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The Ford Taurus Was a Case Study in Case Studies
If you, a car enthusiast with an encyclopedic memory for inane historical details, have spent any time researching the 1980s, you know about the barnstorming success that was the 1986 Ford Taurus. And if any of you readers are currently in high school or college, desperate to write a term paper on something that isn’t mind-numbingly boring, consider this cheat code*: Write about the people who brought the Taurus to life. It is such a fascinating story, you are guaranteed** an “A” if you do it right.
Those who read my work regularly know/tolerate my FoMoCo bias, so it should surprise few of you that I immediately fell in love with the Taurus and Sable when they landed in local showrooms. Even with reliability issues thrown into the mix, the car’s success on the road and in sales made it a case study for management consultants and storytellers alike in the 1990s.
The Ford Taurus could be one of the most studied vehicles in recent history, at least when it comes to the practices of corporate management, marketing, and vehicle design. I will put my money where my mouth is here, because I graduated Magna Cum Laude because of this forgotten family sedan. My success in management classes came from Taurus-themed term papers, ensuring my GPA skyrocketed in my junior and senior years. Here are the books you must read to follow my Ford-fueled path:
I chucked the owner’s manual of a 1987 Taurus MT-5 (that I found in the junkyard the week before) into one particular college presentation, citing the company’s “guiding principles” and waving it in front of everyone.
The soft-spoken management professor exclaimed “Wow!” when I used said owner’s manual as a prop. No, I didn’t slam it on the floor or anything, but maybe that was an opportunity; after all, the Taurus was designed in the turbulent Malaise Era. But these were also innovative times, and Ford’s futuristic family sedan proved a home run. Even Motorweek discussed the Taurus’ core tenets of uncompromised exterior/interior styling, cutting-edge computer-assisted design, and the enlightened management practices known internally as Team Taurus. This is one of the few times when peeling back the veil on how a car was developed actually appealed to the general public. The story of this homegrown winner, nurtured by working-class Americans, helped drive sales. (It helped that the car was also very good.)
To wit, Motorweek‘s video notes the Taurus was “a car designed more by commitment, than by a committee of bean counters.” This short video essay is better than any book, because it uses Ford’s B-roll footage to ensure the point hits as smoothly as, well, a Taurus slicing through a wind tunnel!
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Case studies, indeed, do not have to be. My Hagerty colleague, Jason Cammisa, created an episode of the YouTube Revelations covering the Taurus SHO tale. It starts with a fantastic primer on what made the underlying Taurus family sedan so special and so radical for the times. I encourage you to watch it and subscribe to our channel.
The original Taurus embraced technology, embodied the latest design trends, and once the SHO arrived in 1989, even appealed to the traditional car enthusiast. I do not know what classes my esteemed colleague took in college, but let’s reflect that his video generated 2.8 million views (as of this writing) on a case study for a 35-year-old Ford sedan. That’s ample reason for graduation with honors, don’t you think?
*Sorry children, but to truly understand the car industry, you still have to read the books and do the analytical work. I doubt AI will understand the nuances of varying automotive corporate management styles, much less apply them to a Ford Taurus with any level of detail and accuracy.
**This is a real guarantee in the same way arcade tokens are real currency.
A crisis can sometimes be the impetus for great actions. Ford was hurting when Taurus was being developed. The team pulled off many new design and manufacturing process leaps over what was traditionally being done and reaped big rewards. A similar, though smaller scale, thing happened at GM with the C5.
I had a black ’89 SHO, great car with long legs, inconspicuous so never got a ticket.
I never found these to be a very attractive vehicle, and the wagon version was especially homely. Many compared the styling of the sedan to the Audi of the time, but I never really saw that, either.
Excellent job on Henry’s Bull! I have tracked down all the books you mentioned in this article and read them all, and I have to say each is so interesting. ” The Car” finally answered the question, “Why the heck did the 1996 Mercury Sable have a parking light and a separate signal light in the grill.” Design choices like that are so fascinating to me.
In 1987, my Dad brought home an Oxford White Taurus Wagon. To this day, he still talks about how good that wagon looked from the 3/4 rear view. I have a dealer stock photo of one hanging in my garage, also in Oxford White, and every time he comes over, he comments on it.
As it turned out, the Taurus was more reliable than the Toyota Previa he bought new 4 years later, which needed a head gasket replaced at 7,000 miles. For our Taurus, Quality was Job 1.
I purchased a 1988 Sable LS wagon with the 3.8L motor, Instaclear windshield, which I think I only used twice, but it looked really cool. The following year my father purchased a 1989 Taurus wagon. We used to travel with our kids when they were young from Pittsburgh to the Outer Banks for many years. Both were great vehicles for long travels. They even handled well on some of the country road routes we’d take to break up the highway monotony. Now, only the Germans are still making cool wagons…:-(
Biggest price of junk I ever owned. Bought an ‘86 with 15K on the clock. Couldn’t get it to hold coolant with so many hoses and broken intake manifold bolts. Multiple fuel gauge failures requiring complete pump replacements. By 50k trans and power steering were failing. Everything Consumer Reports said were an issue were…..multiple times….
Liked the way it drove-
Still have a 98 Sable wagon. A few years ago after changing the oil and starting the car there was a grinding sound in the Vulcan engine ending up in a strong tick. Junk it? Hell no. I found an NOS block, NOS crank, NOS rods, in original Ford boxes, and OEM pistons all for under $500. Being a California car, one of the few left, no rust and immaculate interior not to mention a piece of cake to work on.
I drove an Avis rental from MCO to home for Xmas ’86 without thinking much about the car; just another rental. My parents on the other hand were smittened and requested a test drive. Next time home there was a red wine Taurus LX in the driveway eventually gifted to my sister. Next up artic white 2nd gen LE gifted to me after I blew up the Merkur. Then a 3rd gen mocha-gold(?) Duratec SE leather wrapped sweet ride willed to me. Both of my sons drove the last two to school and my nephew eventually drove the SE into the ground. Thankyou Ford, thankyou dad. OBTW, his go to car aphorism when I was a kid “I’d rather have a brother in the Marines than own a Ford”. Navy all the way!