Ford used the Chicago Auto Show to announce the return of two nameplates that were supposedly killed. (Taurus and Sable) The newly revised Five-Hundred, Montego and Freestyle have had their names swapped out at the last minute.
Continue reading "2008 Ford Taurus, Mercury Sable, Taurus X" »
Toyota's sales increased 9% last month compared to March 2006. This was largely driven by sales of the new Camry, the RAV4 and the Prius.
According to Reuters and Autoblog, Ford's new CEO Alan Mulally earned $28.18 million dollars last year while the company posted a $12.7 billion loss last year.
Continue reading "New Ford CEO Pockets $28 Million for 4 Months of Work!" »
Lincoln is finally working on new products for their aging line-up. This car is a prototype of the 2009 Lincoln MKS, which is bigger than the current MKZ. The MKS was first shown as a concept at the 2006 Detroit Auto Show. The production version looks like it is going to retain many of the main details of the concept version.
Continue reading "2009 Lincoln MKS Spy Photos...Is Ford Finally Getting Serious about Lincoln?" »
Apparently Ford's quality is now on par with Toyota and Nissan, according to a new report released today. The RDA Group has released a report on the quality of 2007 model year vehicles. The group concluded that Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles have the same quality levels as Toyota and Nissan in the first-quarter 2007 model-year Global Quality Research System report.
Continue reading "Ford Quality is on Par with Toyota and Nissan?" »
According to a report by the Automotive News, between September 2006 and February 2007, 48.5% of Chrysler brand sales were to fleets. That is an increase of 10% from the same period a year ago. 44.9% of Pontiac sales go to fleets, which is slightly lower than the 46.2% from the year earlier.
Continue reading "Nearly Half of all Chrysler and Pontiac Sales Come from Fleet Sales" »
Ford has posted their Q1 2007 earnings. The net loss for Q1 was $282 million, which is a lot better than last year's loss of $1.4 billion for the same period. Cost-cutting and improved sales from their European and luxury brands helped to decrease the overall lose for the quarter.
Continue reading "Things are Finally Looking up for Ford!" »
April's auto sales numbers have just been posted and almost every major automaker had a sales decrease last month. Even the Asian automakers that have been making headlines for their sales gains, took a hit.
Continue reading "Auto Sales Dip Due to a Slowing Economy" »
Edmunds.com has posted a list of the most wanted cars in 2007 based on reader feedback. Out of the 32 categories you may be surprised which automaker took home the most awards....
Continue reading "What are the Most Wanted Cars in the U.S. for 2007?" »
PC Magazine has listed what they feel are the vehicles with the best technology. For the second year the BMW X5 was listed as their top vehicle and took home the magazine's "Digital Drive Car of the Year" award. The X5 was picked because of its adaptive drive, spilt-screen navigation, real-time traffic reports and front and rear sonar.
Continue reading "Which New Vehicles Have the Best Technology?" »
According to California Attorney General Jerry Brown, the federal government may need to bail out U.S. automakers in order to keep them in business. The bail out could amount to several billion dollars.
Continue reading "Should the Government Bail Out the U.S. Automakers?" »
According to company insiders BMW will build the next generation X3 at the Spartanburg, South Carolina plant in the US. The new X3 will be built alongside the upcoming BMW X6 and the current X5 and Z4.
For years everyone has suggested that Ford kill of its Mercury division. The division simply sells rebadged versions of Ford products, that don't usually have higher levels of performance or luxury. The brand has been seen as a waste of valuable resources and a severe drain on the parent company. Lately Mercury has had somewhat of a revitalization.
Continue reading "Why Won't Mercury Die? Maybe it Has Something to do With Women?" »
Ford and US automakers as a whole have been hit pretty hard this year due to declining SUV sales. Rising gas prices have forced consumers to move away from large gas-guzzling SUVs into smaller more fuel-efficient models. Well Ford's emphasis on its crossover lineup is finally reaping its rewards.
Forbes has gathered what they believe to be the safest new cars on the market. They searched through Consumer Reports, Department of Transportation, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI) to compile the list of the top 20 safest cars of 2007.
Ford has been pretty slow to respond to the growing need of more fuel-efficient models and with the styling advancement of their sedan range, which has disappointed Ford's senior management. One example is the Ford Five-Hundred aka. Ford Taurus. The styling of that sedan is not only boring, but it also looks like it could have been designed in the 80's or early 90's.
The new Ford Edge is one of Ford's most popular new vehicles. The new crossover is now the third best selling mid-size crossover behind the Nissan Murano and the Toyota Highlander. Because of this Ford has increased its sales forecast for the Edge from 100,000 to 120,000.
J.D. Power and Associates has released the results of their 2007 Initial Quality Survey. Porsche held the top spot with only 91 problems per 100 vehicles for the second time in a row. But it was Ford that made the biggest headlines.
Ford plans on using the tagline "The Safest Car in America" for the recently introduced 2008 Ford Taurus. The Ford Taurus and the Mercury Sable received the highest possible crash test scores by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Continue reading "2008 Ford Taurus is "The Safest Car in America"?" »
According to Automotive News Ford is going to install two turbochargers on its 4-cylinder, V6 and V8 engines to increase fuel economy and power.
Two weeks ago Ford announced that the automaker is going to develop engines with twin turbochargers that will improve power and fuel economy (TwinForce). The first car to feature the new technology will be the 2009 Lincoln MKS sedan.
Spy photos of Lincoln's upcoming MKS sedan have been circulating for months. Recently we got our first glimpse of the interior of the upcoming sedan. Now KGP spy photographers have caught some photos of a prototype with its engine exposed. Unfortunately from these photos it looks like the standard engine will be the 3.5L V6 that is in the Ford Taurus, Edge and Lincoln MKZ and not the new TwinForce V6.
Ford has surprised the industry by posting a net profit of $750 million for the second quarter of 2007. After seven straight quarters of being in the red, Ford has managed to come back. Well don't get excited because it wasn't from actual car sales in North America, sales dropped 9 percent last quarter.
Continue reading "Ford Surprises Everyone by Posting a $750 Million Profit Last Quarter" »
Forbes has put together a list of the top 20 most dangerous vehicles on the road. The Buick Rendevous SUV/ Minivan topped their list as possibly the worst car to buy right now in terms of safety. Compared to other minivans the Rendevous is up to three times more likely to cause a fatality.
Last month will go down in the record books as the first month that Detroit's Big 3 (Ford, GM and Chrysler) sold less vehicles than their foreign competitors. Sales from Ford, GM and Chrysler only made up 48.1 percent of all vehicles sales in the U.S. last month, while foreign competitors made up 51.9 percent.
Continue reading "US Automakers Accounted for Less then 50% of the US Market in July" »
Ford has announced the pricing for it's new Sync system that was co-developed with Microsoft. Ford Sync offers the ability to connect digital media players such as the iPod and Bluetooth cell phones to your car, which then can be controlled using your voice and steering wheel mounted controls.
Continue reading "Ford Offers Sync System for $395...Now You Can Connect All Your Gadgets!" »
Lincoln has announced the changes to the Navigator SUV for the 2008 model year. Both the standard Navigator and the Navigator L get more standard features for the new year.
Continue reading "2008 Lincoln Navigator Gets More Standard Features and a Little Less Chrome" »
It seems that the Lincoln Mark LT luxury pickup has failed to meet sales targets. The Lincoln version of the Ford F-150 was launched for the 2006 model year, but as failed to find a following. The latest reports state that the truck will be discontinued after the 2008 model year.
For years there has been speculation that Ford may eventually kill off Mercury due to weak sales. The current Mercury lineup is aging and there seems to be little new projects in the works. Could this mean that Ford is finally letting Mercury die a slow death?
According to a new analyst report by Goldman Sachs the "Big 3" all had sales declines last month.
Continue reading "Ford, GM and Chrysler Sales Fall in September" »
According to Ford CEO Alan Mulally, Mercury is here to stay.
Continue reading "Mercury Stays Alive Despite Poor Sales and a Lack of New Products" »
According to Consumer Reports, Toyota's predicted reliability has slipped from the previous number one spot, while Ford has moved up.
Continue reading "Toyota's Reliability Plummets While Ford Moves up in the Ranks" »
Alan Mulally, Ford's CEO has recently told the Automotive News that Ford is working on simplifying its lineup to reduce costs and to make it easier for customers to decide which cars they want to buy.
Lincoln is going to officially unveil its newest sedan at the Los Angeles Auto Show in two weeks, but the car has been caught filming either for a commercial or for the next Batman movie.
Continue reading "2009 Lincoln MKS Spy Photos...The Upcoming Lincoln Has Been Caught Filming" »
Lincoln has released the first official pictures of the upcoming 2009 MKS, which will be officially unveiled at the LA Auto Show this week.
Continue reading "2009 Lincoln MKS Officially Unveiled...Will Lincoln's New Design DNA Work?" »
Ford is going to unveil its newest engine technology at the Detroit Auto Show this month.
Continue reading "Detroit Auto Show Preview: Ford Unveils EcoBoost Turbo Direct Injection Engines" »
Although the Detroit Auto Show may be over, Ford has decided to unveil new versions of its Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner SUVs for the 2009 model year.
Continue reading "2009 Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner Get More Power and Better Fuel Economy" »
Ford announced today that the automaker posted a $100 million profit for Q1 2008, which is a $382 million increase over the same period last year. Most of the profit can be attributed to strong sales in Europe and South America, which helped offset the declining US market.
Continue reading "Ford Posts $100 Million Profit For Q1 2008...Everyone is Surprised" »
Ford recently unloaded Land Rover and Jaguar and now there are speculations that Ford may be looking at selling Volvo.
Continue reading "Do You Think That Ford Should Sell Mercury and Volvo?" »
Yesterday Jerry York made some statements about the fact that Ford should sell its Volvo and Mercury brands. Well today Ford has released an official statement that Volvo is not for sale and that the automaker continues to invest in Mercury.
Continue reading "Ford Denies Yet Again that Volvo is for Sale" »