Ford Taurus returns with tempered expectations

For the better part of two decades, the Ford Taurus was regarded as the ‘everyman’s car’ in America. It’s popularity back in the day was unrivaled, and during the late 80’s, the Taurus was the top-selling vehicle in the US, capable of selling around 500,000 units a year.

But somewhere along the way, the Taurus lost its appeal to Americans and after years of extracting whatever appeal it had left, the car was officially canned in 2007. Ford even toyed with the idea of dropping the ‘Taurus’ name altogether and renaming it as the Ford Five Hundred.

It wasn’t until recently when Alan R. Mulally, Ford’s new chief executive, made an about-face and decided to bring back the Taurus, despite its growing reputation as a run-of-the-mill vehicle. Apparently, Mulally figured that the Taurus still had a noticeable brand recall among Americans.

Continued after the jump.