Red Ford Taurus Runs Good, Good Condition on 2040-cars

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Ford hurt by 2015 F-150 production restraints

The new 2015 Ford F-150 came out of the gate strong for January 2015 with all F-Series sales up 17 percent for the month. However, February tempered those gains a bit with the model line dipping 1.2 percent, and the Ford brand itself dropped 1.7 percent year-over-year. The fall is being blamed in part on tight supply of the latest pickup. A major factor holding back the 2015 F-150 is that they are only currently being made at the Dearborn Truck Plant. The Kansas City factory is still changing over, and full supply from them both is expected by the middle of the year. Ford also just announced plans to hire an extra 1,550 people to build the pickups, including 900 in Kansas City. However, the downtime in the assembly changeover has caused about 90,000 units in lost production since mid-2014, according to The Detroit Free Press. It's not all bad news for the pickup, though. The latest F-150 made up 21 percent of F-Series sales in February, according to The Detroit Free Press, up from 18 percent in the previous month, and they remained on dealer lots an average of 18 days. The lessened supply has also meant lower incentives. Mark LaNeve, Ford's US marketing boss, told the Free Press that average F-150 transaction prices were up $2,000 from last year. He also indicated that retail figures grew seven percent in February, while F-Series fleet numbers were down 18 percent. The constrained supply does come at an inopportune time for Ford, though. This year is expected to be huge for pickups. Also, lower gas prices appear to be pushing people towards SUVs and trucks recently. Related Video:

Most American Cars | Honda Makes the Top 10 List

The car built with the most American/Canadian parts content is the 2021 Ford Mustang GT – with the manual transmission, specifically, no less – giving Ford a second consecutive year atop the American University Kogod Business School annual "Made in America Auto Index. We already knew that it doesn't get much more American than a V8 pony car, but now we've got the numbers to prove it.  Ford's iconic coupe takes the number one slot pretty convincingly this year, with 88.5% of its components coming from U.S. or Canadian sources. Appropriately, though perhaps confusingly, 21 models made the top 10 list in 2021. As you may have surmised, this is the result of multiple ties. Note also that many models appear more than once to account for variants built with parts from different sources. The top-ranked Mustang is a perfect example; The automatic drops into into a tie for 10th, right next to the EcoBoost model and Ram's 1500 Classic with the 3.6L V6.  The "America" theme runs pretty strongly through the top "10," with the Chevrolet Corvette sitting pretty in second place, followed by all three variants of Tesla's Model 3 electric car. Honda also makes several appearances thanks to its rather significant U.S. manufacturing footprint. Here are the 21 vehicles that make up the top 10 this year – don't worry, it feels just as weird to type as it does to read. Last year's winner, the midsize Ford Ranger pickup, cratered to 16th place, dropping from 70% American parts content to just 45%. Keep in mind, however, that the pandemic has forced automakers to source parts outside of their normal supply chains, and such drops should be taken with a grain of salt. Kogod noted that the overall proportions of content between manufacturers remained relatively unchanged despite what appear to be significant shake-ups such as this one.  "While the trend TDC for cars assembled in the US is consistent over time, both Daimler and Subaru saw significant drops in their average US content," the summary said. "This may be the result of US shortages of parts and components as the impacts of the covid pandemic created significant disruptions in automotive supply chains." Watch Ford Build a Bronco: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Ford Focus ST diesel estate in track showdown with Focus ST hatch

Diesel hot hatches are still a concept that's gaining ground. Obviously, there are none for sale in the US, but European buyers have the choice of at least the Volkswagen Golf GTD and Ford Focus ST Diesel. What better way to find out how the new, high-performance oil-burner really stacks up than for Ford to stage a race against the gasoline-fueled Focus ST? On paper, the ST Diesel is at a big performance detriment here. Its 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder makes 182 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque compared to 247 hp and 266 lb-ft for the gas version in this race. However while not a factor for this race, the oil-burner does offer better fuel economy and produces less CO2, which makes a difference for European buyers. Ford skews the race results by giving the ST Diesel Estate a two-second head start for this one-lap battle around the Castle Combe Circuit. Also, this is a video from the Blue Oval, which is going to further minimize the appearance of weakness for its vehicles. Still, both STs really get to show off their strengths, and it's worth seeing how the sibling rivalry shakes out at the finish line.