2010(10) Ford Edge Sport Awd! Navi! Power Heated Seats! Loaded! Clean! Must See! on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Mustang-themed pinball game debuting in Chicago [w/video]

Believe it or not, but new pinball machines are still being made. Chicago-based Stern Pinball still makes them and has found a niche selling modern machines to individual buyers and arcade distributors. For its latest cabinet, Stern partnered with Ford to create a pinball game that pays homage to the 50th anniversary of the Mustang, including the next generation. The new machine is being unveiled at the Chicago Auto Show on February 6 and goes on sale in March.
Stern is offering the machine in three variants. The pro-level machine is meant for arcades and public spaces and retails for $4,995. All of them come with background and cabinet art by Camilo Pardo, who designed the Ford GT, and Top Gear USA host Tanner Foust is the game's announcer. Depending on where players shoot the ball, they activate events that simulate drag racing, rallying, drifting and racing the Mustang, and hitting targets lets players shift the gears up and down.
An upgraded, premium table with added art will be added later for pinball machine collectors. The third model is a signed, special edition with art of the 1965 Mustang and 2015 Mustang on the machine and chrome and Mustang badges on the speaker grilles. Prices for these editions will be announced later.

Expert: 54.5 mpg CAFE standard can be reached without many plug-ins

Johnson Controls executive Brian Kesseler isn't likely to get any holiday presents this year from Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn or Tesla Motors head Elon Musk, but lots of other folks might be happy with what he has to say about automakers' efforts to reach stricter fleetwide fuel-economy standards. Speaking at the Automotive News World Congress, Kesseler said automakers wouldn't need to sell an extensive number of plug-in vehicles in order to meet the 54.5 mile per gallon Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standard the US government set in 2012 for 2025 model-year vehicles. In fact, he said, components such as stop-start engine technology, turbochargers and direct injection may actually do the trick. Already, things like smaller engine sizes and lighter cars are already playing major roles in spurring fuel-efficiency gains. Of course, Johnson Controls sells batteries specially built for stop-start systems, so Kesseler does have a bit of skin in this game. The 54.5-mpg CAFE standard equates to about a 40-mpg "real world" fuel-efficiency level. To put that into perspective, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said in a report late last year that model-year 2013 average fuel economy was an even 24 mpg. That was up from 23.6 mpg for the 2012 model year and 22.4 mpg for 2011. News Source: Automotive NewsImage Credit: AP Government/Legal Green Ford Fuel Efficiency mpg CAFE standards ecoboost johnson controls

2015 Ford F-150 specs revealed, EcoBoost 2.7L to make 325 hp and 375 lb-ft [w/video]

Our new man Greg Migliore is in attendance at a Ford media event at the Blue Oval's Dearborn, MI headquarters today, and he's reported in with a handful of the 2015 F-150 stats that we've been dying to know. Ford is slow-playing the news release here, but we can still offer up some interesting output and performance figures after half-year of waiting.
We have all be quite aware that Ford's shift to aluminum construction would save a lot of weight for F-150 models, and the results we're hearing now are duly impressive. For instance: in Super Crew trim, a 2015 F-150 is a whopping 732-pounds lighter than was its closest 2014-model-year equivalent. That's like hauling three middle-aged dudes to your bowling alley's league night for free. Polish your balls, guys.
Ford isn't willing to offer up any actual curb weights just yet, but if we take that 732-pound loss and extrapolate with the 5,128-pound curb weight of the 2014 F-150 Super Crew with the 3.7-liter V6, we can guesstimate that 2015 models will measure out in the 4,400-pound range. That's impressive.