Winning an impressive award? All in a day’s work.
Toughness and rugged durability now merge with prestige and accolades. The Ford F-150 is the proud recipient of the 2012 Motor Trend Truck of the Year®.
When it comes to capability, power and performance, Motor Trend must have realized the competition didn’t stand a chance. The F-150 offers best-in-class trailer-towing capacity (11,300 lbs.) It can haul more than any other truck in its class—up to 3,120 lbs.
Ford is in its final preparations for its fourth year at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in a big way. Here’s a quick preview of some of the exciting technology to expect from Ford at the 2012 CES.
First, the show will mark the North American debut of the Ford Evos Concept Vehicle. This vehicle was first shown at the 64th Frankfurt International Motor Show, held September 15-25, 2011, and it provides a big hint regarding the DNA of the next generation of Ford cars and crossovers.
Anyone out there remember when you could utter the phrase, “I’m just going to put a couple bucks of gas in the tank” and you could scrounge around for those spare bucks in your pockets and pretty much end up with a quarter of a tank or more to work with? Nowadays? Those couple bucks get you one notch above running on fumes! The point is, fuel economy is a priority for many of us today.
That’s why Ford is beyond stoked to talk about its new hybrids, the C-MAX Hybrid and C-MAX Energi plug-in hybrid, both of which go on sale in the second half of 2012.
The evolution of the Ford Cobra Jet Mustang continues. The CJ, as you can call it, debuted back in 1968 at the NHRA Winternationals. In modern day, it hit the racing scene in the 2008, 2010, and 2012 model years, and has become the winningest late-model in the NHRA, with national event wins in 2009, 2010 and 2011.
So, as you can imagine, all eyes are on what the 2013 CJ can do. No problem! The factory-produced race car has two 5.0-liter engine options: naturally aspirated with a Cobra Jet induction system, CNC-ported heads, high-lift cams and low-drag accessory drive, or with a 2.9-liter Whipple supercharge, CNC port-matched manifold and heads and a proprietary 10-rib supercharger drive system for high-rpm without belt slip.
Ask Dr. Steve Rouhana about his coworkers and he’ll likely tell you they’re “dummies.” While we’ve all probably said that ourselves as some point, Steve means it quite literally: crash-test dummies are his job.
As the Senior Technical Leader for Safety, Ford Research and Advanced Engineering, he explained that “crash-test dummies and virtual humans work together to help us advance the safety of our vehicles.”
It’s the holiday season, which usually means spending prolonged periods of time with family and/or fighting crowds at the malls on Black Friday and beyond. This may lead to an urge to make a gentle kicking motion, but Ford encourages that! Why? Because it’s exactly what you do to open the new hands-free power liftgate on the all-new Escape! That simple motion is all it takes to load the family’s luggage or all the goodies you’ve bought into the cargo area without having to juggle a key and arms full of stuff.
Here are some stats: During the holidays, 87 percent of American adults experience stress when shopping, and auto-related activities have a tendency to induce the most stress. Nearly 55 percent of Americans say that traffic jams, locating a parking spot and getting packages into the vehicle with their hands full are among the top stressful activities.
Debbie Conner is a pickup truck kind of lady. She loves her F-350 truck so much that on September 12, 2011, she traded hers in for a newer F-350 – after racking up 1,060,000 miles on her 2002 model!
How did Debbie manage to log over 1,000,000 miles on her pickup truck, which she affectionately nicknamed “Old Girl?” Debbie and her husband, who live in Parker, Pennsylvania, used their F-350 to deliver camper vehicles all over the United States and Canada. With the help of her husband, a self-proclaimed Ford man through and through, Debbie took meticulous care of Old Girl, staying on top of repairs and general upkeep.
Coming in 2012 is the all-new Ford Escape, touting better fuel economy than its predecessor, 11 exclusive features, two EcoBoost® engines and cutting-edge technology. Hey, we don’t kid around when we say “all-new.”
Let’s start with the EcoBoost, since that’s an engine buyers continue to crave. The new Escape boasts two of ‘em: an available 2.0-liter and a 1.6-liter, which is debuting in America in the Escape. How’s that for another plug under the “all-new” heading? The EcoBoost engines are linked to the SelectShift Automatic® transmission. The standard engine in the Escape will be an updated 2.5-liter, which is also hooked to the SelectShift Automatic six-speed. Projections on fuel economy are estimated at 5 mpg better than the outgoing Escape.
How do you make a dynamic car even better? Sure, it might seem fairly impossible, but Ford managed to do just that with the 2013 Mustang, Mustang Boss 302 and Shelby GT500!
In the power department, the Mustang’s 5.0-liter got kicked up a notch, thanks to the 444-horsepower Mustang Boss 302. You see, engineers were able to adapt multiple designs and bring those to the 5.0-liter, realizing a whopping 420 horses! The six-speed SelectShift Automatic® transmission can be had for fully automatic operation or manual control.
The upgraded 2013 Ford Flex isn’t set to officially debut until November 16 at the Los Angeles Auto Show, but here’s your first look at the new crossover, which gets a fresh look and loads of technology!
Among the changes to the seven-passenger, three-row Flex is a new base engine, a 3.5-liter V6, which makes 285 horsepower (that’s about 20 more horses than the previous engine) and 255 lb.-ft. of torque. EPA estimates should come in around 18 mpg city and 25 mpg highway. If you’ve been lusting after the EcoBoost®, no worries, that 3.5-liter V6 is still available, bringing home 355 horsepower and 350 lb.-ft. of torque. Both of these engines are hooked to a six-speed SelectShift Automatic® transmission, giving you the option of fully automatic operation or manual control. The EcoBoost Flex has paddle shifters integrated into the steering wheel spokes.