2013 Ford F150 Xlt on 2040-cars

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GM takes 2020 full-size pickup sales crown

It's no secret that 2020 was an unconventional year for auto sales. Extenuating circumstances or not, it was a year of upheaval even for ever-resilient (and ever-profitable) pickups, with General Motors taking the crown from Ford in the full-size segment.  The Ford F-Series still outsold every other full-size pickup nameplate in the country by a significant margin. It's only when you combine GM's Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra variants that you get a number that exceeds Ford's. This isn't really a new phenomenon, either. In fact, it was only somewhat recently that Ford took the overall full-size crown away from GM, and not only did Ford widen the gap in recent years, but Ram has once again become a legitimate challenger, even managing to outsell the Silverado by a healthy margin in 2019, but never coming close to the F-Series in terms of total volume.  But, 2020 being 2020, things got weird yet again. Ram remains relevant, of course, but Ford got caught with its pants down thanks to the one-two punch of COVID and the generational changeover of the core F-150 model, which resulted in a production interruption as the company's assembly facilities transitioned from building the old 2020 model to the new-for-2021. This perfect storm, as it turns out, was sufficient for GM to walk away with the full-size crown. See for yourself: Full-size 2020 pickup sales: GM total: 847,110 F-Series: 787,422 Silverado: 594,094 Ram: 563,676 Sierra: 253,016 Tundra: 109,203 Titan: 26,439 As you can see, Ram slipped back behind Silverado, slotting comfortably into third place. The Silverado 1500 had a flat year, but the heavy- and medium-duty variants bucked the trend and contributed to a slight uptick in sales for the nameplate, while F-Series tumbled more than 12% (nearly 110,000 units), opening the door for GM to steam ahead.  There were similarly significant shakeups in the midsize truck segment. First, 2020 was the first full year of retail sales for the Gladiator pickup, which surged to fourth place behind the stalwart Tacoma, Ranger and Colorado. GM's combined sales of the Colorado and Canyon are good enough for second place by manufacturer, but nowhere close to what it would take to dethrone Toyota.

Ford bringing 10 custom Transit Connects to SEMA

With 57 vehicles planned for its SEMA display, it comes as little surprise that Ford has plenty of teasers for its show cars. After showing us what it has in store for the Mustang, Fiesta and Focus ST, now we're getting a look at some of the custom creations based on the redesigned 2014 Transit Connect van.
These nine Transit Connects are decked out to various degrees of customization, but our favorite might be the chopped and lowered Transit Connect from Mob Steel (shown above), which has a similar slammed stance that we see on some custom VW Buses. On the opposite extreme, LGE & CTS Motorsports has jacked up a Transit Connect to make a Cross Country cruiser that we wouldn't mind taking on a road trip.
There are seven other teasers from various companies, and you can check them all out in the gallery above or in the press release below. Ford is also promising a tenth Transit Connect for SEMA, so stay tuned for that as well.

Ford blows up Takata airbag recall by over 447k vehicles

Ford is the latest automaker to announce an expansion to its Takata driver-side airbag inflator recall, and the latest increase adds an additional 447,310 vehicles to the nationwide total. The company says that this expansion comes at the request of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The expanded recall campaign covers: The 2005-2008 Ford Mustang built between August 18, 2004, and June 25, 2007, at the at Flat Rock Assembly Plant The 2005-2006 Ford GT built between February 11, 2005, and January 30, 2006, at the at the Wixom Assembly Plant As of December 18, Ford knows of a total of 502,489 vehicles in need of replacement driver side inflators. Of those, 462,911 are in the US, 27,516 in Canada, 7,578 in Mexico and 4,484 outside of North America. The automaker is aware of one injury that may be related to these exploding parts. Earlier in December, the automaker issued an expanded recall covering passenger side Takata airbag inflators for the Ranger pickup and Ford GT. When taking this into account, the grand total of Ford products with inflators that need replacement for the driver or passenger side is 538,977 vehicles. Scroll down to read the company's full announcement of this enlarged safety campaign. FORD EXPANDS TAKATA DRIVER-SIDE AIRBAG INFLATOR SAFETY RECALL DEC 18, 2014 | DEARBORN, MICH. At the request of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Ford is expanding its recall on Takata driver-side airbag inflators. This recall includes approximately 502,489 vehicles, an addition of approximately 447,310 vehicles. This brings the total number of Ford vehicles being recalled for Takata airbag inflators to approximately 538,977. This expanded recall includes 2005-2008 Ford Mustang vehicles built Aug. 18, 2004 to June 25, 2007 at Flat Rock Assembly Plant and 2005-2006 Ford GT vehicles built Feb. 11, 2005 to Jan. 30, 2006 at Wixom Assembly Plant. As of Dec. 18, 2014, Ford is aware of approximately 462,911 vehicles in the United States and federalized territories, approximately 27,516 in Canada and approximately 7,578 in Mexico affected by this recall. Approximately 4,484 additional vehicles outside of North America are also included in this action. Ford is aware of one accident with an injury that may be related to this condition. Dealers will replace the airbag inflator at no cost to the customer.