I can't wait for Ford to announce a new, screwed-up SHO. They'll never get it right, and the marketing jeniuses (that's genius with a J) probably can't believe anyone would want a de-contented, high performance car.

Although, it seems that the focus group, consisting of people who bought and/or currently own an SHO told them the exact opposite.

Maybe they'll listen?

HELLS YEAH. Just make it look like the original. And have a Yamaha motor. And have a manual.

Actually, just bring back the old model.

What no mention of the defective cam sprockets that caused engines in the last generation SHO to quickly convert themselves to bent-valved boat anchors?
You know, the engines that Ford refused to recall, or even acknowledge a problem with.

Anyone who would buy the next SHO must be a glutton for punishment.

A Mazdaspeed6 with a grille you can shave with.

By the way, if Ford has focus groups, does that mean Chevy has Cobalt conventions?

Clean-up, aisle 8!

@boosted-lego-wagon: wah wah waaaaaaaaaaaaaah~

Interesting Ford was surprised the enthusiasts didn't want drag strip performance. You would think Ford had that market sewn up with the live-axle Mustang.

Wow, I would have loved to have been in on this. I daily drive a '97 SHO that's currently at 205k and I feel the gen 3 is hugely under-appreciated, cam sprocket problems aside. I have high hopes for this project as long as they can pin down what people expect from the SHO name, which seems to be exactly what they're trying to do.

Interviewer: "So ... tell me what you like about the Chevy Impala."

(cue sound of crickets)

Stay away from focus groups. They know nothing, or did you guys at Ford learn from the last few mistakes you have released. (500/Taurus, 2008 Focus)

This will lead to nothing but more junk nobody will want to invest their hard earned money, considering whatever is released will push a possible buyer to any of the foreign competition, and will have car enthusiasts from all over the country complain about the junk car on these blogs.

Have you guys ad Ford learned anything yet??? Why not just copy the Euro Ford designs? Seriously most of us would really love it. It would make those of us who are angry at you guys for not selling any of the Euro cars to us a little less bitter. And please NO MORE 3 BAR GRILLE DESIGNS except for trucks. I miss the classic ford looks.

You don't need a focus group full of old farts and people looking to make a quick $100 for just attending. Instead pay more attention th the blogs "For Free" and auto enthusiasts.

@tanooki2003: But this focus group was comprised of enthusiasts.

Indeed, focus groups blow. No car with personality, no car that anyone really admires has ever come from a focus group. High performance, good handling, singularity of vision will make customers out of people who weren't sure what they wanted until they saw it.

@DonSchenck:
Interviewer: "So ... tell me what you like about the Chevy Impala."
Leon: "The Impala... let me tell you about the Impala" [Pulls out gun and shoots interviewer.]

@boosted-lego-wagon: yeah, i was thinking more of a spin on Focus focus groups and Taurus tore-us talks, etc, but couldn't get it together.

I would think a Focus group would be more interested in getting the Mk2 ST over here than a SHO.

280-300 HP with decent MPG, can Ford even do that? Maybe if they develop a whole new engine or use the turbo 2.3 out of Mazda Speed cars or a turbo 5 cylinder out of a Volvo.

@CharlzR: Actually, I was in a focus group for the original Ford Focus several years ago, and that car turned out to be a very entertaining and visually interesting ride- when it wasn't at the dealership for one of the multitude of recalls that is.
I would love to see a new SHO Taurus. Back in the '80s Ford was producing some interesting cars- 2.3 turbo in the Aero-bird, SHO Mustang, original Yamaha-powered SHO Taurus. I'd like to see them get brave and do stuff like that again. As much as I like the Mustang GT, there's no way on God's Green Earth that I can justify that kind of fuel economy in a four seater as a daily driver.
The current Taurus platform is derived from the Volvo S60/80 and the engine bay would hold either the twin-turbo straight six, or the Yamaha 4.4L V8. That engine makes 311HP and 325FPT so it would be a good candidate. The current Taurus also comes with available all-wheel-drive, which would make getting that power to the ground a more fun experience. I think the most important ingredient in an SHO Taurus would be the need for the whole to be more than the sum of the parts. It can't just have a bunch of bolt-on stuff, but needs to have a soul, a passion to be driven. Most every Porsche or BMW, no matter how powerful, is entertaining to drive. This is what Ford needs to develop in the SHO. Oh, and call it SHO, not SVT or BVD or whatever.

All I can say is "SHO me the money!"

@dasko: The 4.6L V8 is fully capable of 22 city/28 hwy when driven like a granny. I'd say the Ecoboost could best that.

Would it be absurd to suggest a performance version of the Fusion, a-la Contour SVT?

I had a friend with one of those back around '99. Not bad with 170ish HP and a 5 speed.

I kinda like the lines of the Fusion, and a base model with 3 pedals, 6 speeds, sport seats/suspension/wheels/tires + reasonable HP boost could make me consider it.

Oh wait, this is Ford we're talking about. They repeatedly refuse to make cars I want to buy.

here's what the enthusiast said: "great styling need not be so 'in your face'"

here's what the Ford team heard: "make it boring."

now you know.

@Mad_Science: Contour SVT has 200hp, I should know as it's sitting in my garage.

with SVT on life support, I find it hard to believe Ford will do anything semi-cool for a SHO variant of the taurus/500

The original SHO was fun because it was insane. At the time, there simply wasn't anything else like it--a mainstream sedan with a hi-po engine and (only available in) a stick? That was nuts in 1989.

The second gen SHO lost the plot. The V8 was less insane, relatively, than the V6, and the whole car had shifted from being a "can you believe they built this thing" type car into a "I wanted a Maxima but since I own a Tier 3 supplier I have to buy a Ford" type car. And that was a shame.

Today, I'm not sure there's a way to make a SHO relevant. There are already mainstream sedans with hi-po engines (the SRT-8 and the GXP), and both the GM and Dodge are RWD, which the '10 Taurus won't be. The Haldex AWD system is ill-suited to performance use. You just can't recapture the magic.

That said, if I could buy a Taurus with, say, 325 hp, a stick, and AWD, I'd do it to use as a family car--especially one that looked like that 2010 styling buck.

I agree that an SVT Fusion makes more sense, but not with that craphole drivetrain from the Mazdaspeed6. That car was really not pleasant to drive.

@Mad_Science:

I second and third that Fusion SVT.

Seriously, the new Taurus is LARGE, and it makes little sense to make it "trackable" as this focus group suggests. The Fusion on the on the other hand...

Oh, and the GTDI (eco-boost) is obvious.

I hope this focus group is being taken with a grain of salt.

CURRENT owners of OLD Tarus SHO's are not new car buyers. There wants "shouldn't matter."

Talk to Chyslers's SRT10 buyers, and a few 3/5 series guys for the new car performance sedan market.

The focus group should have just brought photos of the FPV Falcon from down undah and SHOwed them to the Ford folks.

Black Metal Falcon is a car we need here ASAP.

With role models like the 300C and Impala I doubt we'll see anything more interesting than a soggy piece of toast.

The inspiration for the original SHO wasn't from these shores, so what good does comparing it to those 3 do? Think BMW & Audi, not that trio.

@rlj676: (Your second comment)

Unfortunately true. Most of the enthusiast market buys used.

While desirable cars tend to hold their value, which drives new purchases...it's a fuzzy, hard-to-quantify link.

Even fuzzier is the fact that building cars that those other than new-car purchasers think are awesome tends to help your overall brand image/perception.

Most of us drive used cars before we can buy new. If the Ford we drove through college kicked (rather than sucked) ass, we might be more excited to buy one new.

Given that today's Taurus is more like a Crown Vic and the Fusion is more like the original SHO, it seems like that focus group isn't a good match. A new Taurus SHO would be more of a grand-tourer, a successor to the Mercury Marauder or something.

Personally, I think they should have included something like a V6 Nissan Altima SE or an Infinity G35/G37 and got opinions on those cars.

The big problem with the 3rd gen SHO is you have a bastard of an engine (basically a Duratec 35 with two cylinders added) with more than 10% extra displacement, but only an extra 10HP and wasn't any faster due to the added weight and mandatory slushbox.

They would have been better off making a highly tuned version of the Duratec 3L and also using that engine to make a Contour SHO and a Cougar SHO.

Whatever they end up making, it had better be better than any V6 Altima, Maxima, Toyota Camry or V6 Accord... or it simply won't live up to the SHO moniker.

@petersterncan: "basically a Duratec 35" should have read "basically a Duratec 25"

@Mad_Science:

I sure hope it turns out more succesfull than the Marauder, which given the 2010 Taurus as a base it would.

@EndlessMike: Maybe the Focus groups know this means they'll be able to SHOgun their cars. I'd be excited about that if I drove a Focus.

Wow- Ford assembles focus groups to tell us we want more powerful cars... Brilliant!!!

Duh gee- Chrysler sells a lot of hemi 300's, maybe a 140bhp Taurus won't sell well.....

Brillant, Ford

@boosted-lego-wagon: Zing!

@DonSchenck: The Impala is sort of nice, in a way, for a Chevy. My mom is leasing a new one, I wouldn't be as pissed about getting one as a rental car as I would, say, a last-gen Taurus (like I had last month).

@Mad_Science: In that case, Ford should man up and slap the SHO marque onto the Fusion. Purists will balk, but it'll give a new generation something interesting to own.

@snep: Damn you and your reasonably powerful world car!

(120 HP and an automatic... no fun.)

Hey, the Fusion's pretty close to old-Taurus-sized anyway, right? So let's do it. Make something that goes at least as well as a V6 Camry and handles like, well, the Contour/Mystique... I reckon it'd sell like hotcakes.

Or, at the very least, warmcakes.

Ford: "Focus Groups! We tell people what they want, they don't tell us! Why, if we had used focus groups with the Edsel--oh. Wait."

@FuzzyPlushroom: Mmmmm...warmcakes

Anyone seen the Simpsons episode where they have the school kids in a toy focus group?
Funzo.

I honestly don't see why Ford bothers developing cars anymore. They took their eyes off the ball 30 years ago, refocused momentarily to create the 1986 Taurus, and then promply fell asleep for good. All Ford makes anymore are oversize bloatmobiles. Any properly dimensioned 4-passenger vehicle with a Ford oval on it is a rebadged Mazda, except Mazda does a better job than Ford ever did.

Now you want Yamaha to inject life back into the deflated blue oval? Don't waste your breath. If you want an affordable midsize performance sedan, get a Mazdaspeed 6, and write to Mazda to offer a Yamaha V-8 in their chassis.

@my favorite car is a motorcycle: Disagree. The Fusion is a really nicely designed family sedan - not overly bloated, nice handling, solid-feeling, and it's proven pretty reliable. All it needs to be competitive is a more powerful, more refined engine and trans.

If I was Ford, I'd be shipping one of these to Yamaha, overnight air.

@Tanshanomi: To clarify, "one of these" means a Fusion, not a Taurus. I agree that there is little hope for the Taurus platform.

@ Tanshanomi - The Fusion is a Mazda 6 with uglier styling and no manual transmission option with the V-6. Why does Ford even bother marketing cars when their only competitive ones are rebadged Mazdas?

Perhaps now Rebadge is Job 1?

I should add that i feel sorry for the many loyal, talented Ford employees. I just wish your management would give you the opportunity to create a great car. For 2010 I understand you'll unveil a "new" Mustang. Same chassis, retro sheetmetal, zero innovation. The F-series trucks keep getting better, but the cars get no development cash. I know money is tight, but do you really think you're going to sell more cars if you don't innovate?

the only Taurus we ever got in Australia was the Ghia. it was deeply unpopular for the following reasons:
1. It was butt-ugly.
2. It was over-priced
3. Ford didn't ship enough spare parts over.
4. It was butt-ugly
5. It was unreliable, and the Ford Australia mechanics were barely trained in the peculiarities of fixing it.

same goes for mk1 Explorer and Probe!