Track Tested: Pontiac G8 GT vs 2010 Ford Taurus SHO

[E. Haskell]

I guess we'll have to see how many people are in the market for a 4400lb, $40k+, Taurus cruiser with a lot of toys. Will those that normally buy their sporty/luxury cars from other automakers, switch to the Taurus to save some money? Is there hidden pocket of Avalon buyers that want something with more pickup?

[vcs2600]

Originally Posted by E. Haskell

I guess we'll have to see how many people are in the market for a 4400lb, $40k+, Taurus cruiser with a lot of toys. Will those that normally buy their sporty/luxury cars from other automakers, switch to the Taurus to save some money? Is there hidden pocket of Avalon buyers that want something with more pickup?

Why bring up Toyota when GM was selling a lot of supercharged V6 FWD cruisers not that long ago? The few proud Bonneville GXP drivers will probably love this thing.

[E. Haskell]

Originally Posted by vcs2600

Why bring up Toyota when GM was selling a lot of supercharged V6 FWD cruisers not that long ago? The few proud Bonneville GXP drivers will probably love this thing.

I'd say most of the Bonneville GXP fans became fans after buying used GXPs for ~50% of what a new one cost. Look at the newer GP GXPs with the 5.3 - you can pick one up for a insanely low price. Will the Taurus suffer the same fate at $40k? We'll have to see.

[BigAls87Z28]

Awesome news. SHO is just a big, expensive, elaborate, Taurus.
GM could sink this ship by just keeping the Commodore in the US, and offering navi at teh saem time...

[dindak]

It's EXACTLY what I said all along. Not only is the SHO a lame performer, it's ugly.

The way Ford is advertising the new Taurus, you would think it was the best car car ever made.

[sigma]

Originally Posted by igor

I am glad this was confirmed - the G8 should not be threatened by and SHO ..

that said .. the price difference is inflated .. the "As tested" price of the SHO includes $10k of additional equipment .... yes, Ford does not have a stripper SHO .. that does not mean the SHO is overpriced.

It does make me want a G8 even more ... if only I had the money for a new car right now ... I WOULD buy a stick G8 .... *edrool

Igor

Get in line behind me. If I could find the 25-27k to get a G8 GT I would.

[Exploder]

The technology in the Taurus is great, I will never dispute that.

But then I look at the Falcon in Australia, and that if it were sold Stateside, there would be no reason for the Taurus at all.

They should probably merge the two cars and take the best of both (the RWDness of the Falcon, the tech of the Taurus).

Put it this way: Why should I settle for the almost real deal when I can get the real real deal? (G8, 300C, Charger)

[cdp326]

Originally Posted by dindak

It's EXACTLY what I said all along. Not only is the SHO a lame performer, it's ugly.

The way Ford is advertising the new Taurus, you would think it was the best car car ever made.

Wait a minute - what is advertising supposed to do, then?

[syr74]

Originally Posted by E. Haskell

I guess we'll have to see how many people are in the market for a 4400lb, $40k+, Taurus cruiser with a lot of toys. Will those that normally buy their sporty/luxury cars from other automakers, switch to the Taurus to save some money? Is there hidden pocket of Avalon buyers that want something with more pickup?

Now I'm actually inclined to believe you get it. Whether you agree with what Ford has wrought here or not it is painfully obvious this is not intended to be a sports sedan. This is well and truly a near luxury car with a lot of horsepower, and I don't believe for one second that the goal here was to outrunor outhandle a G anything. Frankly, if you want to find a competitor for this car I think you would do far better to look across the pond at Hyundai and the Genesis, because this car says 'cut rate Lexus LS' a whole lot louder than it says 'American BMW'

For some others here, I would add that fuel economy isn't bad. I'm going to go out on a limb and say you will be hard pressed to find another full size, all wheel drive car weighing in well north of 4k lbs and producing similar acceleration times that knocks down this kind of fuel economy in normal driving. For what it is the fuel economy is good.

Now, the questions worth asking? Is throwing the SHO moniker on what really is a cut rate MKS a good idea? Is throwing the Taurus moniker onto a car that can top 45k a good idea? Should 4k lb plus luxury cars with high hp engines be this worried about hacing an Eco anything tag on them?

To all the above I'll say no. IMO the Taurus SHO suffers from many of the same problems the G8 does. For example, I have no doubt that the name is doing the car no favors. Taurus is just not a name people associate with near 50k cars even when they are loaded. How something more appropriate, like Galaxie, didn't get the nod I'll never know.

Also, while the car itself appears to be very good at what it does it appears likely to die in the details a'la the VW Phaeton. If this were a Lincoln it wouldn't be getting nearly so much grief. It was ambitious for VW to think they could produce a genuine player in S Class territory, and they weren't starting with a millstone of a moniker like Taurus hanging around their neck.

The Ecoboost tag is just silly in this sort of application. Good fuel economy is nice in any class but this is arguably a cut rate, executive class luxury sedan that weighs 4400lb and has awd standard. If fuel economy pretty good considering? Yeah. And Air Force One does pretty well for a loaded up 747 too. At some point common sense has to kick in, and in this situation that means realizing that playing the Eco card on a car like this is going to be a disaster even if fuel economy is relatively good. Twinforce made a lot more sense here.

With this moniker, at this price level, and with this kind of emphasis on the eco tag despite the weight and class of the car Ford has set themselves up to fail here. Nobody has gotten this segment right since the 300 in 2005, and the refresh of that car is just crappy enough to make certain the one really good player in the segment is getting put on the bench as well.

In the end I think theTaurus SHO and the G8 will suffer the same fate, arguably very good cars that were, in too many ways, misguided.

[page2171]

They should be testing the Taurus against the 2010 LaCrosse with AWD...or at least something that is going to be sold in 2010.

[BigAls87Z28]

Originally Posted by page2171

They should be testing the Taurus against the 2010 LaCrosse with AWD...or at least something that is going to be sold in 2010.

Then they should test the ZR1 vs the Mustang GT500.

[MN12Fan]

Originally Posted by Exploder

The technology in the Taurus is great, I will never dispute that.

But then I look at the Falcon in Australia, and that if it were sold Stateside, there would be no reason for the Taurus at all.

They should probably merge the two cars and take the best of both (the RWDness of the Falcon, the tech of the Taurus).

Put it this way: Why should I settle for the almost real deal when I can get the real real deal? (G8, 300C, Charger)

There is a claim that the Taurus would be more ideal for cold weather states because of its FWD/AWD setup, but other than that, I agree, there wouldn't be any fundamental advantages that the Taurus would have over the Falcon. There's no reason why the Falcon couldn't have the EcoBoost V6 (it'd even handle more horsepower). There's no reason why the Falcon couldn't have any of the luxury features or technologies in the Taurus.

Considering where I live, if the Falcon were here and I had to choose between it and the Taurus, I'd choose the Falcon. If I had to choose between a Pontiac G8 and a Taurus, I'd choose the G8 (especially because of the greater chance of a deal).

[page2171]

Originally Posted by BigAls87Z28

Then they should test the ZR1 vs the Mustang GT500.

The $105k ZR1 vs. the $47k GT500? Whatever...

[nota]

There's no reason why the Falcon couldn't have the EcoBoost V6 (it'd even handle more horsepower).

Falcon's I-6 and turbo-variant engines are widely admired. Why spoil the existing excellent car by saddling it with Ford's 2nd best 6cyl?

[King Riffle]

The numbers seem pretty close to me.

And then I have to question why the car would be loaded to the gills with pretty much every feature *except* the performance package...


One other niggling issue: The G8 is their long-term test unit. They've been driving it every day, which means that they are very used to it. The Taurus is something they just hopped in, it hasn't been broken in like the G8. How do we know that with a little more experience they wouldn't be able to up the Taurus's numbers a bit?