The fish mouth is bigger, but I was more than a bit struck by how much similarity there was between these two overall. There’s certainly more design lineage between them than to today’s Taurus. Now I’m going to keep thinking that’s a Taurus every time I see one.
The Taurus name was so sullied in the current and previous generations that I’m okay with this car being called Fusion.
What would be amazing is an American car company picking a name and sticking with it for generations upon generations of similarly sized automobile. Imagine if the midsized Ford had been called Taurus from 1985 until now? We would be approaching 30 years of continuous production for the nameplate and competing in the same market.
+1. There’s a lot to be said for familiarity. On the face of it, ‘Accord’, ‘Camry,’ ‘Civic’, and ‘Corolla’ are very silly names. Put them on good cars for long enough, though, and they become golden.
IMO, American automakers have been too fixated on erasing their old model from the public’s memory, at the expense of making the new model anonymous.
+1. I feel the same way.
You mean like “Mustang”?
Traditionally, I think North America vehicles were more marketing driven with style seemingly being as important as build quality. I’m not sure if they were prepared to stand behind building value in these model names in the long run knowing they weren’t as good as the foreign models with long standing names.
Chevrolet or Ford could not retain the “Vega” or “Pinto” names, for a next generation car, given the terrible baggage they had. If they did it for some models and not others, it would highlight their disassociation with those discontinued models. It’s marketing over commitment to lasting quality I believe.
It must help if the car’s model name is based on an animal with antlers or horns. Thus, the Impala (which in turn reminds me of Vlad the Impaler), though I know they’re a lot smaller than they used to be due to “habitat” pressure☺.
Ford’s latest family styling theme seems to be that baleen grille. Headlights continue their movement toward the fenders.
At first, I kind of liked it’s style, but it’s wearing off quickly. The Aston Martin face doesn’t look quite right on a 4 door sedan. I recall someone saying that it looks like a longer Focus, and I’m starting to see that now.
It has to be an illusion but I swear the new Fusion is larger than the new Taurus.
The new Fussion is not the old, OLD, Taurus.
The new Fusion IS the old 500/Taurus and the New Taurus is..well…, um….., is…,
WTH IS the new Taurus?
On the one hand, I agree, because the Fusion (which is a hideous name) is more the spiritual successor to the original Taurus than the basically-redundant new Taurus.
On the other hand, the Fusion is now identical to the European Mondeo, from which the Contour/Mystique were derived. The Contour, of course, replace the Tempo, which replaced the Fairmont, which replaced the Maverick, which replaced the Falcon.
So, meh, unless they want to call it a Falcon, they can call it whatever the heck they want. Like I give a crap about the Taurus name, anyway.
Also, is it just me, or does the Fusion get uglier every time you see it?
Fusion’s a fine flag for a Ford to fly.
The new Taurus should not be a Ford, it’s a Mercury.
I like the name Fusion, but the car gets worse looking every time I see a new Mazda6. I liked the looks of the first generation Fusion a lot.
Today’s Fusion is taller and has a longer wheelbase, less length, and about the same weight and width, as the Taurus of a decade ago. Objectively they’re the same, but the longer greenhouse and wheelbase makes the Fusion look longer than it is.
2013 Ford Fusion:
Wheelbase 112.2 in (2,850 mm)
Length 191.7 in (4,869 mm)
Width 72.9 in (1,852 mm)
Height 58.1 in (1,476 mm)
Curb weight 3,323–3,427 lbs. / 1,507–1554 kg
2000-07 Ford Taurus Sedan:
Wheelbase 108.5 in (2,756 mm)
Length 197.6 in (5,019 mm)
Width 73.0 in (1,854 mm)
Height 56.1 in (1,425 mm)
Curb weight 3,316 lb (1,504 kg)
(Wikipedia)
“Are you interested in my Fusion?”
-sorry, someone just HAD to say it!
What a name…conFusion, difFusion, nuclear fusion, cold fusion. Couldn’t they find some other two-syllable short word that begins with F?
Ten years ago Ford had two bigger cars and they didn’t quite compete with the rest of the market. There was no Camcord-sized midsize because the Taurus was too big compared to them and the CV was bigger than any other car on the consumer market. In ’06 they ditched the Taurus and CV for non-fleet sales so the Fusion could go up against the Camry/Accord/Malibu and the 500 against the Avalon. The current Taurus is the new Avalon-killer and the Fusion is meant to be the midsize volume model to replace the 3rd generation Taurus. So it makes sense that those two cars look right together.
Not a fan of the fish mouth. I liked the 1st gen Fusion styling. I suppose I’ll get used to this as I start seeing more of them on the road though…
The trapezoidal grille is a new Ford styling trademark across the entire line-up. I don’t care for it, but whatever. The new Fusion is a very handsome car, but they raked the windshield down so low I can’t get in the darn thing without bumping my head, or doing a neck-twisting limbo; the prior design had easier entry/exit.
The Fusion Hybrid SE, first picture, is a really nice car. We can’t keep those on the ground here. They’re all pre-ordered, or sold right off the truck. Amazing.
It’s been observed that Ford did its level best to make their new design look like an Aston Martin. There are worse cars to resemble. Nobody is going to confuse a Ford with an Aston, but making it look handsome is a good first step. The old Fusion is blocky and fairly nondescript, particularly in the front with its three-thick-bar grille that looks like it came from a truck. This one is much more attractive.
Well done, Paul! I knew the fourth gen Taurus had aged well, but I couldn’t put my finger on why that was so. Now you’ve done that for me.
And yeah, there should have never been a Fusion; the Taurus name should have never gone away.
I kind of like it, at least it has a reasonable greenhouse and you can see out.
I for one am very sick of all the Ford Models starting with F.
Once again I’ll put in a plug for BS Levy and the Last Open Road series, in the latest book the protagonist finds himself driving a Fairway Flyer Fiesta Flair Coupe, a Fairway Freeway Frigate and a sporty new Fairway Ferret…
Agree. Chevy has also got hung up on model-name alliteration over the years: Corvette, Corvair, Chevelle, Caprice, Camaro, Chevette, Citation, Cavalier, Celebrity, Corsa, Cobalt, Cruze.
They could save themselves a lot of linguistic fuss & psychologizing if they’d all just go to some rational scheme of model numbers; that hasn’t hurt the Germans or Mazda, apparently.
I liked the original Fusion. Noisy engine, cheap interior plastics, but one hell of a nice ride for the money. Great balance between ride and handling. Can’t say enough good things about it. Not sure how I feel about the latest one. I’d probably look at the Mazda6 instead.
At first I really liked this body style but the more I see it I think it will become dated very quickly. I saw the sister car to the Fusion yesterday, the new Mazda6, and it is absolutely stunning. I think in 5 years the Mazda will still look great but the Fusion will look dated and silly. As far as the Taurus is concerned, I think Ford has totally muddled the nameplate. It is a car that doesn’t really know where it belongs now in the marketplace. The Fusion really should be the new Taurus, but because the Fusion name has done so well for Ford it has taken the Taurus’ spot as Ford’s mainstream mid-size sedan. That leaves the Taurus in no-man’s-land.
Interesting you compare to the third generation Taurus. The best Taurus and the one that defined the name is, in my opinion, the first generation, and the Fusion is closer to that in size.
I have been mulling this over. Ford seems to be doing now what it did when the Taurus came out. For eons, the volume-selling Ford was the Galaxie/Galaxie 500, which became the LTD. Ford tried to move the LTD down to the Fox chassis, but when a new car came along, they broke with tradition and called it a Taurus. The LTD name stayed on the old Crown Vic for a bit longer, and everyone continued to think of the Vic as the successor to the LTD, when the real successor was the Taurus.
Same thing today. The Taurus name had become so debased, and was finally brought back on the premium sedan. But the new volume car was in a smaller category, and it became the Fusion.
As for the car itself, I am trying to decide if I like it. I loved the original Fusion – its styling was just right. As some others have said, I am still getting used to this one. I hope that it is as good of a car as its predecessor.
The current Taurus was ment to replace the Crown Victoria in the current lineup. As far as American domestic markets go it seems that renaming their big cars every ten years or so is the industry standard.
Even I’ve been making the mistake of calling the new Fusion a Taurus and I do this shit for a living.
The Taurus is meant to land here soon as Falcon production is now off Fords agenda, My BIL works for the largest Ford dealership in Australasia and they are quite keen on the American car. It will have to compete with the Mondeo here and the Taurus lacks a diesel so will it sell? Who knows it will have to overcome the last attempt but most of those awful fish faced POS are rebar now with only a rare survivor or two clattering along.
Should the current Taurus, then, be called the Galaxie?
The Fusion would be called the Fairlane, the first mid size Ford, if names stuck around. But usually the top of the line name flows downward. The 1968 Fairlane Torino started this, then Gran Torino, LTD II, [Fox] Granada-LTD, Taurus.