page_title: Ford Taurus
section_title: Third generation (1996–1999)
hierarchical_section_title: Ford Taurus / Third generation (1996–1999)
caption_attribution_description: 1996-1997 Ford Taurus photographed in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
context_page_description: The Ford Taurus is an automobile that was manufactured by the Ford Motor Company in the United States from the 1986 to 2019 model years. Introduced in late 1985 for the 1986 model year, six generations were produced over 34 years; a brief hiatus was undertaken between 2006 and 2007. From the 1986 to 2009 model years, the Taurus was sold alongside its near-twin, the Mercury Sable; four generations of the high-performance Ford Taurus SHO were produced. The Taurus also served as the basis for the first-ever front-wheel drive Lincoln Continental.
  The original Taurus was a milestone for Ford and the entire American automotive industry, being 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 brought many new features and innovations to the marketplace.
  In the late 1990s and early 2000s, sales of the Taurus declined as it lost market share to Japanese midsize sedans and as Ford shifted resources towards developing SUVs.
context_section_description: For the 1996 model year, Ford debuted the third generation of the Ford Taurus.  Although not completely new, the chassis was heavily upgraded, becoming the DN101 generation.  Alongside the Mercury Sable, the Ford Taurus shared its underpinnings with the redesigned Lincoln Continental and all-new Ford Windstar.
  In 1996, its starting cost was about $18,000.
  In a break from the familiar styling of the previous two generations (that chief designer Jack Telnack had likened to a "pair of slippers"), Ford had sought to again make the Taurus stand out for buyers of mid-size sedans, giving the vehicle a much more extensive restyling than its 1992 predecessor.  Moving away from straight lines, the 1996 Taurus sought to include rounded lines, moving past the cab-forward design of the Chrysler LH sedans.  Alongside the Ford Blue Oval emblem itself, the Taurus repeated the shape several places in its exterior; in a controversial design element, the rear window of the Taurus was oval, as were the side windows of the Mercury Sable.  To allow better differentiation between models, the Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable were given separate rooflines; Taurus/Sable station wagons were fitted with the doors of Sable sedans.
  The interior saw a complete redesign.  To simplify production, all versions of the Taurus were fitted with bucket seats; six-passenger versions were fitted with a flip-forward center seat cushion also meant for use as a center console; five-passenger versions were fitted with a floor shifter and center console.  To improve ergonomics, radio and climate controls were centralized on an oval-shaped console on the dashboard.
  Reaction to the third-generation Ford Taurus was mixed; Ford found that customers disliked the oval-shaped exterior.  For 1996, the Ford Taurus stayed the best-selling car in the United States.  At the time, 51-percent of all Taurus sales for 1996 went to rental fleets, in contrast to the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry, of which most sales were to private customers through retail outlets. In 1997, the Ford Taurus lost its best-selling status to the Toyota Camry.
  For 1996, Ford Australia imported the Ford Taurus sedan as the "Taurus Ghia" alongside its locally produced Ford Falcon EL, but imports ceased after only one year due to poor sales.   Ford New Zealand imported both Ford Taurus sedans and station wagons from 1996 to 1998 with success alongside the RWD Australian Ford Falcon/Fairmont/Fairlane.
caption: 1996–1997 Ford Taurus LX wagon
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