Two larger engines were available in the otherwise very similar Ford Taunus 15 M. From the outside the 15M was differentiated by its grill and rectangular headlights from the 12M which had round front lights.

In France and Britain this layout was beginning to gain wider acceptance thanks to cars such as the Peugeot 204 and the Morris 1100, but in Germany, apart from pioneering models from the by now relatively low volume Auto Union brands that had introduced front wheel drive in the 1930s and applied it ever since, the Ford Taunus 12M/15M was still regarded as idiosyncratic in using this configuration.

But there was an absentee: the P6 was the first post war Ford Taunus design for which the company offered no coach-built cabriolet version.

A feature of the body that was loudly proclaimed in Ford's advertising was its interior roominess, reflected in its generous exterior dimensions.

However, from February 1968 it became possible, at extra cost, to specify a floor-mounted gear change lever between the (for these models) individual front seats.

For the range topping Ford Taunus 15M RS introduced in March 1968 the floor-mounted gear change was a standard feature.

Telescopic dampers also improved the suspension of the wheels at the back of the car where the steel beam axle and the semi-elliptical leaf springs would have been familiar to drivers of earlier Taunus models.

Advertising of the time highlights a long list of improvements covering matters such as instrumentation and upholstery, although many of these, with the benefit of five decades of hindsight, appear very trivial.

Following the annual summer vacation shut-down the cars that came off the production line from September 1967 nevertheless appeared with restyled grills and dashboards.

Though it probably figured in Ford's thinking that, except on cars exported to the US, Volkswagen themselves continued to offer some models with only 6-volt electrical systems until 1972.

This model, especially in its coupe form, quickly acquired something approaching cult status among a determined body of enthusiasts.

In a static market the P6's achievement in matching its predecessor's annual volumes would have been counted a success, but the German auto-market was growing at this time.

The Ford (Taunus) P6 failed to keep pace with the growth in the German auto-market which appears to have contributed to a major rethink.

In Germany it was substantially smaller than any Ford offered in recent years, and it faced the market dominance of Opel and Volkswagen.

This shared the basic footprint and simplified architecture (though not at this stage most of its engines) with the British Ford Cortina Mark III.

The Taunus TC would sell strongly against Opel’s Ascona, and was also helped in shared European export markets by the Cortina's supply problems resulting from lengthy strikes at Dagenham.