Ford announced today that it will revive the Taurus name and apply it to the 2008 version of the Ford Five Hundred and that the revised Mercury Montego will be renamed the Sable. The Ford Freestyle crossover, also freshened for 2008, will become the Ford Taurus X.
During a Chicago Auto Show interview, Ford's President of the Americas Mark Fields admitted Ford made a mistake ditching the Taurus name, which is recognized by 80 percent of consumers. Of the seven million Tauruses that were sold, more than 3.5 million are still on the road today.
Fields said it would take many years and millions of dollars to build new brand names to the level of the Taurus and Sable, with no guaranteed success. Still, there's no guaranteed success in reverting to the classic names either.
Will consumers associate the new Taurus with the original trend-setting Taurus of the 1980s - or will they remember the more recent Taurus, which Ford neglected to keep competitive in the marketplace?
