The 2008 Taurus was introduced a year ago, and already it will see major changes. Ford CEO Alan Mulally said the new car will be "the one we should have made originally." Mulally was behind the move last year to rename the 2008 Five Hundred to Taurus.

http://www.leftlanenews.com/ford-to-...next-year.html

 

There's some good discussion about the new Taurus (with a little insider info) in this BON thread.

 

Bon has been non stop overloading for 2 days now . In a nutshell, I still think D3(as D3 is 20 years more advanced then any curent Toyota/Honda sedan), just using the overall roofline from the MKS so they can update the styling to an edgier car with all the good powerplants here and in the works. The Astrodome roof for the original 2003 intended launch of the 500 completely traps the car's styling.

 

Good chance we'll see this, or at least its concept, in Chicago next month.

 

 

Where did you get that from?

 

IMO, that actually... looks good!

 

Taurus, meet Iosis.

 

...and tweek it!

 

Wow! hat would make a nice daily drive

 

The Iosis concept was a slick looking car...

 

thats an extremly sxy car, that omg..i would love to have that next to the stang, so mondern in looks, clean, bold,elegant...thats beautiful...just needs different wheels....i think i like it so much becuase it looks fast sitting still

 

In my eyes its got some Aston in it's styling...

 

Would be great if it has the same impact on the family sedan segment that the original Taurus had.

 

The funny thing is, building an Iosis type car is just a matter of how you tell the machine to bend the metal, why they hell they chicken out every single time is beyond me. Its just bent metal and plastic.

 

Well, in all fairness, it's not QUITE that simple. How you bend the metal impacts interior room, which impacts packaging and placement of components. Then there is the reality that certain curvatures and designs may be inherently more or less safe than others. And while some designs may be sexy and doable in a safe manner, it may take a lot more money to do so, etc. - conceivably pricing an Iosis-based Taurus, for example, out of Ford's target market.

So I can understand why certain designs might not be so feasible.

Whether these reasons apply to Iosis, I cannot say. And it's true that Ford of North America likes to cheap out wherever possible. So who knows...?