When did they stop making the Ford 500?
Ford stopped producing the Five Hundred after the 2007 model year; Ford replaced it with the Taurus starting with the 2008 model year.
Lifecycle of the Ford Five Hundred
The Ford Five Hundred was introduced in the mid-2000s as Ford’s large sedan offering. It was built to compete in the full-size family car segment and was marketed as a spacious, comfortable option for American buyers. The car’s run as the Five Hundred was short, lasting only three model years before Ford shifted to a familiar badge to continue the family-sedan narrative.
Key milestones in the Five Hundred's lifecycle include the following timeline:
- 2005 model year: Ford Five Hundred introduced as a full-size, front-wheel-drive sedan.
- 2005–2007: Sold in North America; shared development with a Mercury variant (Montego) and produced in Ford’s Chicago Assembly Plant.
- 2007 model year: Last year of the Five Hundred badge; Ford began planning a branding transition.
- 2008 model year: Ford reintroduced the Taurus nameplate to replace the Five Hundred, signaling a branding shift rather than an all-new chassis.
- 2008–2019: The Taurus nameplate continued in production for several generations, long after the Five Hundred's discontinuation.
In summary, the Five Hundred existed from 2005 to 2007, after which Ford carried the lineage forward under the Taurus name starting with the 2008 model year. The Taurus would endure in various forms for years to come, though the Five Hundred badge itself was retired after 2007.
Why did Ford rename it Taurus?
Ford chose to revive the Taurus name to leverage decades of brand recognition and to align the car with Ford’s more traditional sedan lineup. The renaming allowed Ford to reposition the model within a familiar family-sedan identity without launching an entirely new name from scratch.
Current status and historical context
Today, the Five Hundred is remembered primarily as a short-lived badge that lived on briefly before being folded into Ford’s Taurus lineage. For enthusiasts and historians, it marks a transitional moment in Ford’s mid-2000s product strategy, when the company experimented with renaming and rebranding instead of developing a wholly new model line.
Summary
The Ford Five Hundred was produced for the 2005–2007 model years and discontinued after 2007. Ford replaced it with the Taurus nameplate for 2008, and the Taurus continued in production in various generations for many years thereafter. The Five Hundred’s brief run is a notable footnote in Ford’s SUV- and sedan-heavy era, illustrating how branding decisions can shape a model’s fate even when the underlying platform remains similar.
