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. Every Ford dealership has plenty of Edge models they love to sell for this very reason, and while it’s not the most beloved vehicle they sell, it is growing in popularity, and a laundry list of hardware and features tell a pretty vivid story as to why.

The 2012 iteration of the vehicle doesn’t bring anything crazy to the table, especially since the CUV was totally redesigned just last year. Still, that doesn’t mean there are no changes in the ’12 version, and those changes start with the addition of the EcoBoost engine. Like every other automaker in the world, Ford is trying to get its EPA numbers up, and with this new turbocharged four-banger, the Edge can eke out 30 mpg. You can still get the standard six-cylinder engine or the Sport one if you’d rather, but this provides a practical option for Ford’s greener customers.

Beyond that, we’re still looking at all the same goodies as we were a year ago—MyFord Touch, huge amounts of interior and storage space, Vista Roof glass panel, MyKey, capless fuel filler, a USB port to connect MP3’s to the stereo, and plenty more. It’s this CUV that has become the pet project of Ford. Lincoln, NE dealerships look forward to stocking the ’12 models because people really, really want them now. For all the ways we once defined crossover, the word really means one thing above all else at this point—family vehicles—and that’s a meaning that Ford can really get behind.

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).

Sync has been one of the favorite selling points of any Grand Island Ford dealership for a few years now because as far as infotainment goes, few systems can better it. However, adding this idea of OpenXC means we’re looking at a whole new realm of possibilities for what appeared to already be a pretty useful service.

What OpenXC does is allow third-party developers to create open-source hardware or software products that interact with Sync. In short, Ford doesn’t want to limit the possibilities of Sync to their engineers; they want to see what sort of good ideas the rest of the country has to offer, and if the rest of the country comes up with a gem, there could be some good money to be earned while also keeping Ford and Sync relevant. Everybody wins.

The possibilities here are limitless. You could share your fuel efficiency with friends in real time. You could have your car automatically check you into a location with your FourSquare account. You could project information onto your windshield. Basically anything using the software and hardware already in place—GPS, 3G, Bluetooth—could be the next great idea.

When it comes to helping to improve Ford, Council Bluffs, Iowa and its great minds just need the same opportunity the rest of the world is getting to share their ideas. OpenXC could very well allow really smart, everyday people to make a decent chunk of change while helping to make driving smarter and more fun. And isn’t that what America is all about?

But if this is your idea of theft deterrence, you’re in for a rude surprise. Most car thieves just carry around a small piece of hacksaw to cut the wheel, rip off The Club, and drive your precious car as far away as possible as fast as possible.

In this scenario, unfortunately, you lose a car.

There are better ways to keep your Ford from getting stolen, however. Here are a few things that you can do to keep your car as safe as possible:

The first one is a bit of a no-brainer, but still worth mentioning—lock your car. You’d be amazed how many people out there don’t take the time to remove their keys from the ignition and lock the vehicle when they aren’t using it. People leave their keys in obvious places or simply don’t lock up properly out of sheer laziness, and that’s the easiest way to get a car stolen.

Beyond that, though, it’s smart to park your vehicle in a well-lit area and to remove all of your valuables from view. If you’ve got something a thief might want inside of the car, that increases the potential for it getting broken into. Hide laptops and iPods in the trunk after you park. It really does make a difference.

When it comes to protecting your Ford, Omaha thieves really will go through all sorts of measures to get what they want, but if you protect it the way you should the chances of losing your car are quite a bit better than those who don’t follow the same precautions. The Club won’t always save you, but common sense will.

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.

So, too, is the inevitability that Ford and Toyota working together will defeat the evil Dr. Bad Gas Mileage, which is the nastiest villain automakers are facing today. If these companies want their biggest, most powerful (and often best-selling) SUVs and trucks to survive, they’re going to have to do something about their awful EPA numbers. That’s why the two have agreed to work together on a rear-wheel drive hybrid technology to help reach 30+ mpg on vehicles that have previously been pretty serious gas hogs.

Council Bluffs Ford dealerships like our own love the partnership because it means that somewhere down the road, we could have an F-150 that somehow manages to maintain awesome towing capacity without busting owners’ humps at the pump. Considering that’s the best-selling pickup truck in the country, the last thing Ford wants to do is lose loyal F-150 drivers because they simply can’t afford the $100 it takes to fill up their tank on a weekly basis.

And that’s the long and short of it. Poor fuel economy is an enemy everybody’s dealing with these days, and current iterations of hybrid trucks aren’t doing anywhere near enough to seriously battle that because, as we all know, hybrids tend not to be the most powerful vehicles on the road. Since big trucks need to be exactly that, we know that Ford and Toyota are going to have an interesting time figuring this thing out, but better together than on their own. Any Lincoln Ford dealer (or Toyota dealer, for that matter) has too much to lose if Dr. Bad Gas Mileage wins, so let’s hope that’s one evil these heroes can overcome.

Kinda makes you miss summer. Already.

But if you’re going to wash your car by hand, there actually is a right way to do it, and that’s what we’re going to explore today. It’s not always about new models and hybrid technology here; sometimes a car blog has a responsibility to help Ford owners keep their cars looking nice. Every vehicle is a rolling advertisement, right?

So what, pray tell, does a Ford dealership like our own suggest when it comes to washing cars? Here are a few tips:

1. Keep the vehicle wet before doing any soaping. You want dirt and grime to just float off the sheet metal, and soap on dry sheet metal isn’t as effective as soap on wet sheet metal.
2. Start at the top with the soap and work your way down. The last thing you want is to get all the lower areas nice and clean, then have grimy, dirty soap drip down from the higher areas as you move on. Don’t waste your time having to wash the same area twice.
3. Only use soap specifically designed for cars. Dishwasher soap or hand soap or something along those lines can leave a film, which is disgusting and wrong.
4. Once you’ve given the vehicle its final rinse, dry it as complete as possible, either with a water blade or a towel. Air-drying can lead to water spots, which kind of negates the whole point of washing your car in the first place.
5. When you’re done, consider performing a little wax on, wax off to keep your vehicle gleaming and in good shape.

Do all that and you could end up with the prettiest Ford Council Bluffs, Iowa has ever seen. Or just take it through the drive-thru wash and hope that the washing computers can love your car as much as you do.

Either way, do it while you can. Autumn will be here before you know it.

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

Ford, however, has come with a partial solution to that particular rebuttal by teaming up with SunPower to integrate solar energy into the ways consumers recharger their EVs.

There isn’t a single Grand Island Ford dealership that isn’t pushing fuel efficiency as a selling point right now, and since there’s nothing more fuel-efficient than a vehicle that doesn’t use fuel, you can see why this is the way automakers are heading with their latest concept vehicles. That said, a solar-charged charger is a brilliant idea in that the energy used to refuel the car doesn’t cost car owners a dime.

The “Drive Green for Life” program, a joint effort from Ford and SunPower, offers a 2.5-kilowatt solar system designed for the roofs on people’s homes. The idea, for those of you unfamiliar with the way solar power works, is for these panels to suck up the sunlight and hopefully be enough to completely regenerate a Ford vehicle hooked up to the charger overnight.

Go ahead, naysayers. Try to find something wrong with this idea.

You can’t, because solar energy has long been pegged as the answer to the world’s energy needs. The sun is free, after all, but lobbyists for fossil fuel companies have always kept petroleum and natural gas as kings of the fuel world. Customers were eventually going to wise up, though, and now we’re finally harvesting the least expensive and most environmentally friendly energy the universe has to offer. (Well, as far as we know).

What a coup for Ford. Lincoln, NE dealerships welcome this new technology with open arms, and as more and more EVs hit markets in the coming decade, we can look forward to what these solar panels can do for your fuel costs. How does zero dollars a gallon sound?

Yup, you got it—poor fuel efficiency.

Granted, we’ve come a long way since the days of omnipresent Hummers sucking down a gallon of fuel every eight miles it drove, but for the most part bigger SUV’s still can prove to be a headache at the gas pump. With fuel prices sitting somewhere between $3 and $4 all over the U.S. with no signs of dropping, getting a fuel-efficient car is more important now than ever before. If only there were an SUV that actually was fuel efficient…

I’m being playful here, because of course there’s an SUV that actually gets good mileage: the 2011 Ford Explorer. Lincoln dealerships sent out press releases in recent weeks touting the 28 mpg (highway) EPA numbers as its new standard for SUV’s. In fact, those numbers make the vehicle the most fuel-efficient seven-seat sports utility vehicle on the market. A better one simply doesn’t exist.

Two of the best-selling seven-seat SUV’s in the industry, the Honda Pilot and the Toyota Highlander, couldn’t even come close to the numbers put out by the Explorer; the Pilot is 20% behind Ford’s big boy, and the Highlander falls 12% behind. In both cases, we’re looking at serious savings at the pump over the life of the vehicle. Even if you spent only $1,000 a year on gas, simply buying the right car could save you up to $200 annually. Own that car for five years, and you’re looking at four-digit savings.

And with the uncertainty of fuel costs moving forward, those savings could end up even greater if prices to continue to rise. The Ford Explorer is a great car, and very convenient for families that have to travel or even just have the capacity for tons of people and cargo on an everyday basis. However, when you toss in the great mileage numbers, you’re looking at an SUV that’s head and shoulders above the competition in yet another way.

New tech has just always been expensive. That’s an undeniable truth, but another undeniable truth is that eventually the price of that expensive technology comes back down to earth. You could buy a used VCR at any of today’s finest pawn shops for something like $5, or even less if you fancy yourself a gifted haggler.

And now, Ford’s cutting edge in-car connectivity system, Sync, is as inexpensive as it’s ever been. If you waited to get a taste of what 3 million Ford drivers have been enjoying since 2007, you’re about to be rewarded with a $100 slash in prices, from $395 to $295 in 2012 model year Ford vehicles.

It’s also going to be made available in base models for the first time, according to Council Bluffs Ford dealerships, starting with the ’12 Ford Explore and ’12 Ford Edge.

According to Ken Czubay, Ford’s vice president for marketing in the U.S, “Sync has already has brought hands-free, voice-activated in-car connectivity to millions, helping keep drivers’ eyes on the road and hands on the wheel. Now, Ford is making it even easier for customers to afford exactly what they want.”

Essentially, Sync allows drivers to hook up their smartphones to the entertainment system via Bluetooth, and that opens up all sorts of doors for technological enjoyment. Drivers can make and receive hands-free phone calls, import contacts for easy-to-use GPS, hook up to online music services like Pandora, and even read emails. Any Lincoln Ford dealer worth anything will suggest this option to drivers who feel like adding this feature opens up a whole new world of automotive enjoyment, because who doesn’t want to enjoy driving their car even more than they already do?

The good news is that now you get to enjoy it even more for even less.

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

So what does Best Buy have to do with the Ford Focus EV? For the first time, consumers can purchase an in-home EV charger for Ford vehicles and have it installed by the Geek Squad. Like my brother needed another reason to love those guys, right?

For just a shade under $1,500, the Geek Squad will come to your house and put the battery charger wherever you want it, and while that seems like quite a bit of money to spend on top of the vehicle’s to-be-determined sticker price, keep in mind that it’s about 30% less expensive than the chargers provided by competitors. And Best Buy, one of the most respected corporations in America, has nothing to do with those.

Beyond that, there’s a federal and state rebate for this since it’s an electric (and obviously fuel-efficient) vehicle, and the federal rebate alone is worth $7,500. A lot of states are offering even more money back on top of that, so buying this car could not only be good for the environment, but good for your pocketbooks as well.

Other notable points on this car include the fact that it charges in a mere three hours, which is more than twice as fast as any competitor, and as far as battery life is concerned, engineers say it should maintain close to full juice for the life of the vehicle.

All good news if you were looking into buying the Focus EV from Ford. Lincoln, NE, Ford dealerships obviously aren’t anywhere near close to stocking these things since they’re still in the development stage, but when they do get here, look out. When that finally happens, the car my brother will be parking in the Best Buy parking lot will probably be a Focus EV.

Of course, over the years it simply became easier to do their manufacturing with inexpensive, petroleum-based plastic parts, and while it would have been nice had the two industries teamed up forever and ever amen, each eventually had to sort of go its separate way. There’s no definite date this happened, but it most definitely did, leading the way for decades and decades of plastic-based materials being used in Ford automobiles.

In today’s world, however, we’re much more concerned about the environment and our dependency on foreign countries for that petroleum we’ve used so much in the past. To help relieve that dependency, take better care of the environment, and team back up with American agriculturalists, Ford is pushing harder than ever to use sustainable materials in their vehicles, starting with the use of soy bio-foam in all of their seats.

Any Grand Island Ford dealership can tell you that Ford has been using some bio-foam for quite a while, with over two million vehicles already on the road using the stuff. But this announcement proves a real re-commitment to environmental friendliness, and the numbers prove what an impact this will have.

By just switching to the new seats, Ford will save 3 million pounds of petroleum a year and keep 11 million pounds of CO2 out of the atmosphere. There will also be a 67% reduction in VOCs released into the air, giving all Ford vehicles a much greener feel about them.

Furthering this green movement, by the way, is a 67% increase in fuel efficiency for the 2011 Ford Explorer. Lincoln dealerships recently announced that little nugget, too, making us here at Rusty Eck feel pretty certain that Henry Ford is not only not rolling in his grave, but maybe even doing a little dance.