Originally Posted By: CROWNVIC4LIFE
There will never be such a low maintenance engine ever again that can put on over 400K trouble free miles.
And that is the beauty of it.
I'm not entirely sure I understand this obsession with the Taurus to be honest. Ford comes out with the Five Hundred (which, by the way, was the worst selling Ford ever in the Middle East), then decides to rename it Taurus. Then they come up with the Freestyle, which was also called the Taurus X, and now this Taurus.
Maybe it's just me, but I seem to feel the Taurus nameplate gained so much more popularity after Mulally took over. Quoting Mulally word for word: "How can it go away? It is the best selling car in America!" He believed discontinuing the Taurus was a "mistake", and that the Five Hundred should have been named "Taurus" right from the start. If the Taurus was "the best selling car in America", why did it become fleet only and discontinued later? Seems its any old excuse to have a Taurus in the Ford lineup.
I read somewhere Mulally wants to revive well known and respected Ford nameplates, then they axe the Crown Victoria, which has been around since 1955! Or the Town Car, which was first used on a Lincoln that was custom made for Henry Ford. The Taurus only goes back to what, 1985? Heck, the Marquis has been around since 1967!
I can't speak for the North American market, but I have only seen two Tauruses here to date. The Taurus is an infamous nameplate in the Middle East, which was a disaster for Ford's image. Yet they bring it back, and ditch the best selling Ford in it's Middle East history.
Drive a Crown Victoria in Saudi Arabia, and you will be approached by many wanting to buy it. Al-Jazeera Ford in Saudi is the world's biggest Crown Victoria dealer, a title its held since 1997. That's how ridiculously popular they are. Over here, at least 7 out of 10 households has either a Crown Victoria or a Grand Marquis. Every single ministry - Defence, Interior, Health, Education, Oil, Foreign Affairs, Finance, Justice, Housing...you name it, either buys or leases them. Demand is so great, some people have resorted to buying US gray imports. They needed a bucket full of incentives to move the Five Hundreds off the lot, and it was a miserable failure.
I was hoping the new PI would be V8 RWD, so they could possibly market it here as the new Crown Victoria, which is a marque that's extremely well established. In fact, it's so well established, the Crown Victoria is the first car that springs to mind when Ford is mentioned. Few even refer to my car as a Mercury...heck even on my registration, they've written "Ford Grand Marquis"! Seems Ford dealers in this region will have to depend solely on the Explorer and Expedition to survive.
