Ford Will Redesign Taurus Next Year

Ford CEO Alan Mulally let slip some interesting product news today: During a speech at the Auto World Congress in Detroit, he said that there would be a new Taurus sedan coming next year. “The new Taurus is the one we should have made originally,” he said.

There are a few interesting tidbits here. One, it was Mulally who, after arriving at Ford from Boeing, immediately decided to resurrect the Taurus name on an existing and failing model, the Five Hundred. The resurrection included some major upgrades and took place just last year, for the 2008 model year.

We’d guess the current Taurus would stay for another year as a 2009 model. Even after it’s replaced, there’s a chance its sister vehicle, the Mercury Sable, could stay around as is. Neither is lighting the world on fire in the sales department, but the Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan might be too similar to their sibling sedans, even though they’re smaller vehicles. It’s unlikely the Taurus would move to a rear-wheel-drive platform, but it could take its cues from the upcoming AWD 2009 Lincoln MKS. We’ll have to wait and see.

Ford CEO Says New Taurus Coming (Detroit Free Press)