Radio Free Kirkopolis

The Ford Taurus is an ugly-assed car. Always has been, always will be. Sure it was used for several years as Ford’s racehorse for NASCAR, but to even suggest that it looked even remotely like the road vehicle is laughable at best. Nope, the Taurus was just a damned ugly car.
But it was a good one.
It had the MPG of an economy car, had the crash test rating of a Sherman tank, handling of an Indy road car, and more reliable than someone who can’t think of any more euphemisms.
Two years ago I took one about 14 hours up to darn near the Canadian border for work. It was December and I had to drive about 4 hours along Lake Michigan. During that time I drove through what is known as a ‘lake effect’ which is basically non-stop, icy snow. Anyhoo, the Taurus (white by the way, so there was no chance of being seen in the blizzard) had a quite powerful and heavy V-6 that sat on top of its front wheel drive- making for some near flawless handling.
My dad drove one for a few years and loved it- and trust me, this guy is famously discriminatory about his vehicles.
With that being said, the Taurus, and even worse, several people’s livelihoods are no more-

HAPEVILLE, Ga. - The last Taurus sedan rolled off the assembly line on Friday and 1,950 jobs went with it.
…The nation's second-biggest automaker announced 10 months ago that it would close the plant as part of a reorganization plan to boost Ford Motor Co.'s profits. Friday's milestone concluded 21 years of making the popular sedan, with sales of more than 7 million vehicles.
…In the last five years, the plant was ranked as one of the top 10 most productive assembly lines in North America.
"The Atlanta plant and the employees there had a great run — the vehicles they built there were very important to the company," said Ford spokeswoman Anne Marie Gattari. "Unfortunately, we're in a transition period where we are working to align our capacity with the customer demand and as a result we have to idle several assembly plants."
The workers who lost their jobs could choose among eight separation, educational and
In the last five years, the plant was ranked as one of the top 10 most productive assembly lines in North America.

Let’s face it, the Taurus aint exactly the T-bird or the Camero. We won’t see a nostalgic re-introduction of it. Nope it’s just gone, and along with it one of the few examples of great American auto engineering in a long time.
To those who built her- best of luck and a job very well done.