Sequels of ’95 : For the Next Go-Round, Ford Will Shore Up Taurus’ Flaws

We spent 10 days in October behind the wheel of a 1996 Ford Taurus and saw its over-ovoid styling as a monument to motion sickness (“For Those Who’d Like to Drive a Jujube,” Oct. 27). The metaphors stopped just short of Anna Nicole Smith.

Some were not amused. Yet we were not alone. Said Business Week: “Melted-butter-stick.”

Noted an editor in Car and Driver: “Inspired, perhaps by staring into a lava lamp too long.”

Newsweek and USA Today weren’t bullish for Taurus. But the New York Times and Road & Track called it a keeper.

Taurus didn’t rate Car and Driver’s 10 Best Cars list. Or rather Nine Great Cars and One Terrific Van. But it is a finalist for North American Car of the Year and was voted Best of What’s New by Popular Science.

Sales figures haven’t broken the standoff. In November, Taurus was down. But so were numbers for everyone in the car business.

“The next quarter,” said Ford spokesman John Clinard, “should provide a more accurate picture.”

But our criticism did bear encouraging fruit.

We hated the test car’s orange tweed and beige velour upholstery. Clinard said that fabric has been dumped. We carped about an armrest with cup holders that unfolds like a Swiss army knife but obscures a cigarette lighter used for cell phones and radar detectors. Clinard said a second power outlet is being installed.

The flaws “have been duly recognized and changed,” he added.