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The Truth About Cars
The Truth About Cars (www.thetruthaboutcars.com) has great Ford Motor Company news, photos, videos and more
Today
Ford Invests Big In Brazil
While Ford are making some headway in North America, their real Western Hemisphere focus is on the growth market of Brazil. Bloomberg reports that Ford will invest 4 billion Brazilian Reals (that’s $2.3 billion to you lot, I only deal in UK pounds) on Brazilian production capacity. Natural...
Geely Keeps Volvo Unions Guessing On Money Issue
Sweden’s unions are on a hot trail. They think that –ohmygod- the Chinese government could be pulling the strings with Geely and Volvo. China’s Geely won’t say where they get the money for buying Volvo from Ford. Geely says its backers include Chinese banks. Sweden’s union leaders are concer...
Tuesday, Nov 17
Ford Fusion Named Motor Trend Car of the Year
The Ford Fusion is a perfectly competent yet utterly bland vehicle. It’s proof that American firms can compete in the mass-market vanilla sedan segment, but not because it does anything particularly well. Its strength is nothing more than an absence of the glaring issues that kept Detroi...
Sunday, Nov 15
GM Admits it Lied About Federal Stimulus Package’s Job Creation
First, let’s get something out in the open.The Detroit Free Press’ story on the jobs impact of Uncle Sam’s Motown mega-order forgets to mention one salient fact. As TTAC reported back in June, one-third of the 17,600 vehicles ordered from Chrysler, Ford and GM were/are/will be assembled o...
Monday, Nov 9
FoMoCo CEO Alan Mulally Links Lincoln to Ford Dealers
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: if you want proof that Ford’s water-walking CEO doesn’t “get” automotive branding, look at Lincoln. The Blue Oval Boyz’ upmarket marque is in total disarray. Lincoln lacks anything approaching an effective brand proposition; it’s burning through...
Thursday, Nov 5
Ask the Best and Brightest: Why Is the Ford Taurus Selling So Well?
“Consumers increasingly are noticing that the Ford difference is our great products, our strong business and our leadership in quality, fuel efficiency, safety, smart technologies and value.” So sayeth Ken Czubay, Ford’s vice president of U.S. marketing sales and service. Am I reading t...
Thursday, Oct 29
Ford and GM Crossover Production Halted Due To Indian Labor Strife
Well, the “what makes an American car American” debate just got a little more interesting (and a lot more interesting than the “who ‘won’ the CTS-V Challenge” rigmarole). Automotive News [sub] reports that Ford’s Oakville, Ontario plant and GM’s Delta Township plant have ceased produc...
Tuesday, Oct 27
Geely Close To Closing Volvo Deal
We nearly abandoned all hope (or fear) that China might buy a Western brand. The Ford-Volvo-Geely deal was on the ropes, supposedly over intellectual property worries. We didn’t believe it. Finally, FoMoCo officially announced that they had inspected all the bids. Geely came out on top, sa...
The Detroit Lobby Lives
After a dismal PR year for Detroit (if only because lobbying efforts were successful enough to secure an unpopular bailout), the American Automotive Policy Council has been launched to represent the very special interests of Ford, GM and Chrysler. As Politico unironically puts it, “(D...
Monday, Oct 26
Ask The Best And Brightest: Can Mazda Catch Up On Hybrid Tech?
It’s not an academic question: if your answer is yes, Mazda has $1.1b share offering it wants you to participate in. Because now that Ford has reduced its stake in Mazda, the Japanese automaker is finding itself short on all kinds of hybrid and EV development. In fact, Mazda’s planned offerin...
Wednesday, Oct 21
The Real Deal: Ford Expedition EL vs Chevrolet Suburban like MaryAnne vs Ginger
Ford Expedition EL or Chevy Suburban? Ford’s late-starting expedition into the oversized SUV genre got lost on the way to the jungle. But when they finally arrived, Ford had their bearings straight. The Mack Daddy Expedition EL is way more ride for your money than the Suburban, no doubt. Bu...
Monday, Oct 19
UAW Cool On Ford Concessions
The tentative deal between Ford and UAW leadership has predictably run into trouble as it moves towards a vote by local leadership. Even though the deal would still fall short of the agreement reached with GM and Chrysler and Ford has sweetened the deal with $1,000 bonuses and 2,000 extra j...
Friday, Oct 16
New York Times to Detroit: Zip It, Mate
Yesterday’s New York Times published an article dissing Detroit in the Breakingviews.com bit of their Business Section. In a stunning if perhaps singular piece of journalism, the Gray Lady affirms TTAC’s nine-year rant record of castigating Chrysler, Ford and GM for refusing to remove...
Friday, Oct 9
Ford Touts “New Whiz Kids”
Unlike Chrysler and GM, Ford has managed to minimize the downward depreciation spiral that’s been plaguing business models across Detroit. In fact, FoMoCo has increased its net pricing by $1.9b in the first half of this year alone. Ford explains this achievement with a reach back to histor...
Wednesday, Oct 7
GM/Ford Falling Getting Their Butt Kicked in India
Brook from team-bhp.com sent us this heads-up re: the “other” burgeoning automobile market: India. “Here’s a list of the Top 20 selling cars in India. Ford doesn’t have one car in the top twenty. Chevy has one, thanks to a rebadged Daewoo called the Spark. Suzuki (Maruti) and Hyundai are the cle...
Saturday, Oct 3
Ford 1979 vs. Ford 2009: What’s Changed?
So exactly how did Ford achieve quality equal to Toyota? Or are their TV ads misleading, as the ads from decades ago which proclaimed “At Ford Quality Is Job One”? This was the question in my mind as I returned to the Sharonville Transmission Plant after exactly 30 years. A long term friend, w...
Tuesday, Apr 7
Capsule Review: 2005 Lincoln LS V8 Sport
I had every intention of taking a Lincoln MKS for a spin. I couldn’t do it. The MKS dodging tumbleweeds in the showroom was ugly as sin and as cheap as chips. “Cheap” as in poorly designed and executed. The Moroni for Lincoln’s front wheel-drive, V6 flagship added up a bunch of numbers knocking on...
Bailout Watch 485: Ford Heading for $11b Bailout
Ah, the good old days, when the only automotive bailout consisted of a paltry $25b federal loan program to retool old factories (a.k.a. Chrysler, Ford and GM plants) to build fuel efficient cars. Update: With its most recent $2b or $2.2b or $4b pre-C11 loan (anyone heard anything about that lat...
Monday, Apr 6
Ford Reduces Debt by $9.9b; GM Slipping to World No. 3
And while we’re doing the Husker Dü thing, it was GM’s cash burn that signaled the beginning of the end for the artist once known as the world’s largest automaker—which is about to be passed by VW for world number two (after Toyota). The tempus they are a fugiting.
Thursday, Apr 2
Capsule Review: Ford Focus 1.6L [Euro Spec]
More than a few members of TTAC’s esteemed B&B have been clamoring for the European specification Ford Focus—ever since Ford decided the original was just fine for the non-discriminating American customer. “If you bring it, they will buy it” our commentariot railed at the Powers Th...
Friday, Feb 27
Used Review: 1996 Ford Explorer
Ford CEO Jac Nasser’s abrasive public persona during the Firestone tire debacle makes him the most memorable chapter in the Ford Explorer story. Like many famous Blue Oval productions, the bean-counted SUV that rode on “traction B, temperature C” rated donuts suffered a never-ending a...
Friday, Nov 7
GM Buys Russian Factory
While GM, Ford and Chrysler put the squeeze on the taxpayer’s elected (and appointed) representatives, their shift of investment out of the U.S. and into other countries continues apace. This morning, for example, the Associated Press reports on the grand opening of General Motors newe...
Monday, Nov 3
Ford Trucks It Up. Again. But Small Cars Still Rock
Is the F150 a Phoenix rising from the ashes or an Icarus once again flying too close to the sun? The Wall Street Journal tell us Ford is betting on a revival of the living dead by ”rehiring 1,000 workers to build the company’s 2009 F-150 pickup” at the long suffering Dearborn Truck plant. Pe...
Friday, Oct 3
2009 Chevy Traverse vs. 2009 Ford Flex
With the full-size SUV market all but dead, General Motors and Ford are counting on large crossovers (and a few pennies from Washington) to keep them afloat. Sure, small cars are all the rage, but some people need space for six-plus ...
Tuesday, Jun 24
Ask the Best and Brightest: Which cars will make it?
BMW X6 Cadillac CTS-V Dodge Challenger Dodge Ram Ford F150 Ford Flex Honda Pilot Honda Accord Infiniti FX50 Lincoln MKS Hummer H3T Toyota Venza VW Routan VW Tiguan
Friday, May 23
Ford Europe Jumps on the Pseudo-Coupe Bandwagon
Autobild [print edition] reports that Ford of Europe is planning an upmarket four-door coupe. Ford's "CD" platform-- upon which the Mondeo is based-- is both highly flexible and expensive. So FoMoCo's using it for two generations of Mondeo (spanning 15 years) and spread it over numerous...
Saturday, Mar 15
Daily Podcast: Will Luxury Car Sales Suck?
Rising U.S. gas prices and the American mortgage meltdown has hit sales of new vehicles hard. In terms of the product mix, a lot of ink has been expended on the rapid, ongoing transition from gas-guzzling SUVs to more miserly models-- a change that's hurt the truck-heavy domestics particula...
Monday, Mar 3
Ford and Toyota Down, Honda and Mazda Up
GM and Chrysler weren't the only ones singing the blues when February's sales numbers plunked onto the e-mat. Automotive News [sub] reports Ford and Toyota also showed declines in February-- although not quite as precipitous as The General and Mopar. Ford's sales fell 6.3 percent compare...
Thursday, Feb 14
QOTD: Mercury’s Youth In Asia?
Yesterday, we pondered which brand has most recently lost the plot. Today's plan was to have you ponder which brand is the most damaged. But why bother? We all know the answer. Hell, dogs know the answer. Mercury was created out of whole cloth to be Ford's entry-level-luxury division. Trouble i...
Thursday, Feb 7
Daily Podcast: The Power of No
One of the nice things about having a tightly-focused brand-- complete with an explanatory tagline-- is that you know when to say "no." Pontiac: We Build Excitement. Minivan? No. Crappy coupe. Uh-uh. Mercedes: Engineered Like No Other Car in the World. Cheap shit downmarket decontented seda...
Wednesday, Feb 6
Challenger This: Who’s Got the Greatest Bang for the Buck?
Judging by list prices, ignoring the presence or absence of any other options and any thoughts of political correctness, which U.S.-spec vehicle offers the most horsepower per dollar? I always assumed it was the 300 horsepower Ford Mustang GT, which clocks in at about $26k. Nope. Its $/hp ra...
