If you haven’t already heard, Ford is discontinuing all of its non-Mustang cars in favor of crossovers, SUVs, and trucks. On Friday, the company’s final Taurus full-size sedan rolled off the line at its assembly plant in Chicago, ending a nearly-constant 34-year production run. Since the nameplate first came on the scene in 1985, over eight million Tauruses have been built at Ford’s Windy City factory.
The end of the Taurus doesn’t mean assembly workers in Chicago will be out of work though as Ford has invested $1 billion and added 500 jobs to the Illinois facility in order to pump up production of the new Explorer, Police Interceptor Utility, and Lincoln Aviator.
“Taurus broke new ground at its start and we’re thankful for its role in our portfolio,” said Ford Marketing Vice President Mark LaNeve. “Those same kinds of innovations will continue for today’s customers with Ford Explorer and the rest of our lineup.” Ford intends to replace 75 percent of said lineup by the start of 2021.
After introducing the sedan to the public at the Los Angeles Auto Show in 1985, Ford came out with a high-performance SHO model in 1989 boasting a downright excessive 220-horsepower V6. Hey, it was the ’80s. The Ford sedan was the best-selling car in the U.S. by 1992 and—in manual transmission, SHO guise—had caught the attention of a certain late night host.
The fascias of the late-’90s third-generation were plastered on NASCARS before the model became largely used as fleet vehicles, taxicabs, and police cruisers.