Those Furious Fords: 1986 Ford Taurus
Workers at the Blue Oval are currently in the throes of moving house - or moving Glass House, as the case may be. The old headquarters, a 12-story monolith built in the mid-’50s and the site of an untold amount of Detroit history from the whole Ferrari deal to Iacocca being turfed, will be demolished in the coming year.
Why? Because a new Glass House has been constructed a few miles away, located far more sensibly near design and testing facilities which will promote better collaboration amongst all arms of vehicle planning. They’re even taking the old building’s address when they go. Here’s hoping at least some of mid-century modern tokens are saved from the old HQ.
[Images: Ford]
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Ford has, by its own admission, never been very good at preserving its four-wheeled heritage. A god’s honest quote from the company back in the day about the matter amounted to “Ford sells cars, we don’t collect them.” Fortunately, someone like Jim Farley is now at the helm, a gearhead who decreed two years ago the company needed to go out and recover some of its history, culminating in the assemblage of important concept vehicles and rigs with notable VINs. About 50 are on display in a parking garage not open to the public adjoining the old Glass House, with plans to create a rotating display at the new place in due time.
With this on the brain, the next three galleries will showcase a trio of Fords this author feels had a huge impact on what America puts in its driveways. It’ll be slightly nerdy - the original Mustang and such are important but obvious choices - but digging into the minutiae of automobiles is the type of content with which this site used to be filled, so I’ll do my damndest to fill the space.
As the Detroit automakers lurched into the 1980s, it became clear to anyone who didn’t have their head in the sand that Japanese brands were about to eat the Big 3’s lunch. Cars like the Civic were becoming big business - but it was also clear those companies weren’t going to hamstring their success solely to small cars for very long. Bright sparks at Ford recognized the second-gen Honda Accord (‘82-’85) was a towering competitor against the likes of a Fox-based LTD which is about all Ford had in its hopper for that segment at the time.
That’s why the Taurus was so devastatingly important not just for Ford but for the auto industry in general when it dropped for the 1986 model year - coincidentally the same model year Honda introduced its sporty looking third-gen Accord with hidden headlamps. Much has been written about how the Taurus appeared to have descended from space in terms of its looks, especially when parked against frumpy Detroit contemporaries and its own predecessor.
Available six-passenger seating placated traditionalists while gear like digital dashboards appealed to a new type of customer. A grille-less front end was huge news back in the day but would be well received and eventually inform styling choices on cars like the mighty Crown Vic. Still, Ford hedged its bets here initially: check out the shot of a traditional grille on this Taurus L from a first-year brochure.
And speaking of base models, gearheads know the MT5 trim paired the four-banger with a manual transmission in both the sedan and wagon; but did you also know that an MT5 wagon could be expensively optioned with a package that included ‘80s luxury items like cornering lamps, power driver seat, premium sound system, power windows, and a leather wrapped tilt steering wheel? Imagine an MT5 wagon nearly equally equipped to a GL parked next to it on the dealer lot. They surely sold at least one so equipped, making it rarer than just about any Lambo or Zonda.
