Ford Motor Company Global Auto Shows

Amid the polished, shined, and pampered vehicles on display at the New York International Auto show is the crumpled Ford Taurus that was deliberately crashed into a 1 million pound wall at 35mph. Ford Taurus has been rated Top Safety Pick by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, and Stephen Kozak, North American chief safety engineer for Ford Motor Company. Ford wants show goers to see that “not all cars are equal when it comes to safety. ” He and Ford want to show “why Taurus is the safest rated large sedan sold in America.”

The crash test was conducted at Ford’s testing facilities in Dearborn, Mich., prior to the show. Ford conducts hundreds of crash tests and thousands more simulated computer tests on a yearly basis for its vehicles.

Jim Farley, group vice president for Marketing and Communications for Ford, says that safety is one of the key messages he wants to get across to consumers. “Taurus is the safest vehicle in its segment—the best in its class,” he says. Farley continued that highlighting safety in this tangible way is part of customers seeing “the new face of Ford.”

Taurus models equipped with optional AdvanceTrac® electronic stability control have earned the highest available rating for rollover resistance from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Taurus earned five-star ratings from NHTSA for both driver and front passenger in a frontal crash test and five stars for both the driver and rear-seat passenger in a side impact crash test.