Once America’s best-selling car, Ford Taurus dies, again

DETROIT » A car that once was America’s top-seller is about to die — for a second time.

Ford Taurus, may you rest in peace at the salvage yard.

Blame the full-size sedan’s slow demise on the national obsession with SUVs and Ford Motor Co.’s need to slash costs and remake itself for a new era of self-driving cars and shuttles.

Ford announced the car’s passing this week as part of major restructuring plan aimed at focusing capital spending on more popular SUVs and technology needed to morph Ford into a mobility company.

The 114-year-old automaker said it would stop selling all car models in North America but two: the Mustang muscle car and a version of the compact Focus called Active. That means Ford’s Chicago plant will stop making Tauruses next March. North American production of the Focus compact car and Fiesta subcompact will halt in May, while the midsize Fusion lives a few more years before it departs.

They’ll be replaced by five new SUVs, all to deal with a market that has shifted dramatically in five years. Last month, trucks and SUVs were two-thirds of U.S. new vehicle sales. They were less than half in March of 2013.

“We will focus on products and markets where we know we can win,” new CEO Jim Hackett said in making the announcement.

That means the end of the line for the Taurus, which was completely remade as a new car for a third time in the 2010 model year. The timing couldn’t have been worse. It came out as high gas prices were sending families to more efficient midsize sedans like the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord. Then the SUV boom hit.

“It had everything going against it,” said Karl Brauer, executive publisher for Kelley Blue Book and Autotrader.

The Taurus was built on heavy, older underpinnings, limiting Ford’s ability to create more interior space or make the car more efficient, Brauer said. At the same time, midsize competitors used newer technology for better ride and handling and to expand inside space.

As a result, sales of the latest Taurus peaked in 2013 at nearly 80,000, falling to just over 41,000 last year.

The latest Taurus did develop a bit of a cult following, though, especially the 365-horsepower turbocharged performance version called S.H.O. for “Super

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS This April 20, 2011, file photo shows Mark Fields, executive vice president, Ford Motor Company, introducing the 2013 Ford Taurus SHO at the New York International Auto Show.