Lose the center front rooftop mounted antenna and put it in the rear windscreen like any normal modern European-designed car.

I LOVE WHINING !

Kind of looks like a mashup of a TL with Subaru headlights and an Audi nose. Interesting but not bad, definately better looking than the current Taurus/500.

Yup, that antenna mounting is gayer than Clay Aiken.

wow, the added value of the US team has been defined: name search. great. the rest can go!

Looks good. Sorta looks Volvo-ish in the front. Need to make the antenna a retractable version.

Good move on Fords' part. However, they really should consider calling it a Mondeo instead of a Taurus. The Taurus moniker just brings up every horrible rendition over the past 25 years.

It's amazing how the marketing teams at large companies can tell Engineers and designers what people want, but can't figure out that labelling a product with a stupid name can kill it.

Interesting but I hate how they keep saying "4-door coupe." A coupe has 2 doors...a sedan has 4...stop mixing the two. As far as looks, I'm mixed. I liked the Mondeo coupe but this doesn't have enough styling for me. I liked the Taurus concept put out on Torque Report a few months ago better.

Ford does what everyone wants and ya'll still complain.

Ford does what everyone wants and ya'll still complain.

We have to wait 4 or 5 more years before Ford brings what the market wants. Good move, idiots. Not a bad looking car, but why make us wait? If the interest is here now, get it certified for the US and get it here soon. I agree, drop the Taurus name. Call it the 500 again, or Mondeo, just not Taurus.

Finally we are getting the good stuff Ford was hiding overseas.
Its to bad it takes putting Fords back to the wall to get it done.

I like it. As far as the Taurus being horrible, atleast the first 3 generationd were widely raved about. People loved them. It definately is time for the name to go, though. I say put a 3.5 Duratech in there, and leave room for twins!

#1 - The picture shown is the current European Mondeo. So that is not what the new car will look like.

#2 - I still don't understand WHY a designer can design a car for two different manufacturers and yet people call one exciting and the other boring. The same designer penned the last generation VW Passat and the Ford Five Hundred (now Taurus). Everyone ooohed and aaahed over the Passat, but they call the Five Hundred boring. Morons!

I drive an '06 Five Hundred AWD. Boring? Nope. A little slow off the line because of the CVT, but it handles just as good as a Volvo S80 and better than the XC90. Both of which share a chassis with the Five Hundred (and the AWD system).

Ford ruined a good product by renaming it the Taurus and by dropping the Haldax AWD system for their own cheap AWD system.

@Todd:

I have to agree with your assessment. I never understood the backlash against the 500. Ford lured away a designer from VW/Audi that did pen the Passat and Audi A6. The styling of the 500 was fine. Ford should have just added the 3.5/6speed auto and kept the name. Slapping the "Taurus" label is an insult to current model. The Taurus name evokes bland rental cars, not the groundbreaking design of the 80's.

The current Taurus is a fine car, with good styling, very comfortable ride, and nice 6 speed auto.

Ford should just car the new vehicle a Mondeo.

Damn
ford makes way better cars for their European customers, and the europeans won't buy the US models as it's

1) to poorly designed
2) gas guzzlers
3) big
4) gas only
5) lower safety standards
6) sucky automatic transmissions (4 speed vs. 5 or 6) w/ no stick option.

and now, after all the shit with gas prices hurting their bottom line, they have decided to bring their more efficient european models to N America - thanks ford!,
- for screwing us over for years with less fuel efficient products all this time and then making us feel thankful that your selling us the better engineered stuff finally.

the sad thing is by time they get it together it may be a moot point as i for one am purchasing a plug in electric vehicle the day it becomes available from toyota (or maybe GM)

My only hope for an interim car purchase till 2010 is a diesel VW passat!!

and the saddest part is the big three lobbies against higher fuel standards every time yet they sell more efficient models directly in EU today (they had to or no one would buy it) - so as with everything else, pressure from the market forced them to be better elsewhere, and only when forced to will they sell it here to the less fussy US consumer.

@Rodney:

For a large part I think the US people will have to blame themselves for the big gas guzzlers over there. For many years Americans wanted nothing but big blocks and heavy sounds. Didn't care about economical or not. The European and Japanese engines were too small, too quiet and without enough horsepower, they were laughed at because the American V8 was all that and then some. (Actually the fact alone that they weren't made in the US was good enough reason for a lot of people not to buy it!)

So don't blame Ford for selling those cars for so long, it just sold what the market asked for. And quality wise... if you want a company to stop making crap the only way to force them to change is to stop buying their products. Now the gas prices are going up, consumers do want more economical cars so now they want the European and Japanese cars so Ford will deliver them now.

Logical result of supply and demand!

nice i like it and i hope we see more euro designes show up on our shores soon, it looks sexy but isnt a phallic extension (ie, CTS/V or Challenger like)

It definitely looks sort of TL-ish, though the nose is a bit different. Overall, this is great news from Ford. The Mondeo has frequently been named as best in class in Europe for years.

Why did it take Ford so Long to listen to us? This is great news but will we actually have to wait until 2013? (Thats quite a while)!

Obviously this new car will take the place of the Fusion, which is similar in size to the Mondeo, even if it does use the Taurus name. So what happens to the current 500/Taurus? Does it replace the Crown Vic as Ford's full-sized model? Does it die, along with the class? Or does it get replaced by a new full-sized car on a new platform?

2013 = fail.

As much as Ford loves the name Taurus, I agree they have to ditch it, but definitely not like they did with the 500! Nobody even knows the Taurus exists anymore and the ones that still do remember it as a bland underpowered, unreliable soccer mom vehicle. I really like the name Mondeo, it sounds modern and will get more hype when brought up to the public.

They need to bring all the European models over here and use 1 name worldwide, like Honda does for the Accord. If they really want to be a world leader again. Customers will come back when the price, design & quality are near the rest of the automakers.

Is this Ford Falcon XT,not the same car in Australia ?

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/large-gallery/0,25410,5029668-5013800-14,00.html

Falcon XT Wagon should use the Falcon XT sedan front end.

How about this model Ford's new Falcon FG model line up - FPV Super Pursuit ute
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/large-gallery/0,25410,5029668-5013800-5,00.html
Pontiac is coming out with one of these in 2009

The Falcon XT Wagon should use the Falcon XT sedan front end and make it sporty

It seems to me that the US part of the Ford Motor Co is experiencing group think, while their European counterparts are performing good business. Maybe the big 3 need to get out of the midwest and look around a bit (sorry, to stereotype, but hard to exlain the big 3's obsession with the 50's in any other way). Sure, consumers like big V8's but isn't that somewhat because Detroit spent billions on ads telling us that's what we wanted? I think they lost touch, confusing their propaganda with consumer want. In a way, this might also be blamed on how socialist America has become in supporting big companies with Hummer tax breaks, etc. Ironic that perhaps the European market was fostering more creative spirit. Another example would be the European TDI market. Why not here? People say air pollution, but isn't it Europe that has the more strict environmental attitude? And since when did Congress ignore Detroit's wants? And now many readers are pointing out that Ford's American decision makers seem to be lost in Taurus land. What kind of capitalism is this when a couple of armchair experts like us can offer better strategy than whomever is making the decisions at Ford?! Great that Ford is finally coming around, just wondering if they'll screw it up in some silly way.