Ford Taurus & how it saved Ford Motor Company
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- čas přidán 15. 03. 2024
- In today’s video we are going to cover a car that arguably saved Ford Motor Company as we know it. The Launch of the Ford Taurus turned around what was a sinking ship. Between 1979 and 1982, Ford had incurred $3 billion in losses. Ford adopted a quality culture employing statistical process control across all aspects of automobile design and manufacture. The first vehicle produced after adopting these methods was the vehicle we are looking today the Ford Taurus
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Having grown up in a '72 Country Squire wagon, we carried on the tradition with my kids in an '89 Taurus LX wagon. When my daughter grew up and started having kids, got her a 2005 Freestyle Limited. Three generations of great wagons, each one better than the previous.
We had several Tauruses in the family with different trim levels and drivetrains, all pretty decent cars. The engines were good but, transaxles were probably the weakest link in them. They musta took a queue from gm, I fixed a pile of them. Ha ha! Being a transmission specialist I've bought many of my vehicles used with bad transmissions through the years. However, Once rebuilt, often with updates, I've never needed to touch them again.
My mom had an '86 LX and an '89 GL, both had leather. The '89 had re-designed door cards. I liked the '86 door panels more than the '89s, I'm not sure why the re-did them.
I had good memories of those cars. I got to drive them often. I liked them so much, I bought a very used '95 GL after my kid was born (almost 15 years ago!). We lived in Chicago at the time, and didn't have a car before that, so we bought the old beater to get around in bad weather (babies don't like riding bikes and busses in the rain and snow).
After we moved out of state, I replaced it with a 2006 Taurus SEL with 59,000 miles on it. It has over 255,000 on it now, with the original engine and transmission. I've done most of the maintenance and repairs myself; I've faithfully followed the schedule in the manual, and I keep records in a 3-ring binder. We've driven the hell out of it, and it just keeps going! I don't plan on selling it any time soon, because it drives well, parts are cheap, and it's easy to work on.
Awesome testimonial for these cars! Thanks for sharing!
Door panel. Your not a car journalist.
Fun fact: certain, moslt low trim, Tauruses were originally going to have a traditional grille. This can be seen on the pre-production models that MotorWeek tested in 1985. They apparently decided against that styling theme at last minute and made all Tauruses, regardless of trim, with the famous "bottom feed" grille.
Thanks for sharing!
My dad had the Mercury version of this..1988' Mercury Sable V6. Learned how to drive on that car in the 90s
We had a 91 GL wagon that was great, then we got an 88 LX Wagon that to this day is known as the Taurus Time Bomb in the family. We got rid of it and got a 1998 Toyota Sienna, and we all have a Toyota or Lexus to this day. My cousins also switched from a Taurus Wagon to a Sienna and my grandpa switched from a Taurus to a Camry that same year
I though these were so lame when I was a kid. In retrospect, they are really neat.
Replacing the front motor mount and the high pressure line of the power steering of the 90's models was a pain. Bad memories changing them on fleet cars.
Things haven't gotten any easy overtime. Something have somethings haven't. Thanks for watching!
Great video. We had a '90 GL growing up. The '90s got a new dash
They were great cars, the new style led while others followed and struggled to catch up.
While I'm more a fan of the formal sharp edge style, the Taurus and Sable were outstanding. I certainly don't find it shocking that Ford's management was a major cause of its woes before the Taurus was produced. Not being a fan of the aero style (or those "aircraft" doors!), I have to say it worked on the 4-door cars.
We were supposed to get these in Australia but they were knocked back mainly because of the interior room and it was front wheel drive. Australia stayed with the RWD Falcon in the EA model.
Most of the rest of the planet did as well. Thanks for sharing!
The Taurus was a beautiful car
I remember when they came out with the SHO. Talk about a sleeper.
I have a video on the channel that is SHO only. There is a link at the end of this video.
These cars were all over the place in the day, very popular
My parents had a first gen. I got it as a hand me down. 140 HP 3.0 V6. Got great gas mileage on the hwy.
Hey Tony !!!!! Another great profile. I bought a one owner 93' GL sedan in 00'. A reliable and comfortable car. Sold it and regretted selling it immediately. Ended up buying it back and running it a few more years. Also had an 02'. Also a great car !!!! Miss them both. Wish Ford still made them. Thanks Tony !!!! 👍👍👍 hello from Massachusetts 😁
Thanks for watching and sharing your experience!
Robo top car is my first memory of the Taurus. Really was a solid car for years
I'm a white Taurus, and I've driven a white 1994 Taurus LX wagon as my daily driver since 2002. Ironically, I own and identify as a 1972 bright red Ford Ranchero GT (1 0f 783 with factory 4 spd Hurst shifter). Jeckyl & Hyde
I drove a new ‘89 Taurus, it was a nice driving car and it blew away competition. The ‘92 redesign was also a good car, more space is what you thought when you got in one but, quality is also something you noticed and unlike the’91 … the ‘92 had a cheap interior. I have a book about the ‘96 redesign titled CAR It’s a good book Tony I think you would enjoy it.
I drove a 93 as a company car for roughly 60K miles. I really enjoyed that car. It was a hell of an update from the 87 Tempo that preceded it. (That car had 235K when it was traded). Thanks for watching and I'll keep an eye out for that book. Can't read enough car related stuff.
I've been wanting to find an 86 LX Ford Taurus wagon in medium canyon red to restore one day but I've had no luck searching for one.
Best of luck! That is a cool car and thanks for watching!
@@TonysFordsandMustangs I'll need the luck. Nearly had the chance to snag a white 86 LX wagon with the rare instaclear windshield option in 2019 but things got in the way.
Robocop comes to my mind.
I had an 07 Taurus that ran like a top at 165 k but traded it in due to the floors rusting out...
You must be in the salt belt. Thanks for watching!
You neglected to mention the Mercury Sable.
That was intentional. Depending on this video does the Sable may have it's own video.
As always the Mercury versions of Ford cars didn't sell as well. The Sable was no exception. The Sable's design was never as appealing as the Taurus. What was there to say about the Sable?
@@billywhite4190 the Sable had some more fancier bits. They didn’t have a low trim level by design. The sable wagon was nice with leather seats.
I own a 95 Taurus GL with 96,000 miles on the clock. Have had to replace some of Ford's "cheap" cost saving parts, & the 3.0 V6 does a great but slow job of moving the vehicle . With today's even more plastic world, this old car (odely enough) is a testimate to some very primitive build quality by Ford. Even today the body design is timeless. Ford is Ford & uses cheap plastic even in the stabilizer end links.
The wireing harness on the 98 Contour was junk. Ford is Ford, and dug it's grave even recently.
Im sure GM had cars that were more large with front wheel drive way before didnt they ?
The Celebrity (it's rebadged Buick & Olds cars) came out in 82 and it was a direct competition for Taurus and there were big Olds and Buicks going back to the 60's that were FWD. This was first for Ford in a car this size. GM reacted to the success of the Taurus with the Lumina but it took them years to make that happen.
Celebrity was also a good car
@@SmackdownsRKO2024-xk9ew I was selling Fords in 87 and traded a lot of those and Buick Century's on new Tauruses.
🥝✔️
My dad hung the right rear passenger door , so if your door fell off lodge complaints here.
Not seeing many of those comments. Seems like your dad did a good job!
The complete redesign for 1996 didn't go over so we'll and Taurus sales suffered. The overdone oval look wasn't as appealing. A refresh for the 2000 model year was well accepted and the Taurus stayed around for a few more years until being replaced by the Fusion in 2005.
After all the big changes Ford made to their lineups by 1980 and the money it costed them, Ford wasn't doing well. The 1980-82 Thunderbird and Cougar were sales flops. The second gen Granada and its Mercury cousin weren't successful enough either. Even though the early 80s Escort/Lynx was a sales success, quality was a big issue. 1983 was the very beginning of the turning point for Ford before the company rebounded, thanks to the Aerobird. The 1983 Thunderbird and Cougar are said to be the real cars that started the turning point for Ford, as Ford not only began to build better quality vehicles, but the design cues of those cars told Ford Motor Company about the new trend in aerodynamic vehicles.
It's sad how Ford destroyed the beautiful design of the first and second gen Taurus/Sable by going overboard with a more teardrop-like design for the third gen cars.
Yes the T-bird started the look but the sales number of the that car were never high enough to turn around the company. The Taurus was the first car to be developed under the Q1 process and its sales numbers were through the roof. I agreed things got out of hand with the oval look moving forward. Thanks for watching and commenting. It is appreciated.
In a way the Taurus did save Ford. At the very least it improved the company's image. In the early 80s Ford was having some serious quality control and reliability problems and the brand was starting to suffer. Ford needed a rain maker in the worst way and their gamble paid off.
Taurus was groundbreaking and very desirable. However with the 91 to 92 refresh you can see lots of cost cutting and it was much less class leading, especially the interior.
Redesigned dash had a lot of hard plastics and frankly looked cheap. It was the beginning of the slide down into mediocrity unfortunately
I was very happy with the 92 Taurus Company car I had. That was an upgrade over a 225K Tempo so...
6:29 - sorry, there were no Taurus coupes😬 Unlike Celebrity or Aries.
Yeah I screwed that up! It happens. Thanks for watching!
The 83 thunderbird was basically a 2 dr Taurus first with the styling
@@SmackdownsRKO2024-xk9ew That's true however the T-Bird was more of a personal car where as the Taurus was aimed at Families and that was the concern. It was also front wheel drive.
@@SmackdownsRKO2024-xk9ew what? Different platforms, different engines, different buying public🤦🏻♂️
@runoflife87 yes they're probably 1 of the ok things GM made yet I'm a Ford Guy 1000% saying this lol. My Dad had a Celebrity when I me, my brother and sister were small kids in the early 90s and it wasn't a bad car! Once he later bought a used 90 Aerostar in 1993 ever since then we stuck with the Fords ever since and that's why I became Ford like my Dad was as well! He said he originally wanted a Taurus then but couldn't afford one so he got a nice used Celebrity at that time in his price range. After the Aerostar it was Tauruses, Windstars, Rangers, and lastly Fusions and Escape for us! Said he always preferred the more modern styling of the Ford vehicles and I couldn't agree more with him too!
Ford lost 4.7 billion dollars in 2023.
Hopefully they save themselves from bankruptcy again
Not sure where you got that number. They split the divisions of the company into 3. The EV division lost money however ICE & Blue both made a ton. For full-year 2023, revenue was up 11% to $176 billion. Net income improved year-over-year to $4.3 billion; adjusted EBIT of $10.4 billion was essentially flat year-over-year and at the high end of guidance that Ford provided following ratification of its new contracts with the UAW in the U.S. and Unifor in Canada.
@@TonysFordsandMustangs
Per CNN:
“In 2023, Ford Model e reported a full-year EBIT loss of $4.7 billion on sales of 116,000 EVs, or an average of $40,525 per vehicle, just more than a third of the first quarter loss. Model e doesn't handle all of the company's electric vehicle sales.”