2010 Ford Taurus - A Renewed Athletic, Stylish, and Powerful Sedan
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The 2010 Taurus is Ford's full-size trademark sedan, and this model year it sees a significant makeover, which includes new exterior and interior styling as well as high-end options you might not expect to find in a mainstream family sedan. Furthermore, the 2010 Taurus lineup will include the return of the high performing Taurus SHO. The new Ford Taurus looks athletic and sculpted like never before. The 2010 Taurus is available in SE, SEL and Limited trim levels and is offered with front- or all-wheel drive. The Taurus hits dealerships in July 2009, and will compete with the Buick Lucerne, Chrysler 300 and Toyota Avalon. With the 2010 Ford Taurus, one of America’s most mainstream sedans has gone decidedly upscale. The benefits of the Taurus are its sporty styling, its large trunk, its improved cabin space, and available options that are at luxury grade. The 2010 Ford Taurus gets a starting MSRP of $25,170. The uplevel SEL starts at $27,995 and the top-end Limited sets buyers back $31,995. Ford added a healthy helping of technology to the 2010 Taurus. Many of these features were once found exclusively in high-end luxury cars, but now Ford is making them mainstream. The list of optional features includes: Adaptive cruise control that uses radar to adjust the car's cruising speed in traffic; keyless entry with push-button start; and Ford's keyless entry keypad with a new pad flush-mounted on the driver’s side B-pillar. These are added to the latest version of Ford's SYNC infotainment interface that includes turn-by-turn route guidance.
Driving the Taurus
The 2010 Ford Taurus moves like it looks, with athletic grace. The new Taurus is front-wheel drive, with an all-wheel-drive option, and its engines give it plenty of power. SEL and Limited versions have paddle shifters and a manual shift mode. Compared to the outgoing model, the chassis components under the 2010 Taurus should deliver sportier ride dynamics. Ford engineers promise more roll stiffness and more responsive steering. Like the MKS, the new Ford uses struts up front and multi-link, fully-independent arrangement in the rear.
2010 Taurus Design
The previous generation Taurus had a rather plain design, not a style that would automatically attract consumers. Ford has addressed that issue with the 2010 model by giving the sedan sleeker sheet metal that bestows a sportier look on Ford's flagship car. The new grille and front bumper combination is reminiscent of Ford's European cars.
The Taurus has been given a crisper profile that bears hints of the smaller Ford Fusion. The front fenders are pronounced and the roof is lowered, giving the sedan a sportier stance. However, there are still some issues with the front of the vehicle, theTaurus grille and wrap-around headlights look good, but they simply don't match the other cars in the Ford line. There's also new trunklid and taillight designs. Standard aluminum wheels measure 17 inches in diameter, but 18- and 19-inch wheels can be had.
Power for the Ford Taurus
The front-wheel or all-wheel drive Taurus is powered by a 263-hp 3.5-liter direct injection V6 engine and six-speed automatic transmission with the option of steering wheel mounted paddle shifters. The 2010 Ford Taurus SHO is an animal, thanks mostly to the most powerful “EcoBoost” V-6 Ford will build. The 3.5-liter V-6 gets twin turbochargers to produce 365 horsepower and 350 pound-feet of torque—almost as much as a V-8. The Taurus' maximum towing capacity when properly equipped is 1,000 pounds.
Taurus Cabin Features
The inside of the Taurus has gone from a run-of-the-mill design to a stylish cabin with upscale materials that help the car keep pace in the family sedan segment. The cabin gets very tight fit and very appealing finishes, with a touch of high-tech frosting with ambient lighting and other available features. There is room for five passengers in the 2010 Taurus, the backseat is big, but it feels like the roof is encroaching more on rear passenger space than it did before. The Taurus has a large trunk for this segment, and includes 20.1 cubic feet. A split-folding backseat for expanding the cargo area is standard. The bottom line with the Taurus’ cabin is there is simply a huge amount of room. In front the Taurus has great room for tall drivers, and great space in back for six-foot passengers and their knees. This is a large sedan that seems even larger once you open the rear doors, a rarity in the class. Standard features include air conditioning, a power driver's seat, a tilt/telescoping steering wheel, cruise control and a CD stereo. Available features include a Sony six-CD audio system, leather seats, power-adjustable pedals, a moonroof, heated and cooled front seats, heated rear seats and a power rear sunshade.
Ford Taurus SHO
Along with a more athletic Taurus for 2010, comes the return of the SHO performance model, powered by a twin-turbo version of the 3.5-liter V6, it produces 365-hp and channels that through standard all-wheel drive and a paddle-shifted six-speed automatic transmission. SHO stands for Super High Output which effectively caps the Taurus lineup from a performance and luxury standpoint. The SHO uses Ford's EcoBoost initiative, which foregoes larger engines for smaller turbocharged ones that purportedly get better gas mileage. Ford says the Taurus SHO will have the most powerful EcoBoost engine available; total output is 365 hp and 350 pounds-feet of torque. The Taurus SHO differs slightly in appearance from the other Taurus trims; standard 19-inch wheels are used (20-inchers are optional on this version), there’s a trunklid spoiler, twin chrome exhaust tips and a snazzier grille. The SHO’s interior sports more enthusiast nods, with leather and faux-suede front seats, a perforated leather steering wheel, aluminum-trimmed pedals and aluminum touches around the cabin. Highway gas mileage will be somewhere in the mid-20s.
Summary
The 2010 Taurus is Ford's new flagship that offers full-size car interior dimensions, luxury car interior quietness, a top safety rating as well as advanced technology, to give it's owners confidence on the road. Standard safety features include antilock brakes, side-impact airbags for the front seats, side curtain airbags and an electronic stability system. Rear parking sensors, a blind spot warning system and a collision-prevention system are optional. Standard safety features include electronic stability and traction control, four-wheel anti-lock brakes, six airbags, ignition disable and post-crash SOS alert. Taurus features a long list of high-tech features, including: Adaptive Cruise Control with Collision Warning, Intelligent Access with Push Button Start, MyKey parental programmability, Blind Spot Information System (BLIS) with Cross Traffic Alert, Rain-Sensing Wipers, EasyFuel capless refueling, Ford SYNC and Voice-Activated Navigation with SIRIUS Travel Link. Visit the official Ford Taurus Site for more information.
