So Long Taurus

Interesting article, with a great title, “Goodbye Jelly Bean” about the Ford Taurus - and Ford's decision to stop producing this successful car.

Ford seemed to lose interest in the car about a decade ago despite the fact that it has been an excellent seller for the ailing company.
Ailing indeed. The $5.8 billion loss reported this week is evidence of just how deeply in trouble Ford is. The company's market value has dropped close to 50 percent since 2001.
And now it is killing off one of its bread-and-butter cars.
Ford has sold more than 7 million Tauruses and over 2 million of its slightly more luxish clone, the Mercury Sable, since the car was introduced back in 1985. It was America's best selling car for five straight years - 1992-97. Those are pretty good figures. And given today's segmented market they compare pretty well with Ford's legendary Model T, which sold somewhere around 16 million copies between 1908 and 1927.
[snip]
I'm just another auto enthusiast. A common consumer. What do I know? Maybe Ford is right. Maybe buyers will flock to its new Fusion and Five Hundred. But one wonders what might have happened if Ford had taken half of the billions put into those two new models and spent it to build on the faith the public had already shown in the Taurus by concentrating on making it a better and better car.

My father-in-law owned a Taurus forever (he owns all his cars forever) before he "got religion" and bought a hybrid