2004 Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor Sedan 4-door 4.6l on 2040-cars

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Ford to pay $17.35 million over Escape recall

Ford had a bit of a recall spree around this time last year, with a pair of issues on the then-new 2013 Escape, followed by a recall of 423,000 2001 to 2004 Escapes because they might accelerate of their own accord. Accordingly, Uncle Sam pasted Ford with a $17.35 million fine because it took too long to inform customers, according to a report from Automotive News.
Ford agreed to settle with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, accepting the fine but not admitting fault. The recall, which afflicted Escapes with the 3.0-liter V-6 along with 217,000 Mazda Tributes from 2001 to 2006 and 2008, was due to faulty gas pedals that could stay down after a driver removed their foot.
Ford issued a statement regarding the fine, saying, "We take the safety of our customers seriously and continuously evaluate our processes for improvements. While we are confident in our current processes for quickly identifying and addressing potential vehicle issues, Ford agreed to this settlement to avoid a lengthy dispute with the government."

Ford doubling 1.0L EcoBoost engine production

Ford's 1.0-liter EcoBoost three-cylinder engine hasn't been around that long, but it sounds like the engine is getting to be fairly popular in the automaker's global car lineup. The Detroit News is reporting that Ford has add a second shift that will allow its German engine plant to double daily output from 500 engines to 1,000.
The increased capacity is part of a plan to sell more than 300,000 vehicles a year with this engine in Europe by 2015. Europe is currently the only market where the smallest of the EcoBoost engines is offered (including in the Focus pictured above), but US-spec Fiesta models will be getting this mill for 2014.
Three-cylinder engines are expected to continue to grow in popularity in coming years with the report indicating that global production of these engines will double by 2018 to 9.8 million units. General Motors, BMW and Mitsubishi are all expected to introduce three-cylinder engines in the near term, as well.

Mustang Bullitt and Hellcat Redeye | Autoblog Podcast #549

On this week's Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Senior Editor Alex Kierstein and Green Editor John Snyder. They discuss driving the 2019 Ford Mustang Bullitt and the (deep breath) 2019 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye Widebody. They also recap this week's crazy Elon Musk news, and talk about the car brands they'd like to resurrect in the U.S. As always, they then help a listener pick a new car in the "Spend My Money" segment of the podcast.Autoblog Podcast #549 Get The Podcast iTunes – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator MP3 – Download the MP3 directly Rundown Cars we've been driving: 2019 Ford Mustang Bullitt and 2019 Dodge Challenger Hellcat Redeye Elon Musk might privatize Tesla Brands we want back Spend My Money Feedback Email – Podcast@Autoblog.com Review the show on iTunes Green Podcasts Dodge Ford Tesla Car Buying Used Car Buying Coupe Electric Performance bullitt dodge challenger srt hellcat redeye