Ford News: Rumorpile: Ford Dropping Some Girth From The Next-Gen Taurus

[William Maley]

Usually the rule with vehicles is that the older they get, the heavier and bigger they become. The Ford Taurus mostly follows this rule. Outside the car is big and heavy, while the interior isn't. It can be best described as a rolling sensory deprivation tank. However a new report from Edmunds says the next-generation Taurus plans to rectify that.

A source tells Edmunds that Ford plans a major weight-loss plan for the Taurus. It begins with a modified Fusion platform that will be extended and widened for the Taurus.

"The problem with today's Taurus is that it is overweight and even the high performance SHO is not really competitive. With all the power from the (365-horsepower) V6 EcoBoost, it is pretty hard to overcome the amount of mass that the SHO has to move." The Taurus SHO "actually weighs about as much as the stretched Audi A8 L. Of course, Audi uses an extensive amount of aluminum, but it is a much bigger car," the source said.

Another item that Edmunds reported was the Taurus getting a nine-speed automatic transmission to help with fuel economy.

Source: Edmunds

William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.

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