SPIED Next Falcon!!!!!

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Disguised 2009 Ford Taurus spotted testing, and it sits on a front-wheel-drive platform that could underpin the next-generation Falcon, writes JEZ SPINKS.
2009 Ford Taurus ST

2009 Ford Taurus ST Spy picture: Automedia

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2009 Ford Taurus ST2009 Ford Taurus ST Spy picture: Automedia2009 Ford Taurus ST Spy picture: Automedia2009 Ford Taurus ST Spy picture: Automedia2010 Ford Taurus

The camouflaged large car you see in these pictures could become the next Ford Falcon.

These spy photos feature the Ford Motor Company’s next-generation Taurus sedan that could replace Ford Australia’s locally built large car as part of the American car maker’s new One Ford program.

Ford is streamlining its global car platforms in a critical effort to reduce production costs – starting with the Fiesta small car – with the world’s number four car maker facing serious financial difficulties.

Included in our images is a blurry sedan that US motoring website Edmunds claims is the new Taurus that will debut at January’s 2009 Detroit motor show.

The new Taurus will continue to be front-wheel drive (with all-wheel-drive variants), and Ford president and chief executive Alan Mulally told Australian media last August that the next-generation Falcon is not guaranteed to be rear-wheel drive.

“Rear-wheel drive has some unique capability,” said Mulally, “but it is yet to be determined whether we keep our unique rear-wheel-drive or whether the bigger sedans [including future Falcons] will move to all-wheel drive or [front-wheel drive.

“All-wheel-drives and front-wheel-drives are pretty spectacular [these days] and they’re going to continue to get better.”

Mulally said that Ford large cars will use a single platform, to be shared between vehicles built in the United States, Asia or Australia.

The new Taurus retains Ford US’s trademark three-bar grille but features European-influenced styling that has some semblance to the mid-size Mondeo.

It’s expected to be slightly larger than its predecessor, and looks sportier thanks to a lower roofline, deeper flanks and rising waistline.

The Taurus’s engine line-up will also include Ford’s new EcoBoost V6 engines that are destined to replace Ford Australia’s Geelong-built 4.0-litre inline six-cylinder in the current Falcon from 2010.


This includes a twin-turbocharged V6 that has 254kW and 460Nm and is claimed by Ford to have V8-like power and four-cylinder-like efficiency.

Ford Australia sold a previous-generation version of the American-built Taurus between 1996 and 1998, though despite the model’s US success it struggled down-under – mainly as a result of its weird styling and the fact it competed against Ford’s own Australian-made Fairmonts.


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