1996 Ford Taurus Sedan and Wagon

Driving ImpressionFord believes the folks in Peoria, Plano, Pine Bluff, and Provo are ready for some automotive excitement. The residents of Middle America-what the self-proclaimed elite term "fly-over country"-want some of the automotive style and flash previously largely reserved for foreign-car buyers on the coasts. Or so Ford hopes.

When the '96 Taurus goes on sale this September, Ford will offer concept-car styling, inside and out, at a take-home price. The new Taurus sedan provides unabashed sheetmetal flair (and aspirations to sporty driving sensations) in a package that retains the current Taurus' comfortable familiarity. Meanwhile, the new Taurus wagon projects an image all its own, one much closer to the lively BMW 530i Touring than to a Country Squire.

Performing the first major redesign (since its '86 debut) on America's favorite family car was no simple task for Ford engineers. The Taurus is not only FoMoCo's bread-and-butter revenue generator, it's the car that redefined what a domestic four-door can be. So, should Ford have taken the easy road and merely upgraded the Taurus' appearance, or was it time to go off in a wholly new direction? Our opportunity to drive a new Taurus sedan and wagon came with one caveat: The sedan was a work-in-progress prototype that had been built on a pilot assembly line using production tooling. Ford said the car represented "only 85 percent" of the final form. Indeed, engineers were still tuning; the suspension springs were changed just before our drive. The wagon was a visually correct but mechanically rough "for photos only" mule.

The new Taurus' styling theme is based on the Ford trademark oval. It seems like everything on the car is ovoid: the grille, the exterior door handles, the panel that houses the interior door handles, the headlights, the driver-side airbag pad, the outside rearview mirrors, the speakers on the A-pillars, the side window defroster nostrils, the rear window, and more. To some eyes, it appears stylists carried the elliptical theme a bit far, but the form does have a functional benefit: The drag coefficient is reduced to 0.30 from 0.32.

Incongruous in this styling-fest is how the windshield wipers rest high on the windshield, and thanks to the steeply raked hood and low cowl and fenders, from the inside, they're the only exterior part of the car visible through of the steep 64-degree-raked windshield.

The Taurus was developed alongside the '95 Lincoln Continental and shares more with the new Continental than with its own previous generation. The wheelbase is up 2.5 inches to 108.5, just 0.5 shorter than the Lincoln's. At 73.1 inches, the '96 Taurus is 1.9 inches wider than its '95 version, and only 0.2 inch narrower than the Continental. Inside the sedan, front passenger room is significantly enhanced, with a 0.9-inch increase in both head- and legroom and 0.6 inch more hiproom, though shoulder room falls 0.1 inch. Rear passengers, on the other hand, lose as much as they gain: While minimum legroom is up 1.1 inches and there's 1.5 inches more hiproom, headroom drops a significant 1.4 inches, and there's 1.0 inch less shoulder room. Another victim of fashion: trunk volume, down 2.5 cubic feet.

The basic suspension design is little changed from the previous generation: MacPherson struts with lower control arms and an anti-roll bar are in front, and in the rear are Chapman struts with parallel transverse arms, trailing links, and an anti-roll bar. New front geometry adds anti-lift and anti-dive characteristics and lessens camber and caster changes. Springs, shocks, and anti-roll bars have been retuned with a sporty feel in mind. LX models are shod with 205/55TR15 versions of General's new Ameria*G4S all-season radials.