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2016 Ford Taurus Prototype Spied in China

When it was introduced in 1985, the Taurus had some big shoes to fill after the mid-size El-Tee-Dee was phased out. Nevertheless, six generations on, the Taurus cut the mustard with flying colors even though it grew to full-size car status.
2016 Ford Taurus prototype 3 photos
Photo: www.autohome.com.cn
2016 Ford Taurus prototype2016 Ford Taurus prototype
Whereas the short-lived fifth generation was a bit of a dog's breakfast due to the Ford Five Hundred underpinnings and hardly enticing exterior characteristics, the current sixth-gen Taurus embodies what we like about big, comfortable American sedans.

Especially in SHO guise, the 2015 Ford Taurus is one heck of a machine with a few sleeper credentials under its belt. To boot, even the $27,055 basic SE model is animated by a 3.5-liter 24-valve vee six lump with plenty of oomph on demand.

Despite the 2013 nip and tuck job, the second generation of the Fusion / 2015 Mondeo gave Ford the idea to uprate the Taurus too with an all-new generation, expected to debut in North America sometime next year with a slightly longer and wider variant of the Ford CD4 global platform (CD4.3) or the all-new D6/CD6 architecture acting as its skeleton.

What you can see in the two-pic gallery below is the upcoming Taurus sedan in pre-production format

Spotted by the carparazzi from AutoSohu and AutoHome in China, the 2016 Ford Taurus is a make-or-brake car for the Blue Oval, which just closed its Genk factory in Belgium, shifting Mondeo production to Spain.

As expected, the Aston Martin-like front grille motif is carried over from the 2015 Ford Mondeo and many other outgoing models, while the front fascia is a little more stiff upper lip than the sharp face of the 2015 model year Ford Taurus. Even the hood and headlights design have a little bit of 2015 Mondeo to them.

As for the interior, it's easy to observe an electronic parking brake button joined by a rotary dial that acts as the shift lever, a similar design to what we've seen on the current crop of Jaguar-Land Rover cars. We're not certain though if that touchscreen infotainment system dominating the dash is the all-new SYNC Gen III.
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About the author: Mircea Panait
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After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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