Taurus shines with stability, serenity, safety

0 Comments | USA TODAY, August, 2007 | by James R. Healey

No, they haven't brought back the Taurus.

The folks at Ford Motor have brought back the name "Taurus" and put it onto a slow-selling big sedan, hoping the name recognition (80% of car shoppers say they know what Taurus is) will boost sales.

It isn't an empty move. The car got significant changes before it got the new name for the 2008 model year.

Pre-Taurus, the sedan was called Five Hundred. (Test Drive, September 2004.) Introduced in 2004 as an '05 model, it never got serious sales traction. Ford sold 108,000 in 2005, but just 84,000 last year, according to Autodata, and only 36,000 the first half this year. It has been hobbled by a lukewarm V-6 teamed with an underwhelming CVT, or continuously variable automatic transmission.

As part...