Tboneguy

Whenever problems with MyFordTouch/Sync are discussed there's a lot of Microsoft bashing. Much/most of the issues are with implementation and 3rd party code. Want proof? How about the Fiat/ChryslerDodge Uconnect system which is highly praised? Or maybe the Nissan Leaf interactive information hub, or even Kia's UVO system? Here's reference info. www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/en-us/auto.aspx

I was there too! Had a blast ripping around the timed ST course. Fusion Titanium was pretty sweet too.

I actually went to the Charlotte Auto Show today and got the see all these same cars. I concur that the Fusion's headroom is lacking. In fact, with the Sunroof option I don't fit in the front (I'm 6' 5"). Very, VERY disappointed .... BTW: I don't fit in a Taurus with a sunroof either. As for the MKZ, the one I saw had all the door closed so I got to see all the body lines. and I must say it looks fantastic in person.

I drove from Charlotte to Raleigh and back on I-85/40 with a couple of side trips. There are a lot of hills on that route which didn't phase it at all. Went through a couple of a major construction zones which had their requisite holes, bumps and zigzag lanes, and side tripped with my wife on a couple of windy roads. The vehicle was solid as a rock and 2.0 Ecoboost in that vehicle is stellar!

I was able to snatch a 2013 Escape from Avis yesterday for a day trip to Raleigh and back. It was a 2.0 AWD SEL, leather, Sync, etc.. I drove more than 450 miles and was very impressed with the quality of the vehicle. We have a 2008 Edge Limited and everything you can see and touch is higher quality in the Escape. Ride was taut, but certainly not rough with great brakes. It handled well for a CUV and I was VERY surprised to get a measured 29.2 MPG from an AWD vehicle with less than 500 miles on it running 72 MPH most of the time. Our Edge has never gotten over 22 MPG... Very quiet even at high speeds although there's some tire noise on certain road surfaces. The seats are a bit firm, but at 6'5" and 260 I was never uncomfortable and had ENORMOUS leg room. It definitely feels narrower than the Edge around the shoulders and knees, but again, still comfortable. It can't touch the rear seat room of the Edge, but it wasn't cramped. I had no problems at all with Sync and experienced no delays or slow response to commands. Congratulations Ford, this is a class leading vehicle!

Ah man.. I had 2 351C's back in the day. Definitely my favorite motor of all time!

Ford Motor Company receives three model awards for the Ford Explorer (in a tie with the Nissan Murano); Ford Fusion; and Lincoln MKZ (in a tie).

Check out this walkthrough video of 1.0 Litre Ford engine presented by Andrew Fraser (Chief Engineer at Ford)

Ouch, the Focus mileage drops 30% when moving along at true interstate speeds. I don't think I've ever had a car that dropped that much. In fact, I don't think I've had a car which couldn't meet the EPA Hwy figure when running 70, with one except, my 08 Edge....

What I don't understand is why Ford is using a 5-speed Manual in the Focus. Don't get me wrong, I've owned a number of MTX equipped cars and it's a good tranny, but please... this is 2012. How about a 6 speed Ford? Benefits would include even better Fuel Economy as well as even happier enthusiasts

Prior to modding my 98 Lincoln Mark VIII LSC I did a lot of online research. I discovered that the driveshaft in the 94-98's was a two-piece unit which was a major limiting factor for the car. Fortunately Lincoln delivered the 93's with a one-piece driveshaft that many before me had proven could handle lower gears and much higher speeds. I found a 93 one-piece and installed it when I went to 3.73 gears and a custom tune with no speed limiter.

I'd love to see a normally aspirated version of the motor used for either a Mach1 or BOSS 351.

You can actually get similar data going back to 2005 from here: Auto registration stats It's interesting to compare year over year info.

We've got 43K flawless miles on our 08 Edge Limited. It has plenty of power and pulled a loaded trailer through the mountains with no problem. And as mentioned above, it is suprisingly quick. I would suspect the EB 2.0 would actually have a broader torque curve which your parents might like even more than the 3.5.

I took it to mean ~20 nameplates across ALL of Ford, which would include Lincoln.

I'm not sure the Edge Sport buyer is cross-shopping the MKX and vice versa. Cross-Shopping the Edge Limited with the MKX is a better comparison, and doing that you'll find it's more like a $8000-$9000 difference when similarly equipped. Now the question of whether it's worth the difference is valid. I can tell you this though, if I could have gotten the MKX for only $3000-$4000 more than the 08 Edge Limited I bought my wife she would have kicked my arse for not doing it!

I rented a 2011 V6 a few weeks ago. I was averaging over 24 MPG for the 500 miles I had it. Alot of that was Highway, but definitely not all. Also did a number of "tests" that would have brought the number down a bit. I did one speed controlled 60 MPH 20 mile highway jaunt (no AC) on a cool evening at got an indicated 37 MPG! When I tried that at 75 MPH on the turnpike with AC on full blast (and traffic) I was pushing up through 25 MPG when I had reached my destination.

So I headed up to Philly for work on Sunday morning. Got over the Avis facility and found they had provided me with a Hyundai Elantra... oooh was that going to be fun to drive 500 miles So, I asked for sometime a bit larger which ended up being a Sebring! Argh... Drug myself over to the Sebring and started loading my stuff in the trunk, when I looked to my right and saw shiny dual exhaust sticking out the back of a Grabber Blue Mustang.. .I had stumbled on a brand new 2011 Mustang Premium Coupe! Now we're talking! Needless to say, I drove off the lot in the Stang. It had 189 miles on Odometer when I left, and when I brough it back it had 569 miles, so I got some excellent seat time in the pony. As with most rentals it was an auto, which shifts way to soft for my taste, but did an excellent job other than that. Drove it up 476 to King of Prussia in traffic and was getting an indicated 29 MPG. Drove it all over the area for a few days with a number of fun runs and twisty tests. This car really is the real deal. Motor pulls like crazy as it spins up, brakes were SUPER, handling was great, in fact somewhat tossable. The ride is actually darn good with the exception of large pot holes. This car would really be a blast with the manual tranny. I fit very well in the car (6'5" 260lb). Seats were very comfortable, dash layout was easy to use. Set up sync to connect to my phone, even did bluetooth music streaming ffrom it. The set up was much easier than the version in our 08 Edge. I averaged 24.5 MPG with much spirited driving. I also did a test late one evening driving back from a freinds house. Set the Speed control to 60, ran with no air conditioning, reset the MPG meter and drove about 25 miles. I was astounded that when I pulled into the hotel it was reading 37.1 MPG! The next day, when I drove the turnpike at 75 with the Air blasting after about 25 miles. I was at 25 MPG and still slowly climbing So, last summer I rented a brand new Camaro in FL. Difference are pretty strack. Mustang is acually FUN to drive, Camaro just feels big. Great visibiilty out of the Stang, scary visibility from the Camaro. Easy to load trunk in the Pony, Pain in the backside trunk in the Camaro. Interior isn't even a contest, although it;s time to get rid of the hard plastic on the Mustang doors and side panels, it's just cheep looking. V6 Camaro definitely has a nice drivetrain, but still gets spanked by the 2011 Stang. One wish would be for a decent exhaust note. My SVT Contour had a fantastic V6 sound so I don't see why the V6 Mustang can't.

Although the writer tried to explain his comments, and he did a pretty good job of praising what was good, but he didn't do much fact checking with regard to his specs/comparisons the likes of a G37 Coupe.... Edmunds own Test Drive of a 2009 G37 Coupe My link Let's see, complaint that torque is only 280 and it's way up at 4250 RPM: G37 Torque = 270 @ 5200 .... so that's -10 at +950 RPM... Stoplight drags will lose to the "significantly quicker" G37: G37 numbers 0-60 best 5.7, 1/4 Mile best 13.9, looks like a wash to me.. Other numbers for the G37 that LOSE to the V6 Mustang - Braking, skidpad, fuel economy (PREM required), etc... Is he right that it doesn't pin you to the seat like the 5.0? Heck yeah! Does it hang with a car costing $14K more? Heck yeah!

Apple does a lot of great work, especially in the areas of user interface. Macs truly are great products, but they are far from flawless. Example: Although you don't hear about these things in the media, there are large numbers of Mac vulnerabilities being patched on a regular basis. In fact, the Security update released 3 days ago patches 70 separate vulnerabilities! http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4077 And, this Mac lover (really he is) just found another 20. http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2010/0412/technology-apple-hackers-charlie-miller.html?partner=yahoomag So, Apple truly knows how to create a great consumer experience, such as iPods and iPhones, and they know how to create a income stream from those products. But they are not perfect by any stretch of the imagination.

They already announced a Boss 302, but unfortuntaely only for an elite 50 buyers who will be racing them beginning at Daytona later this month. http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=31648 At least we get to watch rule the track like they did back in the day :D

My 79 Capri/Mustang had the NON-intercooled 2.3 turbo. I believe it was rated at a whomping 132 HP, which was a big jump from the non-turbo 2.3's 88 HP. Certainly not a rocket, but for it's day it was a fun drive.

Stories like this are always difficult. The gentleman to whom this occurred went through a very tramatic event. One where he felt he and his family were in real danger. When something like that happens it's very hard to not to expect someone to step up and do the right thing. Reality is, had this caused an accident where injury had occurred I can guarantee you there would have been law suits filed with much more money at stake. Nevertheless, these things do happen. I had a somewhat similar event when (don't laugh) I purchased a used Sonata for my daughter going off to college. The engine had recently been replaced when the timing belt failed at 52,000 miles. The car was in beautiful condition and hadn't been driven much since the owner had already purchased a new car. With Hyundai's vaunted 100,000 mile powertrain warranty I thought it was a good deal. Well... just a few weeks later, and 200 miles from home, the factory replacement engine self destructed. Guess what...That 100000 mile powertrain warranty does NOT transfer to new owners... hmm... well, at least they'd cover it like any other replacement engine right? Nope, it was past the 3 month limited warranty... Well, since we found out that the cause was a misaligned oil pump gasket wouldn't that be enough to cover it? Nope, not Hyundai, not the dealer who installed it, nobody.. I wasn't a lifetime Hyundai owner, nor even a customer of the dealer who installed the engine, and I ended up purchasing a motor from a wrecking yard with 3000 miles on it and had the dealer near where my daughter was in school install it. That repair cost me more than 1/2 the cost of the car! In this gentleman's case, being the original owner of the vehicle I would have expected Ford, or maybe the original dealer, to step up too. Had he used the dealer for maintenace he likely would have had more of a relationship with them and likely more leverage, and they may have been more willing to pressure Ford. I don't know if that really would have made a difference... But, I can tell you the Toyota dealer in my town has done some pretty over-the-top service for issues my son (ASE Master Tech) has dealt with. That was the DEALER though, not Toyota, and they were hoping to keep a good customer happy. BTW: I'm not in the market for Don's, but I wish I still had my 1965 Mustang, or my 67 or especially my 70 Mach I!

3 Possible entries here: 1978 Chrysler Lebaron - 225 slant 6. Very scary trying to pass on a 2 lane road! But IT was faster than my 1978 Ford Fairmont Wagon - 200 inline 6. Had a little bit of low end torque, but the 1bbl carb limited power above maybe 3000 RPM. Still faster than my 1980 Chevy Malibu 229 V6 - OMG this thing was scary! 110 HP 3 speed auto with some rediculous high rearend gearing. No torque, no HP, and to make matters worse... NO brakes. This thing would lock-up the rears if you breathed on the brake pedal. The seat had no support and interior just kind of kept falling apart.. And that's all with only 14K on the odometer. Major upgrade when I sold it and got my 88 T-Bird Turbo Coupe :P

Haven't noticed ya man. I'm a first timer down here so staying focused on watching where I'm going. And when the wife's not in the car I'm watching for cops while thrashing the Camaro :-)