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MotorWeek remembers pre-EcoBoost Ford with the Thunderbird TurboCoupe

Sometimes it feels great to embrace nostalgia for a trip down memory lane, and MotorWeek indulges that occasional desire with its regular Retro Review series. This time, the long-lived show goes back to the '80s to check out two of the top performance vehicles in the Ford lineup at the time – the 1987 Thunderbird TurboCoupe and Mustang GT. Both models had just received thorough refreshes after several years on the market. Long before an EcoBoost badge ever met its models, Ford made early forays into experimenting with turbocharging on vehicles like the T-Bird TurboCoupe. Based on MotorWeek's assessment, the company was on the right track. The boosted 2.3-liter four-cylinder was apparently a bit coarse but offered 190 horsepower with little turbo lag, compared to 155 hp the year before. The Mustang GT is likely the more-fondly remembered of these performance Fords today and provides an interesting point of comparison against the TurboCoupe. MotorWeek found some faults with the 'Stang, though. While it was quick for the time with a sprint to 60 mph in 6.5 seconds, the 'car was described as "a nose-heavy beast" for its handling. And for a look at Ford's future in turbocharging – the GT will have an EcoBoost powerplant – check out our Related Video:

European car sales up 8% in February

Three weeks ago an analyst increased projections for European car sales this year, expecting them to climb three percent compared to last year instead of 2.7 percent. That number is a postive sign after years of hard times but it turns out February was especially good, overall European sales climbing eight percent on a wave of southern European recovery and discounts - and this comes after five months of gains including January's 7.2-percent jump over the year before.
The only country of Europe's five largest markets to post a decline was France, just as it did in January, Germany, the UK and Italy posting solid double-digit numbers, Spain rocking the charts with an 18-percent increase because of a government program to encourage trade-ins.
The only brand to miss the wave was Volkswagen, dropping 0.8 percent as it watched the double-digit growth at sister brands Audi, Seat and Skoda lift the Volkswagen Group sales up by seven-percent. Peugeot overcame flat sales at Citroën to improve the group by 3.5 percent, BMW and the Mercedes-Benz/Smart combo rose by four percent, the Fiat group jumped 5.8 percent, Ford was up 11 percent, the Renault Group 11.5 percent, General Motors 12 percent and the Toyota clan by 14 percent.

Again? Ford issues second 2015 Fusion and Lincoln MKZ seat belt recall

In 2016, Ford issued a recall for 603,392 2013-2016 Fusions and 2013-2015 Lincoln MKZs due to potentially faulty seat belts. Apparently, that wasn't the end of it. Ford announced another recall this week for the same issue, this time covering 108,399 2015 Fusions and MKZs.  In both cases, the seat belt anchor pretensioners are the issue. According to Ford, "increased temperatures generated during deployment of the driver or front-passenger seat belt anchor pretensioner could degrade the tensile strength of the cable below the level needed to restrain an occupant." Basically, heat could weaken the seat belts, and in extreme cases, they wouldn't be able to keep up proper safety standards. Ford knows of at least one injury that has occurred due to this issue.   The recall includes 103,374 vehicles in the United States, 4,002 in Canada, and 1,023 in Mexico. Possibly affected Fusions were built at Ford's Flat Rock Assembly Plant between August 1, 2014 and January 30, 2015. The MKZs were built at the Hermosillo Assembly Plant between August 1, 2014 and November 21, 2014.  As a fix, Ford says dealers will add an extra coating to the seat belt pretensioner cable for protection from the heat. If this recall might affect your vehicle, call your local Ford dealership and use recall reference No. 19S25. This news comes after Ford recalled 1.3 million Fusions and MKZs in 2018 due to the possibility that the steering wheels could fall off. Fusions have also been recalled due to the risk of rolling away.