Five Fords Among the Best for the Money for 2012
Ford was the best-selling auto brand in the country in 2011, and as a recent study by U.S. News & World Reports shows, there’s a good reason for that kind of performance: Ford also won the most categories in the publication’s recent rankings of the “Best Cars for the Money 2012.”
“The award-winning vehicles have the best combination of praise from car reviewers, lower upfront costs and lower long-term ownership costs than their competition,” according to U.S. News & World Reports. “The winners aren’t just good cars or good values. They’re both.”
And for Ford, those winners were:
Ford Fiesta—The top choice in the Subcompact segment, as well as the highest-rated Hatchback, the Fiesta combines clean good looks, available high-tech features like Ford’s SYNC AppLink, an MSRP that starts at just $13,200, and EPA ratings that finish at 40 mpg highway. The Fiesta is offered in a sedan body style, too.
Ford... 2013 Fusion Targets Fuel-Efficiency Triple Crown
Wrapped in a sleek, flowing new exterior that draws on Ford’s award-winning global design language, the completely redesigned 2013 Ford Fusion is going to break fresh ground by being the first midsize sedan available with three different powertrains—gas, hybrid and plug-in hybrid—and it plans on achieving best-in-class fuel efficiency with all of them.
The Fusion actually will offer five different engines, including three that run strictly on gasoline: A standard, naturally aspirated I4 and two advanced EcoBoost four-cylinder motivators. Among that second pair will be a peppy 1.6-liter EcoBoost engine that is expected to achieve the segment’s top EPA ratings for a non-hybrid four-cylinder engine, ringing up marks of 26 mpg city/37 mpg highway; the second EcoBoost powerplant will be the hi-po choice for the Fusion, and while Ford didn’t discuss output, it’s worth noting that a similarly sized EcoBoost engine will be rated at 247 hp/250 lb.-ft. of torque in the...
Ford to Open R&D Center in Silicon Valley
Ford is continuing to push the envelope when it comes to automotive technology—all the way from its Motor City roots to Silicon Valley: The automaker recently announced it would open its very first dedicated research and development lab in California’s high-tech hotspot.
The new facility will be located in the San Francisco Bay area and open later this quarter, with efforts to be spearheaded by the automaker’s Ford Research and Innovation division. Combined with Ford’s Advanced Design Studio in Irvine, Calif., and the company’s presence in Redmond, Wash.—where Ford team members are working in collaboration with Microsoft, Ford’s “connectivity platform partner”—the result will be a comprehensive West Coast innovation network that will help Ford further advance its leadership role in transportation technologies.
“Silicon Valley represents a deep and dynamic technology neighborhood and is far from Dearborn [Ford’s home base],” said K. Venkatesh Prasad, senior...
Boss 302 Shows its Performance Excellence
The 2012 Ford Mustang Boss 302 is kicking off the new year the same way it ended the last—by kicking the competition to the curb: The automaker’s CEO—Chief Excitement Object—recently received a Popular Mechanics Auto Excellence Award as the top 2012 choice in the performance car category. And why not, when writers for the prestigious publication reported that, “The 2012 Ford Mustang Boss 302 is the kind of fully realized, perfectly crafted performance car that comes along only once a decade.”
Such perfection didn’t happen by accident, either.
“The team at Ford wanted to offer their fellow Mustang enthusiasts something really special—a beautifully balanced factory-built race car that they could drive on the street,” explains Dave Pericak, Mustang chief engineer. “The Boss 302 isn’t something a Mustang GT owner can buy all the parts for out of a catalog or that a tuner can get by adding a chip. This is a front-to-back re-engineered...
Ford Focus is Detroit Free Press Car of the Year
While plenty of publications from around the world offer their opinions on the best vehicles of the year, the honor from the Detroit Free Press—one of the industry’s hometown newspapers—certainly stands out from the crowd. And so does the 2012 Ford Focus, the vehicle recently named the Freep’s “Car of the Year.”
Acclaimed auto journalist Mark Phelan, writing for the paper, said that “The sleek 2012 Ford Focus may be the most sophisticated small car ever sold in America,” and lauded the car for features including its refreshed Ford SYNC connectivity and infotainment system and PowerShift six-speed automatic transmission. According to Phelan, the former is unequalled in the Focus’ segment and “remains blissfully straightforward and easy to use.” As for the latter, Phelan noted that even though that transmission has received some criticism from other reviewers, “I think the problem is that Ford neglected to explain to owners that it...