Bean Counter Tail Lights: Ford Taurus Gen IV

Carmakers are in the business of selling cars and making money. Be it by making desirable vehicles, appealing to buyers' emotions or their wallets, ultimately money talks. In the Bean Counter Tail Lights series, I will highlight are a few instances where carmakers pinched their pennies by cutting cost on their tail light configuration, specifically their turn signals. American carmakers have an annoying tendency of giving their cars position/brake lights the task of turn indicators.

The 2000-2007 Ford Taurus' styling was toned down a lot compared to its predecessor's wild curves and droopy profile. It seems like Ford may have also taken the opportunity to save some cash by eliminating the bulb where the turn signal was intended to be in the tail lights.

2000-2003 Ford Taurus SE (photo by Kevauto)

In the pre-facelift Taurus above the tail lights are red (wow) with a small clear cutout at the lower inner corners for the reverse lights. Of course the brake lights have to act as turn signals too, where else would the indicators be? The lower outer portions of the tail lamps is actually where the turn signal were likely intended to be. In fact on the inside the tail lamp casing there is a molded protrusion that is blocked off - at least on North American models - where a light bulb could have been inserted. For whatever reason (most likely financial) they opted to remove that bulb, block off the opening, and give the brake lights an extra shift. 

Facelift 2004-2007 Ford Taurus (photo by MercurySable99)

On the facelifted 2004-2007 models Ford gave the turn signal lens area a clear look, an appealing and cost efficient way to update a car. Though Toyota seems to be doing the opposite move sometimes. Anyway, here you can clearly see where the turn signal was probably meant to be. You can even see some of the red reflection of what might be a red bulb inside the lens, alas after looking at some eBay listings for these lights it seems like this glow is just from the red lens housing above. I investigated some videos of bulb replacements on this model of Ford Taurus and it is still the same story: the casing has a spot for a turn signal bulb, but it was blocked off. 

There are quite a few instances of turn signal bulbs getting the axe, presumably in the name of cost saving, I will make sure to cover them. Give me your thoughts in the comments. Thanks for reading.