On December 26, 1985 the American dream took on a dramatic new shape. Its critics called it a jelly bean on wheels. Even the automotive visionaries who designed it worried that Taurus would be the Edsel of its time... a futuristic family car that no American family would buy. But in its record-breaking first year of production, the car that had been Ford's greatest risk became its hottest seller. By 1989, the "car that came from the moon" had found its way into a million American garages. This is the story of the aerodynamic automobile that streamlined a nation's car consciousness, from its birth on the drawing board of Ford's designers to its triumphant premiere. Told in the voices of the men and women who conceived it, manufactured it, and marketed it, Taurus moves from the executive suite to the assembly line in a graphic portrait of a company recreated by corporate catastrophe. Here, we learn firsthand how the bitter rivalry between Henry Ford II and Lee Iacocca nearly put Ford out of business. We hear as never before the vivid accounts of assembly-line workers who were reprimanded for blowing the whistle and rewarded for turning out "lemons." And through it all, we hear the hopeful voices of those courageous innovators who actually brought the ailing automotive giant to health... people such as the visionary designers who bucked corporate tradition to create the Taurus's unique identity... the obsessive, grating Taurus project supervisor for whom perfection was barely good enough... the first market research expert to realize that Ford h ad to discover the thoughts of the ultimate decision maker - the consumer - if it was to survive. Taurus is an intimate, revealing look at the personalities, politics, and power struggles behind America's most fabled - and troubled - industry. For the first time, here ia glimpse of the birth of a car through the eyes of the designers, engineers, labor leaders, executives, and workers who created and built it. They not only gave the public the automobile it wanted - they gave the domestic auto industry a second chance. - Dust jacket.