1995 Ford Taurus - Balance Of Power - American Car

'96 Ford Taurus LXVs. Chevrolet Lumina Vs. Honda Accord Lx V-6 Vs. Toyota Camry LE V-6Look at the new '96 Ford Taurus and keep telling yourself that one day, it will look as comfortingly familiar as the aero-model that's been a fixture on American roadways for a decade. Someday, but not yet.

Sculpted in Ford's new ovoid style, the Taurus will shock some, and delight others-precisely the reactions that met the first Taurus back in '86, and American buyers embraced that car from the beginning. Ford is hoping for an equally warm reception for the new version, and it's given the Taurus more than just daring styling to generate admirers. A veritable cornucopia of technical improvements awaits the 400,000-plus drivers Ford hopes will slide behind the wheel of the '96 model-and then sign on the dotted line. In addition to far-reaching structural and safety improvements, the Taurus LX can be had with a brand-new uplevel engine: a 3.0-liter DOHC V-6. That's the setup we chose to test here, since short of the aggressively sporting Taurus SHO, it just doesn't get any better than this.

Naturally, the arrival of the '96 Taurus carries with it an implied question: How does it stack up against its strongest competitors? A comparison test is the only way to find out. But because the Taurus LX we drove for this article was still in preproduction form, we'll refrain from chiseling our observations in stone-at least until we're in a true production vehicle.

Choosing a batch of likely rivals for the new Taurus isn't as simple as it might sound. This crowded segment is full of contenders, some a little bigger, some a little smaller, with all kinds of different powertrain and equipment possibilities. Ultimately, we gathered up three of the most popular American-made models in the same size range as the new Taurus. We equipped each to best accentuate its strongest virtues-and to provide a cross-section of the attributes you can find in this class. Against this competitive landscape, the Taurus cuts a clear silhouette.

Among these top-selling cars, the target for family-sedan driving fun is the Honda Accord LX V-6. The Accord perennially battles with the Taurus for the number-one sales slot; its newest and best iteration is powered by a 2.7-liter V-6, an engine that at last gives the U.S.-built Accord the quiet smoothness to compete on an equal footing with the other V-6s in the class. Toyota's contender, the Camry, with its optional 3.0-liter V-6, has a character not unlike the shared-platform Lexus ES 300, but at a substantially lower price. As a final benchmark, we chose the high-value Chevrolet Lumina. It comes with a 3.1-liter OHV V-6 or, with the LS trim level, an optional 3.4-liter DOHC V-6. Though it would put the Chevy at a horsepower disadvantage, we chose the small engine and base trim level for this comparison to highlight the Lumina's role as the class bargain. In all, this popular trio defines the class in terms of driving fun (Accord), refinement (Camry), and value (Lumina).

Though the new Taurus isn't a true clean-sheet design, Ford engineers were nonetheless authorized to erase the previous blueprints with impunity. The new body shell they penned is radically stronger than the old car's: According to Ford's latest figures, torsional stiffness-central to a quiet vehicle with a quality feel-has jumped 87 percent. Cross beams, panel stiffeners, and reinforcements are everywhere throughout the unibody and pay dividends in roof-crush resistance and side-impact protection.

Ongoing control of noise, vibration, and harshness was an integral part of the Taurus project. Ford engineers worked not only to lower overall interior noise levels, but to tune the car's interior acoustically to make human voice frequencies more intelligible. And to boost the car's subjective quality, individual components were engineered to be audibly satisfying-from the whisk of the wipers to the slam of the hood.