Rest in peace: greatest Ford cars ever made

It announced plans to eliminate sedans, wagons, minivans, and hatchbacks in 2018. And it quickly put its plan into motion by consigning the Fiesta, Focus, and Taurus nameplates to the automotive attic — at least in America. Production of its last sedan, the Fusion, ended in August 2020 in Hermosillo, Mexico.

The only model that hasn’t been canceled or replaced by an SUV is the Mustang. Ford’s decision represents a stunning about-face because its sedans regularly appeared on the list of America’s best-sellers for decades. Times change, markets evolve and the unthinkable sometimes becomes inevitable.

Join us for a look at the rise and fall of Ford’s cars:

At launch, the Ford Model T was not a sedan in the traditional sense of the term. It was available with two rows of seats but the front compartment was often open and without doors. 1915 brought a closed body with two rows of seats and a center-mounted door on each side. Ford shifted the T closer to the modern definition of a sedan when for 1923 when it launched a four-door model suitably called Fordor.

Ford made about 10,666 examples of the Model T during the 1909 fiscal year, a number that pales in comparison to the 15 million examples built during the car’s nearly 20-year long production run. Production began increasingly significantly in 1913 when Ford introduced the assembly line system. The system made the Model T more affordable, too. In 1922, annual Model T production totaled 1.3 million examples and Ford charged $319 (roughly $5000 in 2021 money) for an entry-level model.

Introduced in December 1927, the Model A benefitted from the lessons that Ford learned during nearly two decades of Model T production. It was notably available as what can be accurately described as a four-door sedan right a launch, a move that signaled the body style’s growing popularity. Again called Fordor, it spawned a factory-built taxi model sold in limited numbers.

Ford charged $585 for the Fordor in 1928 (about $9000 in 2021) and $600 (around $9200) for the taxi, which was the most expensive member of the range that year. Priced and sized right, the Model A enjoyed an immense amount of success. The millionth example was built in February 1929, a little over a year after series production started, and the two millionth unit was made in July 1929.

Ford democratised the V8 in 1932. Engines with eight or more cylinders weren’t rare in America (and even in Europe) at the time, but they powered cars that were out of reach for the average motorist.

Developed secretly, the 90-degree eight had a displacement of 3.6 liters and a 65 hp output. It powered a new range of cars called Model 18 that included 14 body styles in 1932, its first year on the market. There were open- and closed-top cars as well as two- and four-door variants. 57,930 units of a two-door sedan named Tudor (pictured as a 1934 model) were sold in 1932, a figure that made it the most popular body style by a wide margin. Ford also offered a more expensive Deluxe model and a four-door sedan called Fordor.

Ford resumed production of some of its pre-war models after World War II but sales were relatively low because motorists were looking for something new. After cancelling two projects due out in 1948, Ford returned to the drawing board and developed its 1949 range in about 18 months, a feat many scoffed couldn’t be accomplished. Elegant and modern, the 1949 range was a hit; Ford received 100,000 orders for the new car on the first day it began selling it. Split into two basic lines called Standard and Custom, the range included two- and four-door sedans, a six-seater coupe, an wagon and a convertible.

In hindsight, the 1949 models saved Ford. It built 1,118,740 cars in 1949, a big increase over 1948 and about 100,000 more than Chevrolet. Historians estimate the 1949 range earned Ford a much-needed $177 million profit (approximately $1.9 billion in 2021 terms) during its production run.       

British-made Ford models, like the Anglia and the Prefect, began trickling into America after World War II. While none were as popular as American-designed cars, they amassed a following because they were small, robust cars from a trusted name. Around 3,223 units were sold in 1948. Ford released the Consul in 1951, and it launched the six-cylinder-powered Zephyr (pictured) the following year.

Sales increased to 33,472 units in 1958, which represented approximately 11% of the cars built by Ford of England that year. Demand for sedans was high enough for Ford to justify selling two distinctly different line-ups. Ford sent about 10,200 British-built cars to America in 1970. Sales ended before the 1971 model year.

Chevrolet caught its competitors off-guard when it released the first-generation Corvette in 1953. It landed in a league of its own. Ford’s V8-powered Crestline offered drivers more power but it couldn’t match the Corvette’s style so the company fired back with the original Thunderbird released for 1955.

Offered only with a V8, the Thunderbird arrived as an elegant two-seater with a standard hard top and an optional convertible top. Ford sold 16,155 units in 1955, compared to 700 examples of the Corvette. It was the beginning of an illustrious career that ended 50 years and 11 generations later.

Ford’s answer to the Chevrolet Corvair was the Falcon, a compact model launched for the 1960 model year. Buyers could choose between two- and four-door sedans and two- and four-door wagons. Every body style was available only with a straight-six engine, though the Falcon’s mechanical layout was far more conventional than the Corvair’s. 435,676 units were sold during the 1960 model year, a figure that illustrated a growing demand for smaller, more efficient cars across the United States. It also gave the mechanical basis to one of Ford’s most celebrated models, coming up next…

Unveiled in New York City, the Ford Mustang became an instant hit; it was the must-have car of the year. Ford received 22,000 orders within 24 hours of the car’s introduction, which was nearly a quarter of the 100,000 cars it hoped to sell annually. Over 418,000 units had found a home by its first birthday, a number that would have made it one of the five best-selling vehicles in America in 2020.

Nearly 60 years later, the Mustang remains Ford’s affordable dream car. It’s not nearly as popular as it once was, however. Annual sales totaled 61,090 in 2020, down from 72,489 in 2019. But as of the 2021 model year, the Mustang is the only Ford that you can buy new that isn’t an SUV, van or pickup.

Ford named its entry into the burgeoning sub-compact segment Pinto. Released for the 1971 model year, it was positioned at the very bottom of the company’s line-up and initially offered only as a two-door sedan. Europe played a significant role in the Pinto’s launch: Engine options consisted of a British-built 1.6-liter and a German-built 2.0-liter. Selling four-cylinder engines to drivers hooked on V8s proved easier than many assumed and about 352,000 units of the Pinto were manufactured in 1971.

1972 brought a two-door wagon and the future looked relatively bright. However, the Pinto’s career was marred by the rear-mounted fuel tank which was prone to leaking and causing an explosion if the car was hit from the back. Ford ended up recalling 1.5 million examples of the Pinto in 1978.

Sealed-beam headlights and big bumpers characterised the American-spec variant of the original Fiesta sold between the 1978 and 1980 model years. Ford’s reasoning was sound: it could fight Volkswagen and the Japanese by plucking a small car from Europe and bringing it to the United States, like it did with models from its British division for decades. Successfully (and profitably) fending off the Civic and the Rabbit turned out to be more difficult than it sounded, so the Fiesta was sent back across the pond.

Ford again sold the Fiesta in America between the 2011 and 2019 model years. Offered as a hatchback and as a sedan, it was a casualty of the company’s decision to pivot towards a truck-only range.

Strict fuel economy regulations took their toll on Ford sales during the 1970s and the solution was downsizing. Launched for the 1979 model year, the third-generation LTD was tested in a wind tunnel for 270 hours to ensure its design was as aerodynamic as possible. Its wheelbase was about seven inches shorter than its predecessors and it consequently weighed much less; Ford pegged the wagon’s weight at 3678 pounds, versus 4532 for the 1978 model. It carried on with body-on-frame construction, however, and it inaugurated the first generation of the Panther platform built well into the 2000s.

Ford showed a stunning amount of foresight when it developed the first America-bound Escort as a world car. While that’s common in 2021, it was a rare strategy in the 1980s, when building different cars for different countries was a standard practice. There were some market-specific differences, like sealed-beam headlights and bigger bumpers, but the same basic car was sold on both sides of the pond.

Released for 1981, the Escort arrived as a compact hatchback powered by the smallest engine offered by Ford’s American division in recent memory: a 1.6-liter, 66 hp four-cylinder. Some feared that this European-flavored model was destined to fail, but it turned out to be the right car at the right time and sales totalled 320,727 units in 1981. That number increased by 13% in 1982 and the Escort proudly became America’s best-selling domestic car. Ford’s bet had paid off.

Ford released the sporty-looking and almost European-flavored EXP for the 1982 model year. It arrived as a reasonably compact two-seater with a design that was perfectly aligned with the styling trends of the 1980s and a 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine. It wasn’t nearly as quick as it looked, at least not initially, but Ford nonetheless sold 98,256 units for 1982. Sales plummeted to 19,697 for 1983 and hovered between 20,000 and 30,000 through 1988. Largely forgotten in 2021, the EXP was a swing and a miss.

Ford took a shot at its European rivals by creating the Merkur brand. Launched for 1985, the line-up initially consisted only of the two-door XRT4i, which was built in Germany and closely related to the Sierra XR4Ti sold in Europe. 1988 brought the Scorpio, a four-door sedan wearing a nameplate Europeans were familiar with. Merkur sales peaked at 15,261 units in 1988 but dropped to 8,765 the following year and 2,622 in 1990. Short-lived, the Merkur brand was axed after 1990.

It was an experiment that Ford never tried again.

Going global paid off when developing the Escort, but Ford knew it couldn’t apply the same recipe to the mid-size, front-wheel-drive model it planned to release for 1986. Japanese rivals were encroaching on its territory, and there was too much at stake not to develop the car with the American market in mind.

Launched to replace the LTD, the Taurus arrived with an aerodynamic design and either a four- or a six-cylinder engine. Ford paid particular attention to the model’s build quality to avoid costly recalls that hurt its sales and its reputation. At launch, the Taurus was praised as one of Ford’s all-time greatest hits.

Ford sold 178,737 Taurus sedans and 57,625 wagons in 1986. Those figures increased to 294,576 and 93,001, respectively, in 1988. Escort sales (including the EXP) totalled 422,035 units that year.

Ford’s fortunes looked boundless in the late 1980s. It raked in $5.3 billion in profit in 1988 (more than General Motors) and it sold 1,535,145 cars and trucks during the model year (slightly more than rival Chevrolet). America’s best-selling car that year was the Escort (381,330 units), followed by the Taurus (367,327 units). Honda’s Accord finished third with 362,118 sales. Ford also ruled the truck chart: 588,452 examples of the F-Series found a home.

Flush with cash, Ford started spreading performance across its range. It released the hot-rodded Taurus SHO for the 1989 model year with a 220 hp, 3.0-liter V6 engine built by Yamaha and a five-speed manual transmission. Better brakes and suspension improvements complemented the extra power, and a subtle body kit plus model-specific alloy wheels allowed car-spotters to identify the SHO.

Like the standard Taurus, the SHO was exceptionally well received by the public and the press. 15,504 units were sold in 1989 despite a base price pegged at $19,739 (about $41,700 in 2021).

Ford’s big-ticket model during the 1990s was the Explorer, which played a significant role in popularising SUVs on off-road trails and mall parking lots across America, but cars remained a significant part of its range. Its attitude towards the segment had started to shift, however. Instead of selling Europe’s variant of the Escort in America, it asked Mazda (which it owned a 25% stake in) to help it develop a new car specifically for the United States. Launched for 1991, the range included a coupe, a sedan, and a wagon. All three wore a modern-looking design that borrowed some styling cues from the Taurus.

As competitors downsized, Ford continued thinking big. 1992 brought a completely redesigned Crown Victoria with more modern-looking lines and an evolution of its predecessor’s tried-and-true Panther body-on-frame construction. Colloquially called the Crown Vic, it was never envisioned as a volume model but it was a hugely important part of the Ford range because it performed taxi and law enforcement duties across America. It also spawned the Mercury Grand Marquis and the Lincoln Town Car, which were aimed at a different set of buyers.

Selling a V8-powered behemoth with a truck-like ladder frame in the 1990s sounded like a recipe for disaster but Ford beat the odds. Crown Victoria sales stayed above the 100,000 mark for most of the decade and it was popular enough to warrant the launch of a comprehensively updated model for 1998. It hogged an 85% share of the police vehicle market in America and in Canada in 1999, so keeping it around — and even investing money into improvements — made financial sense.

Ford used the Escort platform to build the ZX2, a front-wheel-drive coupe aimed at young buyers looking for a sporty and affordable car. It wore a more muscular-looking design than its four-door counterpart and it came standard with a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine rated at 130 hp. It was an EXP for the 1990s.

115,867 units of the ZX2 were sold for 1998, a number that would be impossible to attain in 2021. Coupes represented less than 2% of America’s new-car market in 2020 and their slice is shrinking.

The limited-edition Contour SVT complemented the Taurus SHO in Ford’s sport sedan range for 1998. It was based on the Contour, which was related to the first-generation Mondeo, and developed by the Special Vehicle Team that also created the SVT Lightning and the SVT Cobra, among other models.

It was not merely a souped-up family car. It received a comprehensive list of performance upgrades including a 2.5-liter V6 with 195 hp on tap, a stainless-steel exhaust system and a five-speed manual transmission. Subtle visual modifications set it apart from the humbler variants of the Contour. Production of the Contour SVT was initially limited to 5000 units annually.

Cheap, cheerful, and wholly unremarkable, the third-generation Escort released for 1997 fizzled out during the early 2000s after a rather short production run. It was replaced by one of the most revolutionary hatchbacks ever to wear the Blue Oval emblem: the first Focus. Executives again swung towards the global car side of the pendulum and chose to sell the same basic car in dozens of markets.

Launched for the 2000 model year, the Focus was characterised by crisp styling and just-right dimensions. Above all, it offered an important attribute that its predecessor lacked: desirability. While millions bought an Escort out of necessity, many motorists ended up in a Focus because they actually liked it. 

Ford returned to the personal luxury car segment when it unveiled the 11th-generation Thunderbird for the 2002 model year. Its styling was a tribute to the first-generation car and it was exclusively offered as a convertible, unlike many of its coupe-only predecessors. It was rear-wheel-drive and V8-powered, too. In an odd twist of fate, the Thunderbird shared some of its underpinnings and engine with the first Jaguar XF.

31,368 units of the Thunderbird were sold in 2002, an encouraging figure that was almost exactly twice as high as sales of the 1955 model. But while the original’s popularity increased, production of the 11th-generation car quickly declined. It retired in 2005 after 68,089 examples were built. Ford consigned the Thunderbird name to the automotive attic and swiftly exited the segment. It hasn’t returned since.

Ford positioned the Five Hundred at the top of its sedan range as an alternative to the Crown Victoria. While it was large and softly suspended, it landed with front-wheel-drive, unibody construction and a V6 engine. It was given a lukewarm reception by buyers and 367,402 units were sold from 2004 to 2007.

Alan Mulally, the former Boeing CEO who became Ford’s boss in 2006, axed the Five Hundred. He insisted that the updated model released for 2008 resurrect the Taurus name that buyers were far more familiar with. Mercury’s version of the car, the Montego, was rebadged Sable for the same reason.

While buyers in Europe received a new second-generation Focus in 2004, motorists in America settled for an improved version of the original model with redesigned sheet metal, a new-look interior plus several mechanical and chassis upgrades. Ford predictably dropped the wagon and hatchback body styles that buyers had little interest in, leaving only the sedan and the coupe to carry the name forward.

Annual sales initially shot up because the Focus arrived during the Great Recession, when demand for cheap, fuel-efficient and robust cars skyrocketed. In hindsight, however, it was a lukewarm carry-over model launched largely to power Ford through a difficult time. Production ended in late 2010.

Sometimes referred to as the second-generation model, the updated Focus is the only variant of the nameplate whose annual sales didn’t manage to break the 200,000-unit mark. Economic turmoil and Ford’s perilous financial situation certainly played a role in its lacklustre career. Regardless, the firm learned a valuable lesson and brought the global-market Focus back to America for 2012.

Ford gave the Taurus nameplate one last shot at success when the sixth- and final-generation model arrived for the 2010 model year. Like its predecessor, which started life as the Five Hundred, it was much bigger than the 1980s model and it consequently competed in a different segment. Ford envisioned it as a replacement for the Crown Victoria, especially in the all-important fleet market.

While the Police Interceptor Sedan attempted to fill in for the Crown Victoria, the born-again SHO model (pictured) tried luring enthusiasts back into the fold with a 365 hp V6 and standard all-wheel-drive. It was too little, too late; the Taurus landed in a collapsing segment. Even law enforcement officers shunned it in favor of the rear-wheel-drive Dodge Charger Pursuit and Ford’s own Explorer, which was called Police Interceptor Utility in marketing-speak.

Sales peaked at 69,603 units in 2013 and dropped to 9,924 in 2019 — a rounding error in the 1980s. Ford built the last Taurus for the American market in March 2019. Production continues in China, though the Chinese-spec Taurus shares only a name with the version sold in America in the 2010s.

Launched for the 2013 model year, the second-generation Fusion was the last new sedan Ford designed for the American market. Closely related to the fourth-generation Mondeo, it was offered in a diverse selection of variants ranging from basic rental car-spec models to upmarket trims that leaned towards the luxury side of the scale. One of the highlights was the 325 hp Sport released for 2017.

Sales reached 306,860 units in 2014, a figure that made it the 10th best-selling nameplate in the United States. It nonetheless finished far behind the Toyota Camry (428,606 sales) and the Honda Accord (388,374 units). Popular disinterest in the Fusion’s segment grew during the 2010s and deliveries crumbled accordingly. Fusion sales totalled 166,045 and 110,665 units, respectively, in 2019 and 2020.

Ford stopped taking orders for the Fusion in February 2020 and production ended in July of that year in Hermosillo, Mexico. The assembly line didn’t remain idle for long: it now builds the Bronco Sport.

Don’t expect Ford to release a sedan or a hatchback in America anytime soon. It turned its back on these three segments and nothing suggests it will change its mind. It’s planning a series of so-called “white space” vehicles to fill some of the gaps in its range, however. One is a tall people-hauler (pictured) with a presumably rugged-looking design that looks like it will compete directly against the Subaru Outback. It’s expected to make its debut before the end of 2021, and it might resurrect the Fusion nameplate.

Possibly called Maverick, another upcoming Ford model is a small, unibody pickup truck built on the same basic platform as the Focus sold overseas. It will slot directly below the Ranger in the line-up.

Mercury closed its doors in January 2011 but Lincoln soldiers on as Ford’s entry into the luxury segment. Unsurprisingly, it stepped out of the sedan segment, too. Production of the MKZ (which was closely — maybe too closely — related to the Fusion; pictured) and of the well-executed Continental ended in 2020. Neither model will spawn a replacement, leaving Lincoln with a range of crossovers and SUVs.

Unlike its parent company, Lincoln chose to usher its sedans off the stage with a bang. Stylists channelled the firm’s vast heritage by releasing an upmarket evolution of the Continental named Coach Door Edition for the 2019 model year. The limousine gained a stretched wheelbase and suicide rear doors that echoed the fourth-generation car released for 1961. Lincoln sold the 80 units planned almost instantly despite a six-digit price tag, convincing product planners to bring the model back for the 2020 model year. About 150 additional examples were built, and they were spoken for in record time as well. The Ford-built sedan is going into the sunset in unusual style.