2012 Ford Edge Crossover Making Waves

A few years ago, the word “crossover” could conjure images of a few different things, but one of them wasn’t automobiles. For some, it applied to the way a basketball player dribbled from one side of his body to the other. For others, it meant a place on a railroad where tracks crossed each other, and for others still it might apply to a musician’s success in changing from one genre to another.

But as far as cars are concerned, you didn’t hear a lot about crossover utility vehicles until relatively recently, even though today it’s easily one of the most popular classes of automobile in the industry. … Continue Reading

Ford’s OpenXC Platform Extends Use of Sync

Believe it or not, there are people out there who make their entire living just selling iPhone/iPod/iPad apps. Luckily for the general iPhone-using public, Apple created a system that allows anyone to develop and contribute applications for download on their devices, so we’re not facing a situation in which Apple is forcing us to use only the apps that they create. Anybody can do it, and so far anybody has had a lot of really good ideas.

That same philosophy will be applied to Ford’s new OpenXC platform, which opens up a whole new universe of driving applications meant to work in conjunction with Ford’s awesome Sync system (put together by Microsoft, oddly enough). … Continue Reading

Tips for Protecting Your Car From Thieves

Quick—think of the easiest way not to get your car stolen. You thought of The Club, didn’t you? If you were alive in the 1990s and saw the relentless ads on TV, then yes, you absolutely did just think of The Club. If you weren’t alive during that era or were and just didn’t watch television, The Club is an anti-theft device that attaches to the steering wheel, and through some engineering magic it doesn’t allow a car thief to steer the vehicle after he or she has broken into it. … Continue Reading

Ford & Toyota Team Up On Hybrid Truck Technology

An oft-used storyline in comic books is where two overwhelmed heroes team up to topple the nastiest villains their pretend worlds have ever seen. As awesome as Batman and Superman are individually, and as much as they’d probably rather work alone, sometimes the bad guys come up with something that just wouldn’t be surmountable without a little help.

The tag-team good guys always win in the end, because let’s face it—you might be able to get the best of Superman or Batman on their worst day, but you’re never going to beat both of them together. It just ain’t gonna happen. … Continue Reading

The Right Way to Wash A Ford

With summer winding down (though you’d never know it with the way temperatures have managed to remained in the 90s, even as we approach September), the opportunities to hand wash your car are rapidly dwindling. We know, not everyone enjoys manual labor and would much rather take their vehicle through an auto wash at a gas station, but there are definitely people out there who enjoy putting on some ratty clothes or a swimsuit, cranking up the hose, and scrubbing down their beautiful cars to the tune of some old garage boombox. … Continue Reading

Ford To Use Solar Energy to Charge EV’s

Every time someone comes up with a great idea that could potentially change the world for the better, some critic somewhere has to swoop in and find all the problems with that idea. Take electric cars, for example. What better way to relieve ourselves of a dependency on foreign oil than to stop running cars on gasoline and start running them on electricity from our homes!

The problem: that energy from your homes has to come from somewhere, too. … Continue Reading

2011 Ford Explorer Sets New Standard for SUV Fuel Efficiency

School starts for a lot of the country next week, so let’s start today’s blog entry by having a little quiz. Question #1: What type of vehicle makes the most sense for growing families? If you answered, “SUV’s” or even “Crossovers,” then congratulations. You get a gold star. But here’s a tougher one: When looking into buying a new SUV, what’s one problem consumers almost always bump into?

Yup, you got it—poor fuel efficiency. … Continue Reading

Ford Lowers the Price of Its Sync Connectivity System

Anybody that has ever invested in cutting edge technology knows that, at first, the prices for these awesome, brand-new devices can be rather exorbitant. Back when VCRs first came out, for example, consumers paid several hundred dollars for the ability to watch movies from the comfort of their own homes. The same could be said when the first personal camcorders were made available, and cell phones and flat-screen TVs and probably the wheel and fire too for all we know. … Continue Reading

Ford Focus EV About to Change Electric Vehicles

My brother is addicted to Best Buy. It’s literally impossible for him to drive by one of their stores without parking his car, stepping inside, and leaving with a Blu-Ray, a couple of video games, and a package of blank DVD’s. As far as he’s concerned, everything he could possibly ever need or want is inside those buildings, but up until now there really hasn’t been a whole lot Best Buy could do for his car.

According to Ford, who will roll out an all-electric Focus next year, that’s about to change. … Continue Reading

Ford Commits Fully to Soy-Based Seats

When Henry Ford started the Ford Motor Company like a million years ago, he didn’t just want to make cars as quickly and as cheaply as possible (though making a profitable automobile via assembly line was certainly part of his entrepreneurial dream); he wanted to work in union with the American agricultural industry in this quest in an attempt to find a relationship that could benefit both parties. … Continue Reading