Ford TAURUS V8

desmodave, Apr 19, 7:42pm
What a good looking machine

pge, Apr 19, 8:31pm
Beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder, then.

Mrs pge once remarked, to her, they look like an unwell anteater.

gedo1, Apr 19, 8:33pm
They were given the nickname of."The Cockroach"

sandndude, Apr 19, 8:37pm
Yep and the Clit-Taurus.

richardmayes, Apr 19, 8:41pm
They look amazing parked next to a Falcon of the same age. It's not a shape I would want to own, but at least they have a shape.

Some years ago when I was tiring of my first Triumph 2500 I had a look at a Taurus V6 stationwagon in an import yard. It seemed like a lot of car for the money, after a day of looking at little plastic jap hatchbacks.

.until you notice the 3-speed auto gear selector, just like a British car of the 1960s.

.and the lack of any advanced mod-cons.

And the high bulbous dashboard (just like a Corolla) that prevents you from seeing any bonnet in front of you while driving.

.and at that point it occurred to me that my old 1977 Triumph could do basically everything the Taurus could do. plus it looked good.

paul861, Apr 19, 8:42pm
they put the motor in the wrong way. v8s drive rear wheels

richardmayes, Apr 19, 8:45pm
Never say never. I could probably get into a little Lancia Thema 8.32 with an east-west Ferrari V8 in it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancia_Thema

Probably not a big heavy family Ford though.

xpfairmont, Apr 19, 9:02pm
Poor Americans

floscey, Apr 19, 10:01pm
even as a staunch Ford man , i have to shake my head sometimes.

kingfisher21, Apr 20, 2:21am

thejazzpianoma, Apr 20, 4:08am
It was a shape/style that started out from various manufacturers of the time but just never took hold. Just look at the Fiat Marea/Bravo/Brava of the time. They too were going for that roundy style but quickly did an about face.

People heckle them now, and they do look dated and odd. But when this sort of styling was just about to come out initial public reaction at the time was actually pretty good.

richardmayes, Apr 20, 5:05am
Just look at Chrysler 300Ms and Concordes, Dodge Intrepids etc and you can see that ultra-rounded was definitely all the rage for a while in the U.S.

thejazzpianoma, Apr 20, 5:26am
Good point, I think the Americans sort of took that style and went a bit gaudy with it. The Brits with the Rover 75 and its ilk were more subtle so along with theItalians perhaps got away with it a bit better.

fordcrzy, Apr 20, 9:46am
i went and saw a design expo in australia in 1999 that had the "behind the scenes" of the AU falcon. basically they took the taurus plans and put them in a photocopier at 110%. until they released the beta prototype to a focus group who bagged it mercilessley. so they went for the euro edge designs grafted to the "taurus" body section.
if they had designed it properly and hadnt been such muppets they wold have come up with a BA style car instead of the AU

rob_man, Apr 20, 9:57am
I saw an Edsel the other day. Just sayin'.