The Ford Taurus Is Dying And Car Shoppers Won’t Notice

2015 Ford Taurus (Credit: Ford)

If you think that the Ford Taurus is back to stay, you might be in for a big shock. At this point, pretty much nothing is a given in the auto industry. Even iconic vehicles like the Chevrolet Camaro and BMW 3 Series need to continue justifying their existence, because at the end of the day, nostalgia and history alone won’t keep the lights on. For that reason, the Ford Taurus, a car with a storied past, might be on its way to a silent death.

Automotive News originally brought up the possibility of the Taurus bowing out of the market yet again. While the news has been spreading around in the automotive world, in mainstream media there’s been a collective silence. The reason why might be painful to the few fans of the full-size sedan – today’s car shoppers really, really love crossovers. That’s why the Flex is here to stay for the foreseeable future, while the Taurus has one foot in the grave.

The Taurus has seen a 28 percent decline in sales so far this year. Rivals like the Toyota Avalon aren’t faring much better.

Most consumers in North America probably don’t know that Ford launched a redesigned Taurus just this past April. The reason is that it will only be constructed and sold in China, where consumers are wild about large cars with plenty of backseat room. For now, the updated Taurus won’t be coming to America, unless sales take a dramatic turn upward.

If the Taurus does indeed disappear from the United States and other markets, the new Lincoln Continental would fill in most of the rather small market gap. Some are accusing Ford of purposely letting the Taurus languish by constricting production of the car.

It’s well-known that former CEO Alan Mulally was a big fan of the Taurus. He’s the one who had the 500 name changed, and he even took a Taurus with him as a personal vehicle when he retired from the company. The big question is if the full-size car is languishing because Ford executives don’t like it, or if it’s that consumers have become bored with it? Given the lack of outrage on social media about the possibility of the model walking the plank, the latter seems most likely.