2004 Ford F350 Xlt Crew Cab Super Duty on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Ford Claims Focus As World's Best-Selling Car For Second Year In A Row

Ford Motor Co. has claimed its Focus sedan beat out the Toyota Corolla for the title of 'best-selling car in the world' for the second year in a row. The declaration was based on independent sales figures from January to September of 2013, according to USA Today. Last year, Ford used data from the analysis firm Polk to support its claim of having the best-selling car of 2012. Toyota objected, stating the Corolla sold more units. The numbers eventually showed that the Ford Focus was the best selling nameplate of the year, but may have been second to the Toyota sedan overall since multiple variations of the Corolla are sold under different nameplates around the world. Data from the analysis firm R.L. Polk found Focus registrations from January through September 2013 reached 856,587. Ford can thank booming car sales in China, where the automaker sold 303,481 units, for a sizable chunk of that number, which was a 16 percent increase over 2012. "Our success with Focus is the result of Ford's connection to our customers all over the world," said Jim Farley, an executive vice president at Ford. The Focus and Corolla both compete in the popular small sedan segment, along with other hot-selling cars like the Honda Civic, Hyundai Elantra and Chevrolet Cruze. These vehicles make a up a large portion of sales for their respective automakers, as they tend to hit a sweet spot for many consumers, coming with a starting sticker price under $20,000, solid fuel economy, plenty of cargo and passenger room and, lately, sharp exterior design and sportier driving dynamics. Related Gallery 2013 Ford Focus ST Test Drive Ford focus

Is that the Ford GT Le Mans racer in the background of this Forza video?

Shortly after the reveal of the new Ford GT in Detroit a couple of weeks ago, Microsoft announced that it was putting the new American supercar on the cover of the upcoming sixth installment of the Forza Motorsport video game series. Now it has put out a video of the process of digitizing Dearborn's latest. Whether you're into Detroit steel (or carbon fiber and aluminum in this case), exotic supercars or video games, the video is worth a watch in and of itself. But our eyes were focused on something else. In the background of one shot (around the 1:49 mark) you can see a design board with renderings of what looks to be the rumored racing version of the GT – complete with reshaped air intakes, deeper side sills, a bigger rear wing and a central rear fin like you'd find on the latest LMP1 racing prototypes. It wouldn't be the first time we've caught wind of the prospect of the Blue Oval's new supercar going racing. We first heard of the plans last October, further reinforced in December with reports of the new GT coming to Detroit. And as we reported just a couple of weeks ago following the supercar's reveal, a return to Le Mans could be in the cards – which would be fortuitous timing, since next year will mark the 50th anniversary of the original GT40 scoring its landmark 1-2-3 finish in the 24-hour race.

Popular Science magazine's Best Of What's New 2012 all ate up with cars

Popular Science has named the winners in its Best of What's New awards, the victors coming in the categories of aerospace, automotive, engineering, entertainment, gadgets, green, hardware, health, home, recreation, security and software. The automotive category did not go wanting for lauded advancements:
Tesla Model S: the Grand Award winner for being "the standard by which all future electric vehicles will be measured."
BMW 328i: it's 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder gets called out for being more powerful and frugal than the six-cylinder it replaces.