Fresh from the Factory
The Ford Taurus was briefly available new in the Netherlands and was even prepared for Europe in our country. This Taurus is from after the Hessing models, but also has yellow plates from the start.
The ‘Dutch’ Ford Taurus is a piece of Ford history that is in danger of being forgotten. There are not so many left by now, and even in its time it was a strange duck in the pond here, but did you know that the Taurus was converted to European specifications here in the Netherlands for a while? Importer Hessing in Bilthoven was responsible for this. They provided the Tauruses (or Tauri) with, among other things, a third brake light, a speedometer in km/h with the correct accuracy and sufficient recess in the bumpers for the larger license plates.
Hessing did that from the arrival of the third generation of the Ford Taurus. Here we have a fourth Taurus in front of us thanks to AutoWeek forum member Banpei, essentially a thoroughly facelifted third Taurus. This one is from after the ‘Hessing era’, but this model was also delivered new in the Netherlands. In 2006, to be precise. This Taurus was a lot less extravagantly lined than its predecessor, but there were still quite a few remarkable round shapes here. Certainly this station wagon, which from the rear looked much more like the third Taurus than the sedan, is a special appearance.
In 2013, the current owner decided that this was the car for him or her. Judging by the fact that it has been twelve years already, it was probably a good decision. It still looks pretty neat, but is clearly also used as a workhorse, because there is a nice collection of long planks in it. That five meter length is therefore well used. We also spotted a filling opening for an LPG tank, so eating kilometers is probably also involved. You can bet that something like that works well in such a Taurus. That’s what it was made for.