Ford resurrected the hallowed "SHO" moniker when they debuted their all new Taurus in 2009 as a 2010 model. With 365 horsepower from a twin turbocharged (Ecoboost) V-6 and AWD, this SHO is a formidable performer.
Ford has a big problem - their Ford Taurus, which is a really big car and as is arguably their flagship, is not selling well. That's being kind, it's selling terribly.
Taurus is latin for, "The Bull".
Through October of this year Ford has moved less than 42,000 Taurus'; that's about as many Camrys as Toyota sells in a month. Granted that's a good month and, sorry, that's a slight exaggeration but it illustrates a point - the Taurus is a dud. A big, fat, ugly, overwrought dud that is oddly enough, a very good car. Especially an SHO with all-wheel drive. For the record Toyota has sold 361,000 Camry's this year. Honda, incidentally, has moved 295,000 Accords.
SHO is for "Super High Output". Ecoboost refers to Ford's series of turbocharged engines.
Chevrolet isn't exactly setting the full-size sedan market on fire either with their very dense looking and almost as ugly Impala, but they are selling more of them than Ford is selling Tauruses. Roughly 100,000 so far this year compared to not even 50,000 Taurus's - if you also count Lincoln's Taurus, the "MK-S". Come to think of it, we have to wonder about how many Impala sales are fleet sales too.
There was a time when the Ford Taurus was the best-selling car in America.
Meanwhile across the hall, Ford has sold 295,000 Fusions over the same period of time. Chevrolet has sold 171,000 Malibu's. Hmmm, what's going on?
This is the fourth generation of the vaunted "SHO" and the first one since 1999. The first SHO debuted in 1989.
What's going on is that IF buyers are going to go for a sedan, they want them more compact than beasts like this Taurus and the Chevrolet Impala. In fairness, we shouldn't compare Fusions, Malibu's, Camry's and Accords to the Taurus and Impala since they're different classes of automobiles, but the sales differences are worth taking note of.
With cars like the Taurus and Impala, is it any wonder that stylish CUV's are taking over?
Taurus will be redesigned for 2016 and will resemble their far more popular (and smaller) Fusion.
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