...

Then there was the '89 Sable wagon my brother-in-law had with the 3.8L. That thing would spin a front wheel on dry pavement for 50 feet just by putting the pedal down. Had it up to 120 a few times...

 

I also had first generation Taurus. I had '91 with 3.0L for short time. Great car, I loved it.

But at that time we had 4 vehicles (Taurus was 5th) and only 3 drivers so I sold it.

 

My wife and I have a 1998 Sable. I really like the car, so does my wife. I think the plan is to keep it until it falls apart.

 

You got a long way to go being it's only a 98. I see more older and newer model Taurus' running around south ILL than I do any other make/car.

 

Weren't they the best selling car from 92 to like 97? I still see a ton of them around here in MN too. They last forever, i couldn't break mine if i wanted to.

 

76% of people suryved knew what a taurus was, but only 23% knew what a 500 was, hence the name change. Ford should have never let the taurus die a slow death when it was the best selling car in america at one time, ford is bad for neglete on some models, look at the poor ranger.