Editor's Rating: 
The Good: Top safety rating, available all-wheel drive, powerful new engine
The Bad: Unexciting styling, confusing name change, no hybrid version
The Bottom Line: A bland sedan that offers better value than its rivals
Reader ReviewsUp Front
After Alan Mulally was recruited from Boeing to become Ford's (F) new CEO last year, one of the first things he did was to revive the venerable "Taurus" nameplate. The original Taurus was a revolutionary model that for five straight years in the early '90s was the best-selling car in the U.S., beating out popular Japanese midsize sedans such as the Honda (HMC) Accord and Toyota (TM) Camry. So when Mulally rechristened the slow-selling Ford Five Hundred sedan the '08 Taurus, he was hoping to capitalize on the billions of dollars in brand equity Ford had built up in the Taurus name.
But how well does the new Taurus live up to its namesake's legacy? Having test-driven one for a week, my answer is: Not very. The new Taurus is a respectable vehicle?and much improved over the Five Hundred sedan it is replacing. Ford says that in converting the Five Hundred to the Taurus it made more than 500 improvements, the most important of which was to boost the engine size. At 263 horsepower, the '08 Taurus' 3.5 liter Duratec V6 is almost 30% more powerful than the engine in the Five Hundred.
But the new Taurus is also bigger than the old Taurus?more directly comparable with models such as the Chrysler 300, the Toyota Avalon, and the Buick Lucerne than it is with top-selling mid-size sedans such as the Camry and Accord. Ford's sales pitch is that the Taurus offers the size and comfort of bigger cars such as the Avalon and Chrysler 300, at a much lower price.
The '08 Taurus's stats are impressive. It comes in two trim levels, the SEL and the Limited, both available with all-wheel drive. The SEL starts at $23,995 with front-wheel and $25,845 with all-wheel drive, the Limited at $27,595 with front-wheel and $29,445 with all-wheel drive. Ford likes to note that the least expensive all-wheel-drive version of the Chrysler 300 tops $30,000.
However, the Taurus' price can top $35,000 if you load it up. Some of the pricier options include a navigation system ($1,995), rear seat entertainment system ($995), moonroof ($895), 18-inch chrome wheels ($695), and traction and stability control ($495).
The new Taurus is slightly wider and 7.5 inches longer than the '08 Accord (the biggest Accord ever) and more than a foot longer than the '08 Camry. That extra size gives the Taurus slightly more rear-seat legroom and a far bigger trunk than any of its rivals. In fact, at 21.2 cubic feet, the trunk is around 50% bigger than those of the Camry, Avalon, Accord, and Chrysler 300.
Despite its bigger engine, the Taurus is nearly 10% more fuel-efficient than the Five Hundred was, almost matching the mileage of Camry and Accord. With front-wheel drive, the '08 Taurus is rated to get 18 mpg in the city and 28 on the highway (17/24 mpg with all-wheel drive)?which is almost as good as a front-wheel drive, V6 powered Accord (19 city/29 highway,) or Camry (19/28). In 303 miles of sedate mixed driving, I got 19.8 mpg in the all-wheel drive version of the new Taurus. However, there's no hybrid Taurus to compete with the Camry Hybrid.
The '08 Taurus also earned the highest possible safety ratings. It was rated "five stars" by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in every category, and is a "Top Safety Pick" of the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety.
A big doubt about the '08 Taurus is how confused consumers will be by the name change (further muddying the waters, Ford also renamed its Freestyle crossover vehicle the Taurus X). It's unclear if the new Taurus sedan will outsell the Five Hundred, let alone remotely rival the Taurus's glory years, when annual sales topped 400,000 units.
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