Ford's decision to revive Taurus raises eyebrows

'Let it die,' one dealership manager says, while auto analyst calls move 'strange'

Ford Motor Co. has resurrected Taurus, the name of a car credited with having saved the company from bankruptcy a generation ago, and slapped it on an existing sedan with sagging sales.

Alan Mulally, Ford chief executive, announced two weeks ago that the name will live on, three months after the last Taurus rolled off an assembly line near Atlanta. Ford will re-badge its struggling Five Hundred mid-sized car the Taurus, according to separate sources.

Tapping a handle that is well-known to consumers has a certain logic because the market is crowded with different brands and it's tough to make a vehicle stand out. But tapping a 20-year-old name, not to mention one that Ford let wither away in car-rental fleets around the world, has left many perplexed.

"All I can say is: 'Let it die,' " said Ron Ledbrook, general manager of Keystone Ford in Winnipeg, Manitoba's largest Ford dealership. "And come up with some new name that will catch on."

Mulally made the announcement at the Chicago Auto Show. The Five Hundred is built in that city.

The Taurus is easily one of the auto industry's great cars. Seven million units were sold in its 20-year run. It nabbed top-selling vehicle status in the United States five years in a row, from 1992 to 1996. It returned Ford to profitability after years of losses.

But Ford failed to spend money updating or marketing the vehicle in its later years, turning its attention instead to SUVs and trucks. Eventually, consumers turned away and Taurus was largely sold to rental agencies. Production ended in October.

Mulally, who joined the company that same month after a long career at Boeing Co., has shown interest in the Taurus brand. He has said numerous times that he fails to grasp why the automaker left it to flounder. The company, fighting to reverse a record $12.7-billion (U.S.) loss in 2006, might be hoping the label still has enough equity with buyers to win some sales.

But in recent months, the Taurus name has been mocked as much as it has been fondly remembered. A recent spot on the comedy show Saturday Night Live noted the car would be discontinued, joking: "30-somethings everywhere will now need to find a new vehicle that tells the world: 'I've given up on my dreams.' "

Joseph Phillippi, a veteran industry analyst who runs marketing research firm Auto Trends Consulting Inc., said Ford is making a mistake dusting off Taurus.

"It's really strange," he said. "To take a name that was so damaged and recycle it now doesn't make a lot of sense to me."

Ford had hoped the Five Hundred, introduced for the 2005 model year, would herald its return to the mid-sized segment. But the car has struggled. Sales in Canada fell 30.6 per cent to 3,659 units in 2006 versus 2005. In the United States, they dropped 22 per cent to 84,218 units.

Ford will boost the vehicle's power and make other cosmetic changes for the 2008 model year. The revived Taurus is expected to be in showrooms this summer.

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