You would have had to have lived in a cave over the last two decades not to be familiar with one of Ford Motor Co.'s (NYSE: F) most successful lines of automobiles: the Taurus. Well today the last of a long line of Taurus's rolled off the assembly line at the company's Atlanta assembly plant.Yes, after 21 years and seven million sales, the Taurus is now a thing of the past as Ford continues its reorganization. As part of the company's turn-around plan, the Atlanta assembly plant and its 1,950 employees have ceased operations. The company decided to end production at the Atlanta plant back in January as part of its desperate scramble to win back market share. This week Ford announced its third quarter financial results which showed a $5.8 billion loss, its largest single quarter loss in 14 years.
As Ford tries to adjust to better meet customer demands, the Taurus was destined to see the end of its days. Once selling in excess of 400,000 vehicles a year, recently the auto maker has watched the sales of the sedan drop to under 150,000 annually. The last of the cars was sold to Truett Cathy, founder of the Chick-fil-A restaurant chain who plans to put the car in the auto museum of his chain's corporate headquarters in Atlanta.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-07-2006 @ 1:05AM
Auto Parts Wholesalers Online said...
Ford Fusion and the Ford Five Hundred will be the replacement for the Taurus in the mid-size sedan segment, so let's wait and see if these two vehicles can achieve Taurus' good reputation for years.