Rare Rides Icons: The Ford Taurus and the Reinvention of the Family Sedan (Part II)

By the late 1970s, Ford was struggling both on the sales floor and on the balance sheet. Its domestic lineup relied on just three platforms to cover everything from Ford to Lincoln, leaving the midsize LTD—a dated, rear-wheel-drive workhorse—looking increasingly out of step with a market shifting toward front-wheel-drive efficiency.

Ford’s response was a five-year gamble on an all-new family car. That project eventually became the Taurus, along with its platform siblings, the Mercury Sable and the Lincoln Continental. The goal was nothing less than to modernize the American family sedan, moving it away from the boxy, thirsty designs of the past.

The development process wasn’t easy, but it set the stage for a vehicle that would not only rescue Ford’s reputation but also redefine what buyers expected from a mainstream sedan. This second installment in our series looks at how the Taurus emerged from a period of turmoil to become a game-changer.