The closest thing Ford has to a Mustang with four-doors.
02-02-10: We finally got the chance to slip behind the wheel of the hot new 2010 Ford Taurus SHO for a test drive. Expectations were high given all the fanfare and the spec sheet tells a pretty heady story. It has all-wheel drive, big 20” wheels, a twin-turbo V6 with 365hp, a paddle shifting 6-speed transmission. This is the stuff of Audi territory. To that end, our fully optioned test car stickered at just under $50,000 which puts it in the same stratosphere price wise.
But lest that price-tag give you pause the big thing that has to be understood is that the new Ford Taurus bears nothing in common with the rental-grade appliances of the past. This is Ford’s new top-dog sedan, the flagship of the Blue Oval line now that the Crown Victoria has sailed off to fleet-only status. The level of quality and design is about 10 notches up the scale from the 1996 Ford Taurus GL my wife and I owned when we first got married. That car was a horrid mess of Titanic proportions. It is almost a sin that this new machine bears the same name.
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Slipping behind the wheel the interior feels a lot like sitting in the Mustang with the dual cowl dash design. A long sloping center console falls at you from the dash making you feel tucked in. The dash fit and finish, the materials are top notch. The shifter handle is solid and feels expensive. Like many new cars the Taurus has a big red start button, requiring only you and its key in your pocket to be in the seat to fire up.
We didn’t play with all the brag-able technical features of the NAV system, Sync, and the host of other Ford corporate options piled into the SHO because while they are really great things, you can get them in everything from a Fiesta to and F-150. Our time with the SHO was about the drive, the car, and what it feels like under your right foot. So after getting comfortable in the leather sport seat and adjusting the tilt and telescoping wheel to taste it was time to hit that red button and go for a ride.
At first impression the 3.5 liter Eco-Boost engine is quiet and refined. In the taxing move out toward the road course, the general feel of the car was not that unlike the 2010 GT-500 that we tested last spring. The steering was weighted about the same, the solidity of the structure and suspension bushings gave the same overall character.
Once out in the open a mashed throttle brought on what can best be described as a whoosh of power. Surprisingly the two turbochargers were barely heard as the engine revved to shift points with an unexpected smoothness. Ford’s Ecoboost V6 has that same sewing machine sound and feel that has been a staple of Acura, BMW and Mercedes engines for years. Nice. And is it fast? Yes. Acceleration is strong and rewarding.
Handling at speed was sharp considering the size and weight of this machine. Weighing in at just over 4300 lbs, it is almost 400 lbs more than the GT-500 we compared it to just a few paragraphs back. This was evident when throwing it into a curve or two where the SHO began to feel more like the big cruiser it really is. The brakes are strong for a few romps from light to light, but don’t take this super-tanker to a track day and expect them to stay fade free very long.
A test of the chassis and power delivery was made at the inside of a hairpin curve by mashing the throttle from a stop while the front wheels were turned at full lock. When full power hit the tires the car pulled out of the hole with a slight bit of tire scrub due to the sharp turn angle. But with all-wheel-drive that power translated to immediate forward motion that front-wheel drive cannot deliver and rear wheel drive would have turned into a slide. Nice again.
In the end we came away impressed with Ford’s new flagship sedan. It is billed as a modern-day muscle car and it is. In our day of 300, 400, and 500hp cars all around us it is sometimes hard to get a grip on the sum total of a car outside it’s spec sheet. To be more to the point, the SHO is not a GT-500. But if you want a good old fashioned American sedan with luxury creds but the modern day power and handling prowess to make it fun, this is the one to check out.
