Development and Marketing
The preceding Ford fifth generation Taurus was a facelifted and mechanically enhanced Ford Five Hundred. While this did address several deficiencies of the Five Hundred, particularly the powertrain, it was still criticized for its handling and bland styling, with one reviewer describing it as a "SUV shaped like a sedan".
In 2008, Ford Motor Company's Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally stated that the new Taurus is "the one we should have built originally".
A leaked photo of a prototype purported to be the 2010 Ford Taurus circulated on the Internet from message boards. Ford contemplated legal action against web sites which posted the photo and Ford attorneys asked site owners to remove the photo.
The US Ford website showed videos comparing the 2010 Taurus to 2009 model year luxury sedans, including the flagships of several Japanese marques. One test showed that the Taurus' paint coat was more resistant to gravel chips than a Lexus LS460; another noted that the Taurus had a blind-spot detection sensor system that the Infiniti M45x lacked; the third showed the Taurus SHO outpacing the Audi A6 4.2 L V8 in straight-line acceleration; the last comparison said that Taurus' cabin was quieter than an Acura RL.
Sales for the sixth generation Taurus are projected to be around 50,000 to 75,000 annually, as Ford planned a lower volume to avoid steep discounts/incentives. Previous iterations of the Taurus, which were classified as midsize cars, had sold 400,000 vehicles per year at their peak in the 1990s.
Read more about this topic: Ford Taurus (sixth Generation)
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