Despite the styling trends of the Great Brougham Epoch falling out of fashion in the 1990s, many dealers and aftermarket conversion companies were still adorning new cars with decidedly Brougham styling accessories, whether they actually worked with aero styling or not.
These accessories were largely an attempt at providing Brougham stalwarts and non-aero embracing consumers (a.k.a. traditional-minded senior citizens) some sense of familiarity in the rapidly changing world of car design. You see, in 1989, if one wanted a car that looked similar to the one they bought in 1979, this was still very possible. Cars like the LTD Crown Victoria, Town Car, and Caprice were essentially the same beyond minor styling changes, and many other cars still sported very familiar boxy, upright styling, even if they were smaller than their predecessors were. By 1999 however, rounded, aerodynamic styling had reached nearly every nook and cranny of the automobile industry, as far as cars were concerned.
This 1999 Taurus SE sports a rather odd combination of Brougham-inspired and very un-Brougham trim. The canvas coach roof and spoiler actually don’t look quite so atrocious, as covering the rear quarter windows gives the ovoid Taurus a more conventional roofline, and the spoiler offsets the droopy trunk. Yet the tacky fender flares and fleet grade wheel covers totally clash with the car’s pseudo-Brougham aura. Post-Malaise Era cars in general were not best suited for Broughamification, but the overly ovoid third generation Taurus, in particular, exhibited highly anti-Brougham sheetmetal. Clearly, this didn’t stop some from getting their midsize blue oval Brougham on in 1999.
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I like it. Somehow reminds me of those early VW Hebmuller convertibles. (the non-Karmann oddballs.)
Those cars were ultra ugly stock but somehow all that tacked on junk makes it worse, kill it with fire.
Seriously! It looks like it’s wearing a bad, mismatched toupee.
True!
There is a purple aero Mercury Sable in the campus. It has tan vinyl roof and a spoiler, at the same time. Typical for college.
That’s just hideous, no other words could describe it!
Gag, gag, gag, gag, gag, gag, gag, gag, gag, gag, gag, gag, gag, gag, gag, gag, gag. That looks worse than a factory brougham from the ’70’s (assuming that’s possible).
Further proof that there is no accounting for taste.
Son of a biscuit, that is BAAAAD!
Tom! You’re back! Yaay!!!
Shhhh! I sneak in every now and then. 🙂
Why??? I never really liked the Taurus, but this makes it a lot worse. The roof looks “frumpy” to me.
I saw a canvas roof on a 1990s LeSabre- that looked pretty nice. The Taurus just looks a little too rounded to accomplish this.
I see they tried to disguise the rear oval-shaped window, but to me, this makes it look too small. The Sables of that generation had a more conventional square window, and that would have likely looked a little nicer.
I don’t think I’ve rolled my eyes this much since my demonic possession!
Although I’ve seen this type of roof treatment on a number of late 90s Buicks and it does work a bit better there.
Gag, retch, hurl.
Somebody had a serious problem to do this.
I cant see exactly what state, but I am shocked that it is not wearing Florida plates.
Brendan lives in Massachusetts. Perhaps a snow bird hasn’t yet left for the winter.
Hah! That’s what I thought when I first saw the photo.
And I thought this generation Ford Taurus was ugly enough, this Brougham treatment makes it look hideous! 🙁
Going off on a tangent here – was there any other time when dealers added on stuff that harked back to a bygone age? Tack-on tailfins for sixties cars? Pseudo-separate fenders for fifties cars? Not that I’m aware of. American buyers just got used to the new and embraced it.
So why this stuff? I’m feeling there might be a doctoral-level sociological dissertation here.
Very good point!
The side spare wheels.
Gee whiz! That takes Personal taste to a new level.
Were the rear quarter windows blocked on the inside too or was the glass still sitting there? Add me to the list who’d happily kill it with fire…
Wow that vinyl roof SO does not work on the Taurus. Mind you, this generation of Taurus is ugly no matter what you do with it.
Not ugly enough for ya, well… tell ya what I’m gonna do…
Back in the 90s vinyl roofs could be found plastered on anything that rolled in Florida, even Subarus.
It seems all generations of the Midsize Taurus and Sable had to suffer with the fake landau top.
Last year I was at my local junk yard and came across a 2001 Sable with the fake top and spoiler. it also had the DOHC engine and a floor shifter. It was really ugly and I wondered who would buy this. Then I looked more closely and say it was covered with Baltimore Ravens stickers. It figured as Ravens fans are not exactly known for good taste.
Here is one of the pics of it.
Out here, Tauruses are the go-to car when you don’t have a lot of money. It used to be 1990s LeSabres, but they’re dying off. The 2000-2007 Taurus (And likely the Sable) are the new car that serves as cheap, reliable transportation.
You can buy them for cheap, so you tend to get a wide assortment of owners.
They’re really a good value for money- I’m kind of looking at a Taurus as my next car. But, when you mention the term “Good value for money”, it’s not usually a positive sign….
I had a 2006 Taurus for a while before I replaced it with a 1997 Lesabre.
They are good cars for the money and easy to work on if you don’t pick the DOHC version.
I currently own a 1995 LeSabre, and will be keeping it for sure. It was my first, and I don’t believe in selling your first.
But, it has 225k hard miles on it, and being the eighth owner, it’s pretty worn out. Due to office location changes, I’ll be going in a separate direction, so won’t be able to carpool as a family too often.
I paid $700 for it, and put over 35k miles on it, so I can’t complain. I just don’t know if I can trust it in the winter time (It’s 30 miles between towns, so being stranded in a snowstorm is very bad).
I absolutely love that car, and as I get ready to buy another car (I’ll be in the old office until spring), I’ll keep my eye out for a nice LeSabre or Olds 88.
The LeSabre/88 is the best cheap car out there in my mind, but there just aren’t too many. The state surpluses dozens of Tauruses (Taurii?), and have a good maintenance program. It’s kind of hard to argue against a $3000 mid-2000s Taurus with 100k miles.
But, a LeSabre is a compelling argument….
LeSabre is probably better for the transmission design.
They’re also available as wagons. Being that I’ve decided on some sort of wagon whenever I replace the Crown Vic, and being that Taurus/Sable wagons of this generation are probably the best value for money in the wagon segment…the math is compelling.
I don’t *want* one but that may be immaterial.
I actually legitimately like this generation of Taurus. In fact, it’s one of my favorite mid-size cars of the 1990s! This makes me hate this awful, ratchet vinyl roof even more. I hate these tacky, ridiculous dealer add-ons. Reminds me of that awful Cougar Bostonian you posted recently, Brendan!
Someone paid money for that!!!
if i was a teenager and this was dads car i would refuse to drive it,touch it,look at it
get near it etc etc etc etc
Not if you had a hot date!
That’s about as bad as ugly aftermarket custom jobs can get! Yikes.
What makes it so bad is the weird mix involved. First, its a Taurus. Second, the mix between stripper/fleet features (i.e. cheap hubcaps), “sporty” features (spoiler) and Broughamtastic features (top and wheel well chrome) make for a nasty combination.
All it needs is some slap on faux-ventiports and it would really show that the one who made it that way has absolutely no sense or class.
Man, I had a used car salesperson sell me one of these back in the day, minus the stupid roof cover….it was a pos then….but I got suckered by a slick salesman, and I needed wheels asap. The transmission was a constant problem within a year of ownership…paid dearly for a new transmission….only to have it happen…again!…..calls to the manufacture for warranty help did nothing for me. It’s the last used car I ever bought…and swore me off fords forever…never…ever, EVER again!
Y’all been warned.
Around 2007, I had a co-worker with a dark green 1996 Ford Taurus. Of course with me being me, I had to ask him about the transmission. It used to be driven by his wife so it had some minor parking garage scuffs, and low km with the original transmission intact. Unfortunately some months later the transmission gave out and he had to ask the boss for his vacation pay to get it rebuilt. I think it was somewhere around $1500. The transmission shop didn’t do a good job the first time because it seized a short while after and had to be towed back to the shop.
The car ran smoothly when it did run as he had given me a ride in it a couple of times. But a couple of other people I had met had their Ford transmissions rebuilt as well on the Windstar and Contour. Fords with bad transmissions seemed to be common knowledge in the 90s and early 2000 so I always felt uncomfortable with owning a Ford and avoided them completely.
It was just the FWD transmissions. Plenty of RWD stuff from that era holds up well. When I worked in Truckee for the garbage company the small trucks were F550s, they got 30-45 very hard stop n go miles daily and the trans would last 100-130k.
The thing I never understood about these conversions is why is it always a fabric material puffed up? Not that I think it would help this poor fish face Taurus, but tightly wrapped vinyl, ala the type used on late 60s luxury AND Muscle cars, would look way the hell better on just about anything with one of these coach conversions.
For those who are suffering, take two of these and get a good night’s rest………
Vinyl roof done right!
Contradiction of terms. There is no way a vinyl roof is ever done right.
Other than not putting it on, that is.
Opinions are like something else we all have.
I like a vinyl or cloth top like they did back in the 60s-80s. It fit with the overall styling of cars back then. It usually looks stupid on newer cars because the lines aren’t “formal”.
As long as there are older people are buying cars, dealer options like this will always be available. Plenty of Camrys and Lexusses-Lexi? here in Freehold NJ with these wretched roofs. About as ugly as Kim Kardashian in yoga pants.
Vinyl toupees used to be the quick fix for hail damage used bonnet and bootlid screed the bog over the top vibrate it smooth reskin it in vinyl quick squirt of duco over the used replacement panels after a wipe down with wax n grease remover and back on the lot Same day service to used car dealers along Parramatta road, beware the vinyl top you never know what its hiding, luxury feature? dont make me laugh.
And not just hail damage. A friend bought a used ’80ish Corona 5 door lifltback with a vinyl top. I thought it looked odd on that bodystyle. He had a crash and the thing broke in half – turned out the vinyl covered the join where it had been welded up from two cars!
Yes, indeed, and “Broughamification” never completely goes away, even as that Epoch fades into history: a 2015 Buick Lucerne fitted with a canvas coach roof treatment was seen in the AACA Hershey 2015 flea market a few days ago. The age of the owner matched the old Buick profile exactly!
*barfs*
Hail damage might improve the looks.
Long live landau ,Landru,Brougham.
Ironically, the 2000 model Taurus with its squared-up lines and roofline would have worn this look a bit better. Vinyl looked good on some cars back int he day but most modern cars with their swoopy lines don’t wear it well at all.
I’ve seen vinyl roofs on 1 or 2 Sables of the early 2000s, but never a Taurus.
I’ve also seen several Camrys and COROLLAS with vinyl roofs. The really strange thing about vinyl roofs on these Toyotas is that they are always “color-keyed” to the rest of the car so that the only way you can tell they are there is that they are dirt magnets.
To answer 1 posters question: I’ve seen a late 90s Grand Marquis with a full “continental tire kit” with the required rear bumper extension.
Worst I ever saw was a 4th Gen. Hyundai Sonata with a cloth top. It looks completely out of place on such a cheap car.
I’ve also saw the Camry and Corollas with them, along with Altimas.
I’ve seen plenty of Camrys and Sables with vinyl/cloth roofs. It’s almost expected on those cars. Also quite a few Cadillac XTS and CTS, both of which look ridiculous due to the angular styling.
“Worst vinyl roof on a newer car” that I’ve seen has to go to the CTS coupe though. Really?
I think the worst car I have ever seen with a fake top (besides this Taurus) was a 1992 Accord Coupe with a half vinyl top. Absolutely hideous!
This late model Honda Accord is also pretty bad too!
Right. Okay. That’s it. I’ve now, officially, seen everything…
The one dollar saddle on a fifty cent horse.
I have seen a vinyl top on a ’85 Ford Escort. Broughamify this!
Lol as if these cars weren’t bad looking enough with there roundy everything guppy styling, pod like radio and that fat bat like column mounted shift lever. The 4 speed transaxle used with the OHV 3 liter Vulcan motor was garbage and a time bomb waiting to go off and many Tauri/Sables of this vintage seem to suffer electrical, A/C and suspension woes, especially broken springs. We usually avoid them at the auctions or dealership trade ins unless they are mint low mileage old lady cars.
As for that horrid roof we often see Camry’s and Avalon’s with these as there primary audience these days seems to stem from the over 80 crowd. Ditto Panthers, Impalas and the occasional 300 or Azera.
“The canvas coach roof and spoiler actually don’t look quite so atrocious, as covering the rear quarter windows gives the ovoid Taurus a more conventional roofline, and the spoiler offsets the droopy trunk.” Yes…. yes… that mock top DOES look atrocious. Absolutely the worst automotive accessory ever. Nothing, and I do mean NOTHING, looks good with a mock top. That rolling abortion needs to be run over with an M1 Abrams.
This is probably the first car I have ever seen that would be improved with “Donks”.
omg…my Australian taurus with mercury sable nose was wonderfull as i just babied it around and it was cumfy,was a racecar with Viagra as sponser as i clearly remember laughing my head off watching a nascar race at a big oval,on pay TV,and often we got just the raw feed,no usa style adverts,when Mark Martin crashed his Viagra Taurus HARD,as Mike Joy put it,into the wall,then DW said something,and they all laughed.Aussie taurus was a test to see if a USA built car would be accepted here so mine had only no sunroof,all else,no,only GHIA ,top spec sold here.Now i fear fusion/mondeo/focus nose job on a f650 soon.Last Aussie RWD large V8 sedans/utes/wagons(holden only,no falcon wagon) and no sign of a last,big power Ford Falcon at all being considered,when holdens SS has a 300kw/570nm LS3,and HSV’s GTS a 430/750 LSA.Funny how Ford this december started selling mustangs here.
id like your thoughts
And the sticker with sun glare over it is a Viagra “thanks Mark Martin” sticker,best ive seen,we suck at stickers