If you're looking for one of several Ford or Lincoln vehicles in black or red, you'd better be ready to settle with what's out at the dealership—and potentially even paying a little extra. Ford has just told its dealerships to halt orders of some models with certain hues of semi-metallic red or black paint, because of a supply interruption due to the recent earthquake in Japan.
Tuxedo Black is temporarily not offered for order on a number of Ford trucks and SUVs, as well as the Ford Taurus and Lincoln MKX. There's also a problem with red for Ford F-Series Super Duty and Ranger pickups, Econoline vans, and the Ford Focus and Lincoln Navigator.
According to CNN Money, both hues rely on an ingredient called Xirallic to get a slightly metallic look, and the recent natural disaster in Japan caused a supply disruption from the company that was providing it.
Don't look for the shortage to last that long; Ford is looking for another ingredient to take its place.
Poor Squeezie - Amazing 2011 Fiesta Crash and Testimonial
This was such a compliment to us and to Ford Motor Company that I had to share. Angela Williams, a customer who bought our very first lime squeeze 2011 Fiesta, got hit in a head-on collision by a drunk driver during broad daylight a few days ago. You can find a video of the aftermath of the crash on at YouTube.
The crash was bad, but as you'll see from the photos, those class-exclusive driver knee airbags allowed Mrs. Williams to walk away from the crash. Here is what she had to say:
"Please tell Randall Ford that I definitely want another Fiesta. If she could help us locate another I would be forever grateful. This car, from what the police said, at the very least saved my legs. I want to write a testimonial and send to Ford, but not sure who to send it to. I want to let them know how much I appreciate the engineering and safety features that helped save my life."
We are locating her another Fiesta as we speak. Nothing says customer loyalty like a life that has been spared! Thanks to the engineers at Ford who make safety standard.
Between 2008 and 2010, the U.S. auto industry—and the auto market as a whole—went through a sea change. In addition to bankruptcies from GM and Chrysler, discontinued brands, and retired model lines, the economy forced many brands to make hasty changes to their model lines.
And somehow, Ford managed to continue the upswing that it had started heading into the period—with some impressive gains in sales and market share.
R.L. Polk & Co. has helped put this into perspective: In a post, analyst Tom Libby explains that Ford's overall gain in market share from calendar-year 2008 to CY 2010 is more than the entire market share of Subaru, Mazda, or Volkswagen.
Over those two years, Ford has gained a very impressive 2.5 percent of market share, up to about 14.8 percent for 2010.
What's even more impressive is that the market share hasn't been earned through just a few halo vehicles. During those two years, eight of the seventeen Ford models have gained market share.
The Ford Fusion, F-Series, and Escape each gained a half a percent or more from 2008 to 2010. while only the Explorer, Crown Victoria, and Expedition (along with the discontinued Taurus X) lost market share—and even in all of those cases it was a tenth of a percent or less.
Those are great signs for the brand and the company, as its success hasn't been rooted in a particular vehicle line, or type of vehicle—although it does remain somewhat dependent on the F-150 as a profit center. The brand also otherwise looks well-positioned for rising gas prices—a heightened concern over the past several weeks given recent political upheaval throughout the Middle East and North Africa.
According to Autodata—and cited by MSN Money—Ford is one of just two, out of all the U.S. and Asian automakers, to reduce its average incentives last month—while its sales grew 13 percent.
Ford is expected to finish February with about 16 percent of the market, ranking it after General Motors but ahead of Toyota.
Gas prices are rising, and we're all already feeling it at the pump. Political instability abroad and economic instability at home seem to be conspiring to suck our wallets dry as fast as our gas tanks. But now some enterprising thieves are hurrying the process along, drilling into the tanks of parked cars to steal their refined payload.
The area around Fort Mill, SC, just southwest of Charlotte, North Carolina, is apparently feeling the pinch at the pump more acutely than elsewhere. Five incidents of drill-wielding gas theft have come out of South Carolina's York County, according to the local Sheriff's Office.
Drills in hand, the thieves pounce at night, stealing the gas, leaving the tanks in need of repair. Some of the owners of the cars vandalized thus far hadn't realized the full scope of the matter until the car was at the repair shop--likely after discovery by the mechanic.
The thefts have so far been localized to five streets in the Baxter Village and Bailiwyck areas of Fort Mill. If you're in those areas, you might want to boost security on your car in a visible manner to deter the thieves and avoid a costly repair--and another fill-up.
40 miles per gallon seems to be the new magic number in the automotive industry and Ford could be considered heavy weight in the category. With the official 40-mpg rating of the 2012 Ford Focus by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Ford now has four vehicles with a 40-mpg or greater rating. As you might guess that is the most of any manufacturer currently. What is even more interesting is the research that backs up Ford’s strategy for superior fuel economy, their method and we quite like the technology as well.
Friday, Ford released a press release that educated the media on the fuel efficient model range and research that shows consumers leaning towards fuel efficiency. According to Derrick Kuzak, group vice president, Global Product Development, ““Our customers tell us that fuel economy is the top reason for purchasing a Focus. The all-new Focus meets that demand with great fuel economy, class-leading technologies and features, exceptional standards of craftsmanship and driving dynamics typically reserved for larger, more expensive vehicles.” What makes this achievement more significant is how Ford has chosen to execute their offering of mpg to the customer.
What sets the Ford Focus apart from some of the competition? Besides the 14 class leading features, ones that will have some 50 commercials to promote them to the public, the Focus also employs a six-speed automatic transmission that is used in the Super Fuel Economy (SFE) model. Think of the SFE model as similar to the Hyundai Elantra Blue and if you were going to place bets, then we would put our money on other companies following suite. In other words we believe we will start to see designated high efficiency models. One of the more interesting and unique features of the 2012 Ford Focus is the Active Grille Shutter System.
The system features a motorized shutter system that has horizontal vanes. These vanes can rotate some 90 degrees to block airflow and are controlled by the cars ECU. The shutter system can rotate the horizontal vanes in 15 different directions to control the amount of airflow into the radiator. When the vanes are completely close the system reduces the drag on the vehicle and therefore the CO2 emissions. How much? Two percent. The system also helps keep the driver more comfortable by keeping the vanes closed during cold start to allow the engine to warm up quicker.
Ford says, “Great looks, smart technology and true performance.” What will you say? If you are in the market for a new small car you owe yourself a close look at the 2012 Ford Focus so you can try it on for size—and technology.
The Ford Sync system is now installed in about 70 percent of U.S. Ford models, in a total of 2.5 million vehicles. With voice-command-based, hands-free access to cellphones and media players, via Bluetooth and USB, Sync arguably helps keep your eyes on the road by replacing button-pushing with words.
The next step up from Sync is MyFord Touch, featured in the 2011 Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX, and now offered in the 2012 Ford Focus that's just reaching dealerships this month.
In case you missed our coverage of MyFord Touch in the Edge and MKX, the system introduces the combination of a beautiful, tablet-like touch screen, five-way toggle buttons on the steering wheel, and additional, smaller gauge-cluster displays. It's generally been well-received, and in our first few drives with the system, we can see that there's a bit of a learning curve but we find the system more intuitive than most.
That said, not all testers have come away very impressed with MyFord Touch. Consumer Reports bashed the system for its confusing controls, cluttered touch-screen layout, and sometimes sluggish screen response, saying that while the system worked well for complex commands it was clumsy for everyday controls.
One thing that few could fault (because it's simply the best in the business at this time) is the much-expanded voice-command set introduced with MyFord Touch; it gets a new voice-recognition (VR) engine and a new command structure that opens up the system to recognizing about 10,000 voice commands, according to Ford. That's about ten times the number of commands that earlier versions of Sync could respond to.
Nearly every feature in the vehicle that doesn't directly pertain to driving can now be controlled through voice commands; that includes climate control, the sound system, hands-free calling functions, and trip computer and navigation functions.
Destination street address completely skips the clunky keypad destination entry process that you have to deal with in many high-end luxury cars—it's one of the best examples of the expanded abilities—and instead allows you to simply address the entire street address, including the street number, street name, and city, with one voice input. MyFord Touch then has you verify the input and set the destination.
Ford Sync systems engineer Dominic Colella recently took us on a tour of Sync's expanded voice commands in a MyFord Touch–equipped 2012 Focus and his examples point out that you don't, as in some systems, reach a wall where you're not sure which command to give next—we appreciate how the interface will, if in doubt, give a series of numbered options in most cases.
The system has quite awesome speech-recognition ability and can even tune to Sirius channels by the station name, or by a specific FM frequency, as opposed to simply numbered presets as in most other voice command systems. The interface will also boast similar levels of interactivity with upcoming apps for Pandora and Stitcher.
"Basically any piece of information that your song is known by, you can request to play over VR," Colella said.
Watch the video clip here for some examples of how well these expanded voice commands work.
MyFord Touch is standard on the 2012 Ford Focus Titanium and optional on Focus SEL models.
