Ford Motor Co. is scheduled to present its new Taurus during the auto show in Detroit, with the company looking to attract a whole new segment of buyers, in order to boost the sales and cover the losses.

Last year’s sales for Ford fell 20 percent from 2007, losing almost $9 billion in the third quarter. In 2007, the company sold only 68,000 units and in 2008 things got worse, selling just 53,000 cars.

Ford’s history with the Taurus goes back a long way, with the company releasing its first model in the late 1980s and recording a huge success. Still, with its oval-inspired redesign that was introduced in 1996, the model lost its appeal and from that point on it was all downhill.

"This was a car that redefined Ford, but later took the company in a very different direction," said David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research. "Now they're trying to go back to the way things were done."

The company is looking to win back its number one spot in the sedan segment, which is expected to be a very hard mission. From year to year, the number of units sold got smaller, as people tend to identify any new Taurus release with the major disaster released back in 1996. It is going to be a hard task, and Ford is taking a huge risk with this business plan, but it is something that must be done.

Not addressing the matter immediately, could but Ford in the same position as General Motors Corp. and Chrysler, which had to borrow money from the federal government.