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J.D. Power study identifies top seats for your tush

File under News your fanny can use: The seating systems in the Ford Escape and Edge, the Audi A3, Chevrolet Cruze, Kia Cadenza, Porsche Cayenne and Toyota Tundra received top marks in a new J.D. Power study on seating and seat belt quality and satisfaction. The J.D. Power 2017 Seat Quality and Satisfaction Study asked more than 77,000 new owners and lessees of 2017 model-year cars and light trucks to rate their vehicle's seats and seat belts within the first 90 days of taking ownership. The survey is broken up into seven vehicle segments and scored on total seat problems per 100 within each segment, with awards presented to the seating system supplier. Canadian auto supplier Magna won three of seven first-place awards for its seating systems in the A3, Escape and Edge. Ireland-based Adient got top marks for its seats in the Cadenza and Cayenne. Lear Corp. won for the Cruze, and Avanzar Interior Technologies scored highest for seats in the Tundra. J.D. Power says its study is intended for automakers and suppliers with quality and satisfaction information to be used in developing and marketing seating systems. "But the results are just as interesting to a consumer audience," the company says. "After all, some drivers spend a considerable amount of time behind the wheel, and it's helpful to know which vehicles offer the most comfortable seats for those long commutes." Ain't that the truth. Ford was the only automaker whose seat systems, both manufactured by Magna, received top honors in two segments: the Escape for mass-market compact SUV and the Edge for mass-market midsize/large SUV. J.D. Power says it used 22 attributes to measure seat quality, three measures of seat belt quality and 12 to measure satisfaction. Awards were presented to the seating suppliers. Related Video: Image Credit: Audi Auto News Design/Style Audi Chevrolet Ford Kia Porsche Toyota Safety JD Power seats

Entertainment Weekly gets a peek into the 'Ford vs. Ferrari' film

The 20th Century Fox film "Ford v Ferrari" is scheduled to open Nov. 15. The movie tells a story enthusiasts can't get tired of, and that Ford has turned into two profitable automotive revivals: the double-cross that led to the no-expense-spared revenge that spawned the Ford GT40 and four successive victories at Le Mans. Entertainment Weekly spoke to the primary actors in the piece and got shots from the set. Matt Damon plays Carroll Shelby, the man Ford recruited to run the GT40 program after the race car performed poorly in its first year of international racing in 1964. Christian Bale plays Ken Miles, an English version of Shelby who could build and drive winning cars. Miles was so good that when racing one of his "Miles Specials," a Cooper-Porsche he improved and drove for California Porsche dealer Johnny von Neumann, he beat the factory Porsches so often that the Stuttgart automaker took Miles' car away. The movie focuses on the first year of the GT40's winning run, in 1966 after the car had become the GT40 MkII. Bale calls the story a "David vs. Goliath vs. Goliath" battle, because Shelby and Miles had to fight Ford as well as Ferrari. "It's these two friends figuring out how do you deal with these a–holes in suits who know nothing about racing," he said. And even though the cars won the fight on track, the two men didn't always win the fights with their paymasters. The three-way finish Ford staged at the end of the race cheated Miles of victory. Miles had been laps ahead of the second-place GT40 driven by Bruce McLaren at the time, but slowed down to let the car catch up. After the three-abreast finish, race organizers said McLaren's car started the race behind Miles, and by finishing with Miles had covered 60 feet more than Miles during the race. They declared McLaren and Chris Amon the winners. The story of how they got to that point — which director James Mangold called "Butch and Sundance in the world of racing" — promises more twists and turns than the Le Mans circuit, and some open flame; video on YouTube shows Damon-as-Shelby being set on fire in one scene. We admit to a bit of concern when Mangold says, "This is much more of a relationship movie and less a historical document." Yet it sounds like he's done his best to get the racing right, so all won't be lost no matter what. Head over to EW to check out the full story and more photos.

SEMA crowns Mustang, FR-S as this year's hottest cars in the building

After wrapping up the first day of the 2012 SEMA Show, organizers handed out awards for some of the trendiest vehicles on display. Since the whole point of SEMA is to show off new products available in the aftermarket world for use in cars, trucks and SUVs, each year, the show distinguishes the most popular vehicle in various segments. Not surprisingly, this year's Hottest Car and Hottest Sport Compact are the Ford Mustang and Scion FR-S, respectively, while the Ford F-Series brought home the Hottest Truck and the Jeep Wrangler was named the Hottest 4x4-SUV.
More than 2,000 companies are at this year's show, and the display booths represents a "vote" for each car to determing the trendiest vehicles in each of the four categories. It isn't clear if these awards also take cars brought by OEMs into account, but the Mustang and FR-S were definitely well represented by both OEM and aftermarket show versions.
As usual, the OEMs showed up in force at the this year's SEMA Show exhibiting a variety of cars ranging from production-intent cars like the beastly Ford Mustang Cobra Jet to much flashier rides like Scion's Carbon Stealth FR-S.