The remade Taurus has emerged as a flagship for the Dearborn automaker, restoring luster to a nameplate that had become synonymous with “rental car,” and helping to revive an automaker that had become dependent on trucks and sport utility vehicles.
It is a prime example of Ford’s strategy to build sales volume by using the same basic underpinnings for a lineup of vehicles, each with its own identity. The Lincoln MKS sedan and MKT crossover, the Ford Flex, even the redesigned Explorer, all share the D-size Taurus platform. As a result the signature Taurus doesn’t need to be high-priced or high-volume to make its business case.
A year after its introduction, analysts think the car is pulling its weight.
“Taurus is part of the engine driving Ford’s renaissance,” said James Bell, executive market analyst for Kelley Blue Book in Irvine, Calif.
Ford is now the top brand on buyers’ consideration list, KBB surveys show, and the Taurus is the best resale-value sedan. Ford says the resale value has increased 39 percent over the 2009 model.
The case to revive the Taurus factors in volume from sister vehicles that allowed Ford to set and reach modest volume goals for the Taurus, said analyst Jim Hall of 2953 Analytics in Birmingham.
Even though Ford has only sold 41,400 Tauruses through July, the Flex, MKT and MKS add another 36,100.
“Taurus volume was central to our D-size platform and it is the biggest piece,” said Pete Reyes, Taurus’ chief engineer.
Hall said by adopting that strategy, “the financial planning volume goals were probably met,” and Ford added other vehicles to share engineering, parts and plant capacity.
“Even if the Taurus is not a star, it doesn’t matter,” said analyst Joe Phillippi of AutoTrends Consulting Inc. in Short Hills, N.J. “Take a $28,000 car and turn it into a $42,000 Lincoln MKT. That’s good business. There’s a lot of margin in that.”
‘Design set it apart’
The Taurus itself appears to be netting a nice profit.
The average selling price exceeds $30,000, said marketing manager Amy Marentic.
Buyers, she said, are opting for higher trim levels and more features.
The car is selling well with little marketing support, due in part to the strength of Taurus’ 96 percent name recognition.
It’s attracting younger buyers. The average buyer is 57, seven years younger than a year ago, Marentic said. And the Taurus has captured 18 percent of the full-size car segment through July, according to WardsAuto.com.
But today’s sales pale in comparison with the original Taurus, which debuted in 1985.
It created a sensation with its aerodynamic jellybean shape and quickly became the top-selling midsize car.
“Its design set it apart,” Reyes said. “You didn’t see anything like it on the road.”
In those days, small cars were shrunken versions of boxy Crown Victorias, lacking strength and elegance.
“Cars got uglier as they got smaller,” Reyes said. The Taurus found its proportion and set a tone for American design.
Taurus sales peaked at close to 410,000 in 1992. But when SUVs took off, the Taurus suffered from a lack of updates.
“There was an incredible investment in trucks, and cars just didn’t get the money,” Reyes said.
‘More time in studio’
To keep plants in Chicago and Atlanta running, Ford pushed Taurus volume. But “there was no innovation, no reason to own a Taurus except that it was a good deal,” Bell said.
Many ended up in rental car fleets, and the Taurus was discontinued as a midsize sedan in 2007.
When Alan Mulally — a non-car exec — became Ford CEO in 2006, he asked what had happened to the Taurus name.
By then, the Ford Fusion was competing well against other midsize cars, but the Five Hundred, an oddly proportioned full-size sedan introduced in 2004, had failed to catch on.
Ford upgraded the Five Hundred and relaunched it with the Taurus name for the 2008 model year, while work continued on giving the new 2010 Taurus more style and power.
“We made the decision to spend more time in the studio, a year instead of six or eight months, to get the personality and lines of the car,” Reyes said.
To stay on track, engineering time was cut by four months. Reyes’ team made a single clay model. At one point it was in the wind tunnel with engineers adding and removing clay as aerodynamic data was gathered.
‘It caught me off guard’
Ford also decided to bring back the SHO, a performance version of the Taurus that was sold from 1989-99.
“It was an important part of the 2010 launch,” Marentic said.
Ford expected the SHO to be 11 percent to 15 percent of Taurus sales.
The “boulevard sledgehammer” has been running about 20 percent and is good for Taurus sales as a whole, Reyes said.
It hooked Darrell Stamper of Allen Park.
“I didn’t see myself as much of a Taurus guy. I saw it as an older guy’s car, a grandpa car,” said the 37-year-old firefighter.
But the family man needed to replace his pickup. He sat in a 2010 Taurus SHO.
“It caught me off guard. It’s the nicest car I’ve ever had.”
Ford insists it won’t let the current Taurus grow stale.
“It is important it continue to stay fresh,” Marentic said, in a segment where the newest car wins.
apriddle@detnews.com (313) 222 – 2504
From The Detroit News: http://www.detnews.com/article/20100816/AUTO01/8160336/1148/auto01/Taurus-a-blueprint-for-Ford-s-success#ixzz0x1OcXWaC
From The Detroit News: http://www.detnews.com/article/20100816/AUTO01/8160336/1148/auto01/Taurus-a-blueprint-for-Ford-s-success#ixzz0x1OItBY3
