page_title: Ford Taurus
section_title: Initial discontinuation and revival
hierarchical_section_title: Ford Taurus / Initial discontinuation and revival
caption_attribution_description: 2008 Ford Five Hundred concept, later renamed the Taurus.
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: During its fourth generation, the Taurus saw a significant sales slump compared to its predecessors. Having already lost its status as the best selling car in America when it was surpassed by the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry in 1997, by 2005 it has fallen to fourth-place behind the Nissan Altima, which made Ford decide to discontinue the entire Taurus line. Production of the Taurus wagon was discontinued on December 8, 2004; sedan retail sales halted after a short 2006 model year, and the Taurus became sold exclusively to fleets in the United States, while still being sold to retail customers in Canada. Production ended on October 27, 2006, as Ford idled the Atlanta plant, as part of its "The Way Forward" restructuring plan. The last Ford Taurus rolled off the assembly line around 7:00am, destined for delivery to S. Truett Cathy, owner of Chick-fil-A. Mr. Cathy's original restaurant was located across from the Ford Atlanta plant. There was no official event or function of any kind to mark the end of production. The Taurus was replaced in Ford's lineup by the Five Hundred and Fusion sedans, while the Taurus wagon was replaced by the Freestyle crossover SUV.
  The discontinuation of the Taurus sparked debate given its once-strong position in the market and Ford's well-publicized financial problems at the time. Analysts, customers and some interviewed Ford employees criticized the company for failing to invest in the car and keep it competitive, instead focusing all of its resources on developing and marketing trucks and SUVs. A USA Today editorial entitled "How Ford starved its Taurus" noted that the Taurus' death was part of a broader trend of the Detroit Big Three willingly abandoning once-successful nameplates and divisions in search of "the next big thing", while their foreign competitors have been gaining market share by continuously improving their veteran nameplates. This criticism was echoed by Autoblog, which held the Taurus up as an example of how Ford abandoned its successful products to chase emerging trends to varying degrees of success, a practice they blamed for Ford's struggles at the time. The Truth About Cars similarly lamented how Ford neglected the Taurus to the point where it became a "rental car".
  Newly-hired Ford CEO Alan Mulally expressed similar opinions, telling the Associated Press the decision "perplexed" him when he learned about it; he recalled asking subordinates, "How can it go away? It's the best selling car in America!" As the successor Five Hundred was struggling in the marketplace, Mulally viewed the decision to discontinue the Taurus as a "mistake that needed to be fixed", noting, "The customers want it back. They didn’t want it to go away. They wanted us to keep improving it." At the time, Ford had already unveiled a face-lifted Five Hundred at the 2007 North American International Auto Show, which had revised styling and a more powerful engine. Partially blaming the Five Hundred's struggles on its name, Mulally decided that the revised vehicle should be marketed as the Taurus, the name he believed the Five Hundred sedan should have used from the beginning as he believed Ford was better off continuing to use its older nameplates that maintained decent brand equity rather than trying to build up new ones. The revised Five Hundred and Freestyle were showcased as the Taurus and Taurus X, respectively, at the 2007 Chicago Auto Show and went on sale that summer.
caption: The 2008 Ford Five Hundred prototype, which was renamed "Taurus" upon Alan Mulally's request
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