2010 Ford Taurus SHO
Starting on February 11, the Chicago auto show will fill the giant McCormick Place convention center with hundreds of the latest production cars and trucks as well as several concepts.
The biggest news at this year’s Chicago auto show should be the anticipated debut of the 2010 Ford Taurus SHO, the high-performance version of the all-new Taurus sedan that Ford showed in Detroit.
The story of this superb sedan begins in 1989, when Ford created the affordable sports sedan offering the Taurus SHO. The SHO was a car built well before its time, and belonged to a genre of automobiles Ford has since all but abandoned. Though the SHO was retired in 1999 and the Taurus moniker in 2006, Ford has proven that nothing is final by re-incarnating the Taurus nameplate in 2008 and unveiling an all new Taurus for 2010.
In other words, when Alan Mulally took over as CEO of Ford, one of the first things he did was to rename the Five Hundred full-size sedan Taurus to take advantage of the nameplate’s strong mindshare. The second thing he did was order a complete redesign of the car. Mulally promised the 2010 Taurus would be “the one we should have made originally.”
“Lightning can strike twice,” said Peter Horbury, Ford’s North American design director. “Like the 1986 original, the new 2010 Taurus differentiates by combining style with substance.”
It seems that Ford decided to reposition the Taurus to become more of a personal luxury sedan, the likes of which have not been seen wearing a Ford badge in many, many years. Ford has decided to combine elements of its “Bold American” and European “Kinetic” design language for the 2010 model.
The new Taurus is powered by the automaker’s 3.5-liter V6 Duratec engine, mated to one of two available six-speed automatic transmissions, including SelectShift with shift paddle shifters mounted on the steering wheel. As was the case with the previous model, all-wheel-drive is optional. The V6 motor delivers an estimated 263 horsepower and 249 foot-pounds of torque. It earns a ULEV-II emissions certification and comes paired with a choice of two new six-speed automatic transmissions. Initially, the car will be offered in SE and SEL trim levels. Ford says it plans to offer a performance-oriented EcoBoost model, with an announcement regarding availability coming soon.
Taurus features a long list of high-tech features, including: Adaptive Cruise Control with Collision Warning, Intelligent Access with Push Button Start, MyKey parental programmability, Blind Spot Information System (BLIS) with Cross Traffic Alert, Rain-Sensing Wipers, EasyFuel capless refueling, Ford SYNC and Voice-Activated Navigation with SIRIUS Travel Link.
The new 2010 Taurus will start at $25,995 – the same price as 2009 model. The uplevel SEL starts at $27,995 and the top-end Limited will set buyers back $31,995.