2016 Ford Taurus to ride atop reworked Fusion platform

Wed, 19 Mar 2014

Generally, cars get bigger and heavier as they get older. That's why it looks so ridiculous when you park a classic Mini next to a modern version. The same can be said of the Corvette, the BMW 3 Series, Porsche 911 and, of course, the Ford Taurus. In the Taurus' case, though, that size has become a liability, particularly because the big brute isn't nearly as sizable on the inside as it is on the out.

For 2016, Ford is aiming to rectify that. According to Edmunds, the 2016 Taurus will ride on a stretched and widened Ford Fusion platform. Ford is expecting this move to go a long way in trimming the Taurus' ample body fat.

"The problem with today's Taurus is that it is overweight and even the high performance SHO is not really competitive," said a source that spoke to Edmunds on condition of anonymity. The 365-horsepower SHO variant, "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."

It's unclear just how much fat Ford is expecting to extract from the Taurus, but for comparison, the aforementioned SHO tips the scales at 4,455 pounds, while a front-drive Fusion with the 2.0-liter EcoBoost is just 3,526. That gives Ford a lot of wiggle room. "Ford's big focus will be on light-weighting," the source told Edmunds.

Besides the diet, Ford is also planning to fit its biggest car with a new nine-speed automatic, in a bid to improve on fuel economy, according to Edmunds' source. It's unclear which engines will be featured, although we'd bet our bottom dollar that the 2.0-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder currently serving in the Taurus will be retained. Outside of that, though, it's anyone's guess. The 2.3-liter EcoBoost from the new Mustang might make an adequate replacement to the naturally aspirated V6 while the EcoBoosted engine from the SHO will likely carry on.

What are your thoughts on this? Should Ford be pushing the weight savings in a car that is so darn big and what should be the target weight? Would an all turbo lineup for the Taurus make sense? Let us know in Comments.

By Brandon Turkus