Taurus Returns

A couple of years ago a buddy and I were at the Chicago Auto Show and we were walking through the Dodge section. The new Charger was just being released and the "suped up" versions were painted with classic racing stripes (large, often black, double stripes that run the length of the hood, roof, and trunk). My buddy commented that "Dodge needs to learn that they can't build performance via paint jobs."

Now, news reports are that FoMoCo will rename its Five Hundred model the Taurus. This just a couple of years after the last Taurus model was replaced by... the Five Hundred.

FoMoCo and all the other domestic marketers need to learn that they can't build sales share by rebranding. GM seems to continually recycle classic car names: Impala and Monte Carlo to name two. The American automakers need to improve quality and the perception of their quality, they need to get ahead of the market a little bit, and they need to make exciting cars. To continue to build and rely on large trucks years after gasoline prices began to spike and not to have any fuel efficient cars in the product pipe line is just blind, bad business.