Gallery: 2008 Taurus/Sable on track

Continue reading Video: Live from Dearborn - Autoblog drives the 2008 Ford Taurus

Video: Live from Dearborn - Autoblog drives the 2008 Ford Taurus originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 01 Jul 2007 15:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Taurus gets a new tagline originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 07 Jun 2007 07:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

click above image for desktop-sized pics of the 2007 Mercury Montego

Alas, Montego, we hardly knew ye. Of course, the large sedan from Mercury is not going away, but being relaunched as the Sable with a new schnoz, larger engine, and some interior upgrades. The Montego name will once again drift off into obscurity like its Torino-based forebear. While the Sable picks up where the Montego left off, it would be foolish to think the Montego is a dud. The 2007 Montego Premier AWD is a big car, with some dimensions exceeding the Grand Marquis. With a bump here and a nip there, the Montego would make the best Marquis ever. As it is, the Volvo-donated architecture underneath the Montego makes it a very modern driving sedan that belies the comfort-sized dimensions.

Gallery: 2007 Mercury Montego Premier AWD

Continue reading In the Autoblog Garage: 2007 Mercury Montego Premier

In the Autoblog Garage: 2007 Mercury Montego Premier originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 22 Mar 2007 13:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Autoblog Podcast #57 originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 14 Feb 2007 17:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Ford's Mark Fields announces Bold Move: Bring back Taurus & Sable brands

Ford's Mark Fields announces Bold Move: Bring back Taurus & Sable brands originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 07 Feb 2007 11:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Click the image above for the Autoblog Five-Hundred gallery

In the news, at the water cooler, and in your favorite auto magagine, there is no shortage of advice for Ford Motor Company. Advice for new engines, better marketing, and rear drive architectures come flowing in at all angles. Most of the advice seems to center around the need to balance design, safety, horsepower, and business realities to make vehicles that you and I will want to buy. But vehicle names? A recent Detroit Free Press article is one of many that seems to think name recognition is perhaps more vital than it really is. As we reported today, it looks like Ford is listening to the calls for the recasting of the Taurus name, after all. In the end, do we really care what the vehicle is called? We probably care a lot more about what the vehicle can do and how it looks.

When Allan Mulally took over at Ford, he found himself wondering why the company would spend hundreds of millions of dollars over 20 years to build the Taurus name only to drop it because it didn't start with an F. The Five Hundred very well could have been the Taurus from the start, but it wasn't. Lets be honest, the Taurus wasn't the Taurus for almost half its lifespan. We loved it, then we liked it, then finally, we rented it. The product was stale. The name got stale too, mostly because it became synonymous with Hertz, so Ford decided to drop it.

Keep reading for more thoughts on what's in a name.

[Source: Detroit Free Press]

Continue reading All in a Name: No end to the free advice for Ford, no need to rechange names

All in a Name: No end to the free advice for Ford, no need to rechange names originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 06 Feb 2007 14:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Detroit Auto Show: A conversation with Peter Horbury

Detroit Auto Show: A conversation with Peter Horbury originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 12 Jan 2007 18:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Detroit Auto Show: We finally bring live shots of the Ford Focus and Five Hundred originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 09 Jan 2007 17:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

click above image to view high-resolution gallery

For 2008, Ford has addressed many of the major issues that were preventing the Ford Five Hundred from being the sales leader that they had hoped for. Horsepower and styling were the two major complaints, and both have been improved dramatically on the latest iteration of the full-size sedan.

In the horsepower department, the 2008 Five Hundred will gets a 30% increase in power over the Taurus-carryover, 200 HP 3.0 Duratec V6 with which it was previously laden. Motivation is now provided by the corporate 3.5-liter Duratec in its first PZEV application for Ford with a V6, sending a full 260 horsepower and 245 ft/lbs. of torque through a new six-speed automatic transmission to either the front wheels or all four with the optional all-wheel drive system. The six-speed automatic also improves acceleration with shorter gearing and closer gear spacing, and provides increases fuel economy by up to 7% according to Ford.

With the power issue put to bed, Ford turned to the styling. The previous model redefined the word boring, with very few styling elements that were even remotely interesting inside or out. The new model has several exterior and interior design elements that align the Five Hundred with the new Ford design direction that started with the Fusion and will carry through the entire line of vehicles.

Press release is after the jump.

Check out all the debuts and galleries from the Detroit Auto Show here.

Continue reading Detroit Auto Show: 2008 Ford-Five Hundred

Detroit Auto Show: 2008 Ford-Five Hundred originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 07 Jan 2007 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Just when it seemed that we would never see the Taurus again, new Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally says that he was a big fan of the Taurus and even rented one on a recent business trip to check it out. His feelings date back 20 years to a research study he was doing on Ford's production system for Boeing. He has also publicly stated that the Five Hundred "should have been the next Taurus."

Over the 20-year run of the Taurus, Ford invested literally hundreds of millions of dollars building brand equity in the name, then just walked away. It's nothing new with automakers; look at what GM did with the GTO, Camaro and Firebird. The GTO has come and gone and the Camaro comeback is well underway as a completely new car; can the Firebird be far behind?

Mulally took a whimsical shot at the name game this week when he said he was still looking to drive his Lincoln Zephyr. Not to be outdone by the new guy, Ford's sales analyst chief George Pipas made a Freudian slip by referring to the Zephyr in this week's sales call.

We say go ahead and bring back the Taurus name, but not on the Five-Hundred. Hopefully there will be a new, rear-wheel drive large sedan in the product pipeline soon that will need a name, so save it for that. Besides, the name "Taurus" evokes images of charging bulls and, if you think about it, wasn't appropriate for a plebian front-wheel drive sedan.

[Source: Businessweek]

Will the Ford Taurus return? originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 05 Jan 2007 18:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Ford recalling 145,000 vehicles in the U.S. originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 11 Oct 2006 07:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Ford Five Hundred is getting a 2008 makeover en route to its 2012 replacement. As we reported earlier, the facelifted full-size sedan will adopt Ford's new three-bar chrome family grille, as well as a revised cabin. Looks like there'll also be a butt-lift for the rear end, which is also masked by a cover in this spy pic. Still, this is our best view yet of how the three-bar grille will work on the Five-Hundred, and we're curious to hear your thoughts. Perhaps we've become accustomed to the Five-Hundred's humble visage, but to our eyes it seems obvious the car wasn't designed with such a grille in mind.

The biggest news for Ford's big family-hauler, however, is the jump from its barely-adequate 3.0-liter V6 to the more substantial 3.5-liter unit that's being launched first in the Ford Edge, Lincoln MKZ and MKX. The Detroit News says Ford has decided against offering a V8 in the Five-Hundred, but quite frankly we never thought it would. The 3.5-liter V6 with around 265 horsepower is exactly the powerplant this car needed from the get-go.

[Source: Autos Insider]

Spy Shot: 2008 Ford Five-Hundred originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 18 Sep 2006 14:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Ford Motor Company employees and retirees each account for less than one AXY-Plan sale per year (the AXY-Plan is Ford's employee and supplier discount program). The company claims that if it could only add one additional discounted sale per employee and retiree each year, a market share gain of two percent could be realized. That's not exactly small potatoes in today's marketplace. As such, the company has started what it calls the Ambassador Club for those employees who directly contribute to multiple Plan sales each year.

Workers who put on their sales faces outside of work and provide PINs that contribute to two Plan sales will receive basic membership to the Ambassador Club, which basically means that members will be given swag like logo'd shirts, hats, and so on, with the hope that displaying said gear in public will lead to further Plan sales. Two more sales bring membership to the club's Inner Circle, with as-yet unspecified benefits. So if you're in the market for a Ford and you know an employee of the company, go ahead and hit them up for a AXZ-Plan PIN - you could save several thousand dollars, and they'll get a nice polo shirt.

[Source: Blue Oval News]

Ford's Ambassador Club attempts to increase employee discount sales originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 01 Jun 2006 19:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Of the vehicles released in 2005, the Chevrolet Cobalt generated the most "buzz" among Generation Y buyers, with the Hummer H3 attracting the most attention from grunge-era Gen Xers. Baby-boomers flocked to Dodge's retro-esque Charger, and the grey-haired set went bonkers for the Ford Five Hundred. The Charger was the only vehicle to get a top-5 mention by both Gen Y and pre-boomers, which makes us wonder if the Buick Lucerne will be able achieve the same generation crossover feat in next year's survey.

The survey doesn't appear biased towards domestics, so the near-shutout of foreign nameplates that appear on the survey (only the Lexus RX400h and Mercedes CLS managed to move the buzz-meter) has got to be encouraging for US manufacturers - if indeed it's not simply a single year aberration or a result of some hidden statistical slant.  

A large "WTF?" goes to buyers in the Hybrid/Alternative Fuel category, who apparently got all abuzz over the Dodge Charger. Oh, yeah, we forgot - there is indeed the highly popular Charger Hybrid. And don't ask us why the Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 appears in this survey, as it's a MY2007 introduction that was not available during the period of the survey.

A tip o' the hat goes to GM's FYI Blog.

[Source: Harris Interactive; the full press release is posted after the jump]

Continue reading Harris poll ranks the top "buzz-worthy" vehicles from 2005

Harris poll ranks the top "buzz-worthy" vehicles from 2005 originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 31 May 2006 14:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

As Edmunds Inside Line correctly points out, Ford looks to be readying more facelifts for next year than a Los Angeles plastic surgeon. The latest to get the Norelco flat-bar grille treatment would appear to be the 2008 Five Hundred sedan, whose value and interior volumes have come in for praise, but whose milquetoast styling and underwhelming drivetrain and handling have been derided.

The Blue Oval hopes to rectify both issues by early next year, so we're eager to see how they manage.

[Source: Edmunds Inside Line]

(Great tip, Brian!)

Spyshot: 2008 Ford Five Hundred bagged! originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 06 Apr 2006 14:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Lucerne, Fusion hitting sweet spots originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 03 Mar 2006 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.