2010 Ford Taurus: High-end technology in a mid-priced saloon

1.602370-1674288416 — 2010 Ford Taurus sports a bunch of impressive gadgetry along with excellent safety features and good passenger comfort. Image Credit: Supplied

The relaunched, redesigned Ford Taurus officially arrived in the UAE just a few weeks back. It sports a bunch of impressive gadgetry along with excellent safety features and good passenger comfort, but what I really wanted to put to the test was the blue oval's claim that it is a true driver's car.

Technology is the key differentiating factor in the 2010 Ford Taurus, with features like adaptive cruise control, collision warning, cross-traffic alert and a Blind Spot Information System, seen for the first time on a mid-priced passenger vehicle. But more on that later.

With such gadgetry not immediately apparent, the first thing that struck me about the new Ford was its redesigned shell. In some ways, the car's exterior reminds me of the Chevrolet Lumina, which also does a good job of being a large car wrapped in a compact-looking exterior. While it has plenty of room for five people and packs in many features, the Taurus doesn't look particularly big from the outside.

According to Pete Reyes, Ford's chief engineer who was visiting the UAE to mark the Middle East launch, "The strong lines of the Taurus are American and the elegant lines are European. In some ways, the body resembles the Jaguar, with certain lines and angles bearing similarities".

He refers here to the varying nationalities of the design team, which comprised designers from the US and UK, with the latter having worked on the former Ford stablemate, Jaguar.

Inside too, the Taurus looks well put together. The model I drove was the mid-range SEL, which sits between the entry level SE and top-end, all-wheel drive Limited variants.

It features a compact, leather-wrapped steering wheel, wood-look accents and comfortable cloth seats.

Safety features are found in abundance too, with driver, side and passenger airbags in all models. The body structure and cabin have been specially engineered to protect occupants in the event of an accident, with energy-absorbing frame rails, engine mounts and cross-beams integrated in the design.

After sliding behind the wheel and repositioning the seat using the electronic adjustment, I was ready to test Ford's claim that this was more than a mere passenger vehicle.

Given that our route from Abu Dhabi to Liwa, in the UAE's southern ‘Empty Quarter', consisted mainly of straight roads, testing the handling of this front-wheel drive vehicle was always going to be difficult. The ride was smooth, with the suspension firm but not overly stiff when negotiating the odd bumps and speed-humps on the journey.

As far as I could tell, in the absence of any decent bends, handling was reasonably good and even at high speeds the Taurus felt well planted on the road.

Having to catch up with the rest of the group after guessing the wrong direction also gave me a chance to wring a fair bit of speed out of the Taurus's 3.5-litre V6 engine.While in pursuit of the pack, I also tried the paddle-shift of the six-speed automatic transmission, which comes as standard on the SEL and Limited models. Not the most intuitive set-up: it took me a while to figure out that pulling either the left or right wheel-mounted paddles toward me shuffled up through the gears, while thumbing forward shifted down. I can't see these getting much use, but they worked well enough, though my co-driver found them slightly trickier with her smaller hands.

Now onto the technology. I'm all in favour of new automotive technology — in recent decades, the advent of ABS, airbags and innumerable other technologies have made driving safer, and that's a good thing for everyone. The fact that the Taurus brings such safety features as adaptive cruise control, collision warning and cross traffic alert closer to the mainstream masses is definitely a positive. We tested some of these features under the guidance of our Ford instructors and they all seemed to work well.

The radar-powered collision warning system sounds an alert and flashes a red light on the head-up display when within a certain distance of a vehicle or obstacle in front. It also pre-loads the brakes, thereby reducing the braking time. Similarly, when in reverse, the cross-traffic alert sounds a warning tone and displays text on the dash indicating the direction of any approaching vehicle behind the Taurus. However, at least for me, such developments do bring to mind the adage, "Invent something that even a fool can use, and only a fool will use it". I'm genuinely concerned that if we as drivers become overly dependent on such technologies, we may become complacent. What happens if the technology fails, or the driver swaps to a car without such features and forgets to perform the necessary manual checks and braking adjustments? However, with such technology now within reach, it seems good sense to make it available to all.

The final verdict on the new Taurus is that it's a dependable, stylish passenger vehicle that does everything you would expect of it, without being particularly exciting. It does, however, raise the bar in terms of technology offerings for vehicles in this price range, and it will be interesting to see how the competition reacts in the months and years ahead.

Specs & rating