First Impressions Review: 2010 Ford Taurus SEL

Pros

• The optional SYNC system is great for music lovers
• Huge trunk that is great for long trips
• Good driving dynamics

Cons

• Some odd design choices
• Torque steer in FWD models.
• Flat front seats.

At one point in time the Taurus was Ford’s top car. In 1986, the Taurus was Motor Trend’s car of the year. Recently fired late night talk show host Conan O’Brien still owns a 1992 Taurus SHO. Eventually sales began to slump, so Ford put the big bull out to pasture and replaced it with the Five Hundred. Well, the Five Hundred was a failure so Ford went back to the Taurus name. The 2010 Taurus is an all-new model that is a huge improvement over the Five Hundred and 2009 Taurus.

The 2010 Taurus is the best looking model to date. Gone are the “retirement home” looks of the Five Hundred and the overgrown Ford Fusion body of the fifth generation Taurus. The 2010 model has its own unique styling and looks every bit as good as what is offered from Japan.

The styling in the back of the car is not as good as the front however. The large overhanging square trunk may turn some buyers off. An upside to the bulbous rear-end is the massive amount of junk you can put in this Taurus’ trunk. Trunk volume is 20.1 cubic feet. Compare that to the 15 cu-ft of Camry and 14 cu-ft of the Accord.

The interior quality is good and the optional leather seats in our SEL appeared to be of good quality. One thing that stood out is the rather strange looking “eyebrow” dash. Both sides have a strange ridge that runs on each side. Was this intentionally done to save on the cost of the dash in markets that are right-hand drive? Either way it’s rather strange and it’s the only real flaw in the interiors aesthetic design. Our test car was also equipped with an ambient lighting system that can display several different colors. Having the interior glow a faint blue is pretty novel.

The seats are flat and wide which can be annoying for drivers that are thinner because the seats lack support. The front seats appear to be built for rather wide people. There is almost no way I could use the door armrests in this car without leaning over to them. Also for as large as the Taurus is, it could still use a little bit more rear leg room. Big Gulp lovers will be happy to know the car has eight, yes eight cup holders.

When it comes to technological gadgets, the Taurus may have the best set of useful optional features in its class. Our SEL was equipped with Ford’s SYNC system which was designed by Microsoft. The SYNC system is designed to work with just about any MP3 player via a USB port. If your mp3 player can work as a mass storage device it will work with SYNC. In fact even a flash drive loaded with MP3′s should work too.

Once your device is hooked-up, SYNC will create a database of your music so it will work properly with the voice-activation system built into the car. The voice activation system was fairly accurate, but sometimes oddly named artists would confuse the system. You can also set SYNC to play music similar to the one you are listening to which is a nice touch. The only downside is sometimes you have to wait for the database to update when you add new music to your MP3 player. SYNC is a compelling reason to consider getting a Ford, this is a must have feature for music lovers that are considering a Taurus or any Ford for that matter.

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