A Brief history of the 1996-1999 Ford Taurus...was the design really ahead of it's time?

"Taurus.  It's the North American Car with the looks and the feel you've never seen before...It's a personal car that's exactly what we've been looking for!" (link)

That was the jingle Ford used to describe it's revolutionary Taurus mid-sized sedan and wagon when it was introduced in 1986.  And revolutionary it was, as it's design was unlike all the other cars being sold at the time.  It was all a very risky design for Ford as the total cost for the car's development was well over $1 billion.   Had the Taurus been a failure, Ford would have REALLY been in deep trouble.  Luckily it wasn't as in it's first year of production, Ford sold 200,000 Tauruses...yep it was definitely a game changer!  Eventually, it became the best-selling passenger car in America.  The Taurus continued it's winning ways throughout the early 1990s.  A re-design of the Taurus in 1992 further solidified the car's dominance on the American car market.

In an attempt to repeat the original Taurus's success by being like no other car out there, Ford once again thought outside of the bun (sorry, I'm eating Taco Bell as I'm writing this) when designing an all-new Taurus.  The new car was much more rounder than it's predecessor, and by that, I mean it was WAY MUCH MORE ROUNDER than the previous Taurus. Take a look at the two cars below.  Both are Ford Taurus's and they're only one model year apart.  Not a single line was shared between the two cars.

1995 Ford Taurus
image credit-GTcarLot.com

1996 Ford Taurus
image credit-jordanmotors.com

Can you count the number of circles on the dashboard?

Now this one is for you Chevy and Dodge fanboys.  Have any of you ever heard of the Ford joke regarding the emblem and the phrase "well...at least they circled the problem" Well, the 1996 Taurus was literally FULL of circles.  Everything about the car was round.  The windows were round, the lights were round, the shifter was round, the trim pieces were round. EVERYTHING WAS ROUND!  One would think that the inspiration for the design was the Ford emblem itself.  I'm willing to bet that there isn't a single right angle on the car.

The 3rd generation Taurus debuted in late 1995 as a 1996 model to generally positive reviews from the press.  The public however, was more lukewarm to the new Taurus, as after only one year on the market, the Taurus lost it's best-selling car status to the Toyota Camry.  Some would later dub this itineration of the Taurus "the goldfish car" or "the submarine." It wasn't long before the majority of Taurus sales went to fleets and rental companies.  I bet if you were standing in line at the local Enterprise or Hertz desk in the late 90s and early 2000s, you would most likely hear other mutter "Please don't give me a Taurus, Please don't give me a Taurus..."

Ford realized their mistake and quickly restyled the Taurus in 2000 to make it more "conservative."  But nevertheless, the damage was done.  The Taurus was no longer a "competitive car."  Several car people even go so far to say that the 3rd gen Taurus was what led to the downfall (and immediate revival) of the Taurus nameplate.

Now most car people dismiss the 1996-'99 Taurus as a "game changer" done wrong.  The way I see it is that Ford wanted to be revolutionary just like the original Taurus was, but the end result just simply didn't sit well with the public.  What people don't realize is that the Taurus really was ahead of the times...at least from a design standpoint.

So let's fast forward to today and look at some mainstream family cars. (Although by today's standards, they're quite normal), and compare them to the design of the 1996-'99 Taurus. (all photos courtesy of Wikipedia under public domain)

#1-Hyundai Sonata

#2-Kia Optima

#3 Ford Fusion

#4-Toyota Prius

Now, many of you would argue that the cars I listed would be "10 times better than the fishbowl Taurus in for x amount of reasons..." And I would probably agree with you.  However consider this,  say the Taurus debuted 15 years later than it did, and had all the modern amenities that a typical 2011 car would have, yet still retained it's ovid shape.  Do you think it would fit right in with the competition better than it would have in 1996?