DEARBORN, Mich., Feb. 6 — The Ford Taurus, the car credited with reinvigorating American automotive design two decades ago before falling into virtual irrelevance by the time it was retired last year, is coming back to life.

Paul Sancya/Associated Press
Ford’s chief, Alan R. Mulally, introducing the 2008 Five Hundred sedan at an auto show in Detroit. The Five Hundred will be renamed the Taurus, after a discontinued model that was once the nation’s best-selling car.
But not as the nameplate on a new car. Instead, the Ford Motor Company is expected to announce Wednesday that it will rechristen the slow-selling Ford Five Hundred sedan the Taurus later this year when a freshened version is introduced. Its cousin, the Mercury Montego, is expected to be renamed the Sable.
Ford stopped making the old Taurus and Sable about three months ago after a 20-year run. Late last year, Ford’s newly hired chief executive, Alan R. Mulally, publicly questioned the wisdom of abandoning such a venerable brand.
A bungled redesign and Ford’s decision to focus on more profitable sport utility vehicles in the mid-1990s cost the Taurus its status as the best-selling car in the United States. In its final years, the Taurus was merely an also-ran, available solely to rental-car agencies and other fleet operators.
Still, Ford, which lost $12.7 billion last year, apparently feels the name recognition trumps what little brand equity it has managed to build for the Five Hundred, which is itself a variation of the old Fairlane 500.
Sales of the Five Hundred, which Ford considers its flagship sedan, fell 22 percent in 2006 and amounted to less than half as many units as the fleet-only Taurus.
“The Taurus name has been an outstanding one for us,” said a Ford spokeswoman, Sara Tatchio, who would neither confirm nor deny plans for reviving the name. “There’s been a whole lot of buzz about it since Alan mentioned also liking the name.”
Mr. Mulally, a former executive at Boeing, has a personal attachment to the Taurus, having studied its development to help his team overhaul how Boeing built planes.
As all three Detroit automakers struggle, they have been reaching into their past for nostalgic vehicle names. The Chrysler Group brought back the Dodge Charger as a sedan last year. Two classic muscle car names, the Dodge Challenger and Chevrolet Camaro, are slated to return within a few years.
In Ford’s case, though, the Taurus brand had become so damaged by the end that it is unlikely to conjure images of the company’s glory days in many car buyers’ minds, said Laura Ries, president of Ries & Ries, a marketing strategy firm based in Atlanta.
“Unfortunately, they let the Taurus die. Once you do that to a brand, it’s difficult to bring it back,” Ms. Ries said. “Consumers are not necessarily going to remember the best days of the Taurus.”
When new, the Taurus had an aerodynamic, jelly bean-shaped design that stood out from other American-made cars criticized as being too boxy and bland.
It was an immediate and lasting success for Ford, which sold seven million of the Taurus and millions more of the similar-looking Sable in their time on the market.

Wow. Drop everything and fire up your old eTrade account and buy buy buy on that Ford Motor Company stock. As of 2pm central, Ford is trading at $8.58 up .46%. Apparently the geniuses in Detroit think the resurrection of a nameplate synonymous with adjectives such as POS and marshmallow mobile can suddenly inject life into a car manufacturer that is on life support. Let us not get ahead of ourselves just yet.

Ok let me try to state the obvious once more to you boneheads in Detroit (mainly FORD). THIS IS NOT 1991 anymore. Gone are the days of low fuel prices and that novelty you call a SUV; the explorer is done. Your designs are at least one generation behind others manufacturers and your marketing/advertising campaigns are downright idiotic. Does anyone remember the SUV television commercial featuring the divorced/separated parent?

Ford 500? I believe in American ingenuity, but that POS is just a sad example of how creativity and the American spirit can get trampled on by bureaucratic bullshit.

Cut the b.s. and build cars the people want.

1st entry into the blogosphere

So here it is, my first entry into the "blogosphere." (SP?). It feels good to be in the blogosphere. I hope people enter my blogoregion and share their blogothoughts.

It looks like I'll be sprucing this thing up over the weekend. I might try to re-do this template, fire up the old dreamweaver/flash. Btw, I am typing this simultaneously while pretending to listen to my blabbermouth co-worker.

The reason for the existence of "Ashtray floors, dirty clothess n' filthy jokes" Blog is to share some of my musical musings (my own band and others), as well as my deepest most sacred thoughts…um yea. Seeing as though this will never be read by a living breathing intelligent organism…

I guess my 2nd entry into the blogosphere will be an introduction/orientation type deal.