Ford

Ford touts new green fleet with snide actor Ed Begley, Jr.

Ed Begley, Jr. isn’t the first actor hired to help sell automobiles and he likely won’t be the last. But whether, it’s an actor’s voice-over in television commercials or Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong pitching the Nissan (one of his team’s sponsors) and its Leaf, no celebrity pitchman has been as opinionated as Begley, Jr. in his new collaboration with Ford. The actor is a noted environmentalist and his “green” lifestyle has been showcased often on television and in the print media. In the Ford video, which debuted in conjunction with the carmaker’s new electric offerings at the Detroit Auto Show, Begley, Jr. poked fun at several other manufacturers’ electric and hybrid offerings. The video is strong and like

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Ford Mustang, 1965 car review

Some argue a collectible car must have been built in fairly small numbers to make it exclusive, and thus more desirable and valuable. So how do they explain why the 1965 Ford Mustang is such a popular collectible? After all, it attracted a staggering 680,989 buyers after its early public introduction at the New York World’s Fair in April, 1964. The 1965 Mustang set an all-time record for first-year sales of any new model. Today’s auto market is too fragmented with different types of cars for a single model to ever get the wildly enthusiastic reception of the first Ford Mustang in America. The top-selling car in 2008, for instance, was the Toyota Camry, with 436,616 buyers. Since its arrival,

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Ford Explorer 2011 car review

The Ford Explorer dominated the SUV market in the 1990s, but lost most of its ground by the middle of this decade. The redesigned, carlike 2011 model may make it popular again. The new three-row Explorer is larger, but lighter. It shares underpinnings with the Ford Taurus and Flex and trades its rear-drive layout for front-drive, while its trucklike body-on-frame construction gives way to a unit-body platform. Four-wheel drive continues to be available. The old Explorer’s trucky dynamics are gone. So is the V-8, replaced by a 3.5-liter V-6 that generates 290 horsepower and 255 pound-feet of torque. It works with a responsive six-speed automatic transmission, which can be shifted manually. There are lowered initial gears for better off-the-line acceleration

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Chevy Volt, Ford Explorer take Detroit Auto Show top honors

The Chevrolet Volt plug-in electric car and Ford Explorer claimed top honors as the North American car and truck of the years honors at the Detroit Auto Show. The Volt, the General Motors’ centerpiece contribution to the advancing green car industry, has already earned the 2011 Green Car of the Year and Motor Trend Magazine’s Car of the Year. It edged the Nissan Leaf and the Hyundai Sonata for the Car of the Year award, voted on by a panel of 49 automotive journalists. Ford Motor Co’s latest incarnation of its Explorer sport utility vehicle was named 2011 Truck of the Year, edging the Jeep Grand Cherokee and the Dodge Durango. It was the third year in a row that

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Ford counters Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt with Focus Electric

Ford Motor Company has unveiled the Focus Electric — the automaker’s first all-electric passenger car. The zero-CO2-emissions, gasoline-free version of Ford’s popular small car is the flagship of the company’s growing fleet of hybrid, plug-in hybrid and all-electric vehicles coming to North America and Europe by 2013. The Focus Electric will launch in late 2011 and offer a mile-per-gallon equivalent better than Chevrolet Volt and competitive with other battery electric vehicles, according to Ford. A full recharge is expected to take three to four hours at home with the 240-volt charge station — half the charge time of the Nissan Leaf. Ford will be partnering with Best Buy and the Geek Squad for installation and servicing of a two-part charging

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Honda, Ford surpass Toyota as most reliable cars in 2010

Massive recalls severely hurt Toyota sales in the past 18 months and  thus relinquished the country’s former most reliable automaker to third place behind Honda and Ford, according to Consumer Reports. Honda rank in first place with 25 percent of car owners participating in the magazine’s survey naming the manufacturer with the best quality. Ford finished second with 23 percent, while Toyota finished third at 19 percent, 11 percent less than last year. Toyota‘s reputation plummeted in 2009 and 2010 and it paid nearly $50 million in fines last year to federal safety regulators for failing to promptly inform regulators of defects in its vehicles and delaying recalls. Chevrolet (19 percent) placed fourth in reliability while Mercedes-Benz (15 percent) was

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Ford Mustang 2011 car review

Next to the Model T, which seems too old for history books, the Mustang is the best known Ford. It was snapped up by all age groups right after its mid-1964 introduction. There’s something to be said for automotive continuity. For example, while Chevrolet dropped its Camaro for eight years after 2002, the Mustang has been continued since its debut. A media preview of the new Mustang in the Los Angeles area involved everything from mountain driving to drag races with the rival Camaro. It showed the 2011 Mustang the best Mustang yet. It reaches showrooms in mid-spring. The 2011 Mustang looks much the same as the 2010 model and has minimal weight gain because the latter was redesigned with

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Ford F-Series top 2010 seller, extends reign to 34 years

The Ford F-Series pick-up, the country’s best-selling vehicle every year for more than three decades, continued its commanding position in 2010 with an increase of more than 27 percent in sales from 2009. The Ford F-Series trucks, one of two Ford products on the top-10 list for 2010, had sales of 528,349, more than 150,000 more than the second-best seller, the Chevrolet Silverado. It was the country’s top-seller for the 34th straight year. Honda had three cars among the top-10 sellers for 2010, the Accord, Civic and CR-V. Toyota (Camry and Corolla) and Ford (F-Series and Fusion) had two vehicles on the list. Despite the third and fifth positions on the top-10 list, the Camry and Corolla were the only

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Audi, Ford, Lexus on The Weekly Driver's 2010 Best List

Recall was likely the most used word in the automotive industry in 2010. Toyota topped the list of manufacturers’ whose cars were retrieved by the millions with myriad issues. Regardless, of the 20 million recalls. it was another remarkable year for cars. The Hyundai Sonata for the first time in some monthly totals outsold the Honda Accord. The Chevy Camaro returned in 2009 as a 2010 model. Honda introduced the attention-grabbing Crosstour and discontinued the Element. The Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf made their public debuts amid an enormous public relations joust and with the future of hybrid and electric vehicles still largely unclear. The specialty car market was constantly in the news. Premium prices were dished out at auctions

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Ford sets plans for start-stop feature throughout line

If they can put it in a golf cart, you’d think Ford can add it to a car — at least so it seems. But adding the so-called start-stop technology to all cars in Ford‘s line-up won’t be as easy as it sounds because when you turn off a car’s engine you also turn off critical functions like cabin heating and cooling. Ford‘s automatic engine shutoff technology (which turns of the engine at stoplights or and/or when the car is not moving) is already available on the Ford Fusion Hybrid, the Escape Hybrid, and some several other Ford models in Europe. Never-the-less Ford has just announced it plans to be the first U.S. car manufacturer to add its Auto Start-Stop

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Ford Fiesta 2011 car review

Small mass-produced cars long have taken a back seat to larger vehicles in America. But now Ford hopes its 2011 Fiesta will convince Americans they need not sacrifice with a small, premium car. In short, Ford hopes the stylish, upscale front-drive Fiesta will “redefine small-car customer expectations” and thus be a “game-changing product for North America.” With unusually stiff upcoming federal fuel economy and emissions regulations,  automakers fervently hope far more Americans will embrace small cars. Ford rivals also will be introducing upscale small models. A lengthy test drive of the Fiesta over twisty, challenging mountain roads outside San Francisco and on freeways surrounding that city during a media preview of the car showed it to have European road manners,

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Ford Shelby GT500 Mustang 2011 Car Review

Legendary champion racer/performance car builder Carroll Shelby first built affordable “Shelby GT350 Mustang” models, based on the then-new production Mustang, in 1965. The car was so fast, it even beat Corvettes on tracks. And now a good GT350 is a prized collector’s item that costs at least several hundred thousand dollars. Shelby is still with us as of this writing, feisty as ever at nearly 90, and must be very proud of the muscular-looking 2011 Ford Shelby GT500 Mustang. It’s the latest in a series of Ford Shelby GT500 models built in the last few years, and is by far the best. Some feel that it’s the greatest Mustang ever. An honorable mention is the Mustang GT500 Shelby 1967, a

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Most Unsafe Cars in History: Ford Pinto to Chevrolet Corvair

The Chevrolet Corvair earned the dubious honor in part when the book “Unsafe At Any Speed” paid homage to its horrible reputation for crashing disasters. The Ford Pinto is on the list because its gas tank was in the optimal place for exploding after even a minor accident. What these cars and eight other infamous vehicles have in common is that they’ve been selected as the Most Dangerous Cars In History. The websites, The Consumerist. and Auto Shippers.com have combined to present a list of common vehicles and some not so common that earn honors they’d prefer not have. The subjective list, according to The Consumerist.com, was compiled when “Auto Shippers combed through the auto industry’s storied history of catastrophic

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Great American classic cars: Buick, Mercury, Ford, Rambler

Or how about a head-turning 1955 Nash Rambler cross country wagon or a 1958 Mercury Turnpike Cruiser? Owning a Duesenberg you don’t drive is fine. But how about taking a Sunday afternoon cruise in 1951 Chrysler Thunderbolt? Here are 10 vehicles The Weekly Driver would like to own and drive: James RaiaA sports, travel and business journalist for more than 45 years, James has written the new car review column The Weekly Driver since 2004. In addition to founding this site in 2004, James writes a Sunday automotive column for The San Jose Mercury and East Bay Times in Walnut Creek, Calif., and monthly auto review and wellness columns for Gulfshore Business, a magazine in Southwest Florida. An author and

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Ten great, cheap 2011 cars, Ford Fiesta to VW Golf

The automotive industry is flush with inexpensive, economical, quality cars. The online business site, CNNMoney.com has compiled an impressive list of 10 cars, the Ford Fiesta to Honda Fit, all with entry level prices of under $18,000. In its assessment of the Chevy Cruze, for example, the website editors write: “General Motors makes a really nice small car. The best thing about the Chevy Cruze is that it looks, feels and drives like a real car. It’s not one of those “be happy-you-even-have-a-car” tin cans on wheels. “The interior is made from better-than-you-paid-for stuff while the ride quality and performance are, likewise, a notch above. Most small car buyers are after practicality and comfort, not kicks, and the Cruze delivers

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Ford has new pitch for 2011 F-150: ‘We’ll bring it to you’

Ford Motor Co. isn’t content with the long-standing, best-selling status of its F-150 pick-up truck. So to increase aware of the 2011 model featuring the new EcoBoost engine, an automaker representative will bring the truck to your house for a test drive. Ford is launching a 60-city tour to promote the F-150. Potential buyers can sign up for a Ford representative to bring the truck to the participant’s house or place of work for a 30-minute drive. The new F-150 model has the EcoBoost V-6 engine, which uses twin turbo charging and direct fuel injection. Ford is touting this EcoBoost engine as being just as powerful as a V-8. Its 365 horsepower can tow as much as 11,300 pounds and

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