Borgman Ford Mazda

The other day while waiting in line at the grocery store, we were flipping through an automotive magazine when the dude behind us randomly offered up, “You know what I think is going to be downright awesome? The new Ford Fusion.” We played it cool and asked why. The response was simply put: “sexy” and “that crazy fuel economy.”

As it turns out, the 2013 Fusion, arriving in North American dealerships later this year, has invoked plenty of thoughts, feelings and feedback! Ford can’t help it – the sedan will suit many palettes, and that makes for many opinions! The Fusion will be available in a gasoline-powered model as well as in hybrid and plug-in hybrid versions, and with two EcoBoost™ engines, the 1.6-liter and 2.0-liter, plus a new normally aspirated 2.0-liter four-cylinder. The Fusion Energi plug-in is anticipated to deliver more than 100 MPGe! Yup, sexy and efficient, if we may say so ourselves.

It sounds like the name of one of those new shows coming to a major TV network in the fall: Special Vehicle Team. Only this team doesn’t play one on TV – it’s a real, live unit at Ford, responsible for engineering high-performance supercars since 1993! And how do you fest such a division’s 20th anniversary? With yet another performance car, of course: the 2013 Ford Shelby GT500 convertible.

SVT met the public at the 1992 Chicago Auto Show with the 1993 SVT Mustang Cobra and SVT F-150 Lightning, so it’s fitting that the new GT500 will be front and center at the 2012 Chicago Auto Show, which opens February 10.

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You know that game at a county fair where the jar is full of jelly beans and if you correctly guess the amount, you get one of those stuffed bears? We suck at that game. Not sure whether it’s some kind of hand/eye coordination problem or that we’re distracted from drooling over what could be 100 or 45,000 tasty jelly beans.

Today, we present the figurative jelly bean game, but if this jar is full of Ford vehicles with EcoBoost® engines, you have to guess how many you think sold in 2011. Go ahead, take a moment; we’re again distracted by drooling, this time over a jar full of Ford vehicles.

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Brrrrrr! Imagine your job as a Ford engineer is to test vehicles and powertrains for durability and endurance. Wait – did we mention that you’re responsible for doing so in extreme temperatures and that might mean hanging out in a test room at the Ford Dearborn Proving Ground where temps can dip as low as -40 degrees Fahrenheit?

This kind of cold work includes putting the hotly popular EcoBoost® engine through the paces. “Customers buying the 2.0-liter I-4 EcoBoost will expect torque of a V-6 with the economy of a smaller, more efficient engine,” explained Dan Badger, Ford Powertrain Integration Supervisor.

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Here’s the deal: purchase or lease an eligible new 2011, 2012 or 2013 Ford vehicle during the program period and you’ll receive $500! And, when you combine this Student Bonus Cash with other current public incentives, you’ll really be raking it in.

Here’s who qualifies: all full-time and part-time college freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors, graduate students, trade school students and recent graduates. This offer applies to qualifying residents of the United States and only applicable to sales in USA.

So what are you waiting for? Ford has a vehicle to match your own personal style. Pick one out – and find out just how good math can be for you. For more details, visit the Official Rules Page.

We’ve told you before about the things lurking inside Ford vehicles that may sound fairly bizarre but in reality are ultra revolutionary. You know, like recycled denim jeans acting as sound insulation, and carpet as an ingredient in cylinder heads covers. Ford is also exploring the idea of coconut fiber as reinforcement for plastic parts.

But let’s get to the matter at hand: a plant in the all-new Escape! It’s called kenaf and is a tropical plant related to cotton and okra plants and looks a bit like bamboo. It’s part of the bolster material inside the doors and is combined with polypropylene in a 50-50 mixture; the plant replaces oil-based materials. The benefit? Beyond sounding cool when you talk about the sustainable materials in your Escape, using kenaf is anticipated to offset 300,000 pounds of oil-based resin per year in North America, and the material reduces the weight of the door bolsters by 25 percent.

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Any long-time fan of the Ford F-Series trucks won’t be surprised to hear that for the 35th year in a row, the F-Series is the best-selling truck in America. And it has been America’s best-selling vehicle overall for 30 years. With 584,917 trucks sold in 2011, the F-Series was the only vehicle to break the 500,000 vehicle sales mark for the year.

Obviously, F-Series owners love their trucks. But in addition to that, Motor Trend magazine named the F-150 2012 Truck of the Year®, the fourth time the F-150 has captured that honor. Motor Trend praised the variety of configurations, powertrain options, efficiency, value, advanced design and performance.

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Now, that’s something you’ve possibly never heard of, an elliptical acoustic mirror. Ford engineers used it to measure noise as well as pinpoint the source of it on the all-new Escape – specifically, on the surface of the vehicle, such as wind – in order to ensure the interior would be quieter than the previous model. As you can see from the photo, it sort of looks like a satellite dish with a microphone.

It was the first use of the technology on a Ford sport utility vehicle, and you could call its usage in the United States downright groundbreaking. However, it has been utilized more commonly by European luxury vehicle manufacturers, and even more interesting is that the science behind acoustic mirrors can be traced back almost 100 years! A precursor to radar, it was used for “listening” for and detecting enemy aircraft along the coast of Great Britain during World War I.

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The growing number of Ford Fusion customers, as well as owners of competing vehicles, will have more reasons than ever to check out the all-new 2013 Ford Fusion the debuted at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. We caught up with John Jraiche, Chief Program Manager for the Ford Fusion, at the show and asked him to highlight some of the technology in the new model.

We also flew four Ford fans out to Detroit for the show, and when we unveiled the Fusion, they got to check it out first-hand.

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