The Ford Taurus is a lot like vanilla ice cream. It’s good and you can always count on it being there for you, but it’s not very exciting.

A couple of the appealing vanilla-like qualities of the Taurus are value and safety. While these traits may not be very sexy to some people, they are important reasons for a lot of people who buy a Taurus. Safety and value are obviously the top of many consumers’ list when looking for a vehicle; that’s why the Taurus sells so well.

The Ford Taurus was then criticized for being too conservative and boring when it was redesigned and introduced as the Ford Five Hundred for the 2003 model year.