Ford 2010 Taurus Wow! What A Car

Ford Motor Company’s President of the Americas Mark Fields Made a comment about the new 2010 Ford Taurus last month saying that is was going to be like 1986 all over again with the new Taurus. Go back to the Reagan days when the original Taurus debuted. Not only was it a very unique aerodynamic design for a mid size sedan in those days, it was a great value compared to the competition.

In the 1990s the Taurus went on to become the best selling passenger car in the U.S. It had a 21 year run until late 2006 when the final Taurus rolled off the assembly line in Hapeville, Ga.

Alan Mulally came in as CEO and one of his first actions at Ford was to resurrect the Taurus name. Ford's new large sedan, the Five Hundred was then changed to Taurus. The new 2010 Taurus has been completely redesigned, and Ford hopes all these changes to the exterior, interior, platform and power train will add up to a full-size car worthy of the Taurus name that's crammed with all the best technology and state-of-the-art engines.

Ford has been able to totally redesign the Taurus for 2010 in a very short amount of time. The new front end is marked by the latest interpretation of Ford's three-bar grille. There are still three bars, but they're much thinner with the top and bottom ones framing the grille. There are now also two additional bars in there that are perforated with little holes.

The new Taurus' rear end has been changed just as drastically as the rest of the car. In fact, most people won't be able to recognize the Taurus from the rear at first glance. The top of the trunk is taller and flows back into a raised bit of sheet metal forming a little ducktail spoiler.

The interior of the 2010 Taurus is even more a departure from the past than the exterior. The biggest difference is the new center stack that flows away from the dash at a very shallow angle, almost like in a low-slung supercar. The center console also sits higher, so each front seat passenger is cordoned off in their own compartment.

Powering the Taurus will be 3.5L Duratec V6 producing 263 hp and 249 lb-ft of torque. Ford has confirmed that a twin-turbo, direct-injected EcoBoost 3.5L V6 is on its way, but hasn't specified availability yet. That engine will produce big V8 power, somewhere in the range of 350 horsepower, and is expected to return decent fuel economy for a full-size car.

The 2010 Taurus is a large car that competes with other big front-, rear- and all-wheel-drive sedans, vehicles like the Toyota Avalon, Nissan Maxima, Chrysler 300 and Pontiac G8. And best of all – the 2010 Taurus will have the same $25,995 base price as the 2009 model. Great move by ford and this is a great car!

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What is Ford Doing in lieu of a Bail out?

With talk of GM and Chrysler possibly going into chapter 11 bankruptcy, Ford seems to have put some distance between them and their failing foes. So what is Ford doing different in a market that seems to keep spinning downward?

While Chrysler is trying to figure out which models to get rid of, Ford is taking a step in the other direction by introducing 3 new models for 2010: the Escort, Fusion hybrid, and the Transit connect. The Escort is to be a plug in vehicle with estimated 100 MPG , look for it in the fall of 2010. The Fusion Hybrid is on it’s way to dealers now and boasts 41 MPG city and 36 highway. The Transit connect is a mini cargo van that has that euro look to it. The transit connect is rated MPG is 22 city and 25 highway.

According to Ford CEO Alan Mulally “In 10 years, 12 years, you are going to see a major portion of our portfolio move to electric vehicles” Ford has outlined plans for a range of battery-powered and hybrid vehicles over the next several years but the comments by Mulally represented one of the clearest indications of the automaker's longer-term plans for electric car technology.
In recent weeks, the No. 2 U.S. automaker has announced plans to introduce a battery-powered commercial van in 2010. The stakes are high because Ford's stepped-up investment is coming at a time when the U.S. government is demanding steep increases in fuel economy and has put money forward to help automakers adopt new fuel-saving technologies.

"Ten years is going to come very quickly and I think we'll have a significant improvement in the fuel efficiency in the internal combustion engine," Mulally said in response to a question about what Ford expected a decade from now.

Mulally said Ford was committed to shifting away from its recent reliance on light trucks for 60 percent or more of its sales so that more fuel-efficient passenger cars dominate.
"We can now make cars in the United States and we can do it profitably," he said.
The global recession has brought gas prices in the United States down sharply from peak levels of last summer, but Mulally said Ford was building a strategy around longer-term energy scarcity.

"Over time, we are going to see ever-increasing prices for energy," he said.

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Is GM Going Bankrupt?

I am probably going to get a lot of heat from GM people and consumers who are GM owners and followers of the product, but don’t kill the messenger here.

The US government now has a "working group" on the automobile industry and are expected in Detroit friday for talks with representatives of troubled US automakers seeking government help and their unions.
The group are going to meet with top managers of General Motors and Chrysler along with leaders of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union as they try to chart a way to restructure the two companies to avoid bankruptcy.
The announcement came after GM's auditors last week voiced "substantial doubt" about the struggling automaker's ability to survive a collapse of global auto sales amid a deepening recession

GM chief executive Rick Wagoner has repeatedly warned that the largest US automaker would likely be unable to survive a bankruptcy filing because consumers would be unwilling to buy GM's vehicles.
GM is funding its operations with 13.4 billion dollars in emergency loans from the US government and said last month it will need an additional 22.6 billion in government aid if it is to survive.
But on Friday, it denied reports that it was considering a prepackaged reorganization financed by the government under the "Chapter 11" provisions of the US bankruptcy code as a solution to its financial woes.
But, two top Republican senators on Sunday called for struggling General Motors to seek bankruptcy rather than fresh government aid as the best path to long-term recovery.
"I think the best thing that could probably happen to General Motors, in my view, is they go into Chapter 11," John McCain, President Barack Obama's beaten opponent in last year's election, told "Fox News Sunday."
"They reorganize, they renegotiate their union-management contracts and come out of it a stronger, better, leaner and more competitive automotive industry," he said.
Richard Shelby, the top Republican on the Senate's banking committee, said the government should stop propping up the US auto industry as well as giant banks such as Citigroup.
"Subsidization of anything for very long never works," he said on ABC's "This Week."

Meanwhile, the Canadian Auto Workers announced a tentative deal with GM on Sunday to freeze wages and pensions, and cut paid vacations, as part of GM's North America restructuring.
In the United States, the United Auto Workers last month reached an outline deal to allow Ford to restructure its 13.2 billion dollar obligation to a trust fund for retirees' health care benefits.
A similar agreement is expected shortly at GM and Chrysler because the UAW union maintains similar contracts at each of the Detroit Three.

My prediction is that GM or Chrysler will probably file for chapter 11. A big problem they all have is the UAW, they have bled the auto industry dry for the last 30 years. The next few weeks will be interesting to say the least. What about Ford? That will be a future blog.
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