How Bill Ford Saved Ford From Wrecking One Of Its Most Important Products

If you’re obsessed with cars and spend too much time online, few things probably faze you anymore. Italdesign Nazca C12 in the Brunei leak? Oh yeah, I’ve seen the concept. A Mitsuoka reminiscent of Mike Wazowski? Yeah, the Bubu 501 is pretty cute. However, today I saw something that made me do a double-take — a photo of an original Ford Taurus with a traditional grille. Huh?

Sure, police package cars got a partially vented grille panel, but this isn’t what I’m talking about here. The original Taurus was renowned for being a bottom-breathing car, having just a small punch-out around the Ford emblem where a grille would normally be, embracing the aerodynamic look with what was essentially a blank panel between the headlights. This is the complete opposite of that.

Wilder still, it’s in Ford’s own 1986 Taurus brochure. Specifically, in the section about the base-model Taurus L, where an alternate universe of sorts appears. This Taurus has an upper grille, and it’s impossible to miss.

However, finding proof this grille actually made it to production is nigh-on impossible. It’s not listed in Ford’s parts catalog, I haven’t been able to scrape up any photos of a Taurus with this grille in the wild, and even members of Taurus forums say they’ve never seen it before. Weird. Does it appear anywhere other than the 1986 sales brochure?

Why, yes it does. In fact, it seems at least one car with a grille made it to the press, as a period episode of Motorweek doesn’t just show a Taurus L with a grille, it states that the Taurus L came with a grille. What’s more, there’s another 1986 Taurus brochure floating around, this time for Ford’s fleet division, that shows a Taurus MT5 with the black slatted grille. Huh?

So, if this slatted black grille appeared in brochures and in the press, why doesn’t it seem to have made it to production? Well, the Taurus didn’t actually go on sale until late December of 1985, which means there was definitely a period of time between pre-production models rolling off the line to be shot for brochures and whatnot, and the freeze period for actual equipment changes. There were still decisions to be made, and Episode 3 of Atlassian’s Work Life podcast, which features famed Ford head designer Jack Telnack, offers insight into why a first-generation Taurus with a traditional grille didn’t end up happening.

Jack Telnack:

And the marketing people and the sales people said, “Well, you have to have a grill. Every car out there has a grill.” And we said, “No, not this car. This is a whole new look. We don’t need a grill in this car.”

GABRIELA: This was a big, big deal that made a lot of people at Ford very nervous. You just didn’t build a car without a grill. It looked weird. So weird maybe people wouldn’t buy the car. It was such a big deal, Jack says, this one feature went all the way to the top for approval.

Jack Telnack:

…Bill Ford, who was a vice president of the company and he was head of the design, what they called the design committee, who made the final decision and it was up to him. They threw it back into Bill’s lap and said, “Okay, Mr. Ford, you make the decision. Grill or no grill?” He said, “I want the front end with no grill. The aerodynamic front end.” I about ran over and wrapped my arms around him.

So, there we are. Bill Ford is a big part of the reason you probably never saw a first-generation Taurus with this full-width slatted upper grille on the street, and it’s hard to not see this as the right call. See, the Taurus was meant to be radical, out-there, a car like one few Americans had ever seen before, since nobody can seem to pronounce Merkur. To burden it with a traditional upper grille would mean not being bold, not committing to the bit. If you’re going to build a car that’s out there, it better really be out there, right?

For 1986, the Ford Taurus looked like the future, and Ford’s gambit paid off. This thing sold nearly two million units over a six-year production run, and is often credited with saving Ford from bankruptcy.

(Photo credits: Ford)

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