1977 Ford Bronco Sport Sport Utility 2-door 5.0l on 2040-cars

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Ford Focus was best-selling nameplate in 2012

Last August, Ford made a few waves by claiming that the Ford Focus was, at that point, the top-selling car in the world. The automaker failed to account for variations of the Toyota Corolla wearing a different name (such as the Auris and Matrix), however. With official data from Polk coming in now, Ford is able to say that the Focus was, in fact, the best-selling nameplate in the world last year.
Using new-car registrations (which doesn't factor in fleet sales), the Polk data shows that a total of more than one million Focus models around the world. Strong sales in the US and China have led to a 16 percent increase in year-over-year Focus sales from 2011 that helped to create even more of a gap between it and the second-best global seller, the Corolla.
Ford also had the Fiesta and F-Series listed in the top 10 for worldwide nameplates, but what's even more impressive is the fact that the F-Series is only sold in North America. Scroll down to see the list (compiled by Ford using Polk data) of the top global sellers last year and a press release from Ford.

Ford recalls 90,736 vehicles due to engine valve issue

Ford will recall 90,736 vehicles as engine intake valves in the vehicles may break while driving, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said on Saturday. The recall impacts certain 2021-2022 Bronco, F-150, Edge, Explorer, Lincoln Nautilus, and Lincoln Aviator vehicles equipped with either a 2.7L or 3.0L Nano EcoBoost engine, the NHTSA said. According to documents posted by NHTSA and sourced from the automaker, "The engine intake valves may break while driving, which can result in engine failure and a loss of drive power." Following an investigation that started in January, 2022, Ford found 22 instances where "the engine intake valves fractured and fell into the combustion chamber of the engine causing catastrophic engine damage." The automaker's analysis continues: "Ford identified that the potential root cause of the failures was engine intake valve failure due to valves that exceeded the designed specification for hardness, were brittle, and more likely to fracture. Ford determined that this was due to the supplier’s grinding processes and the sensitivity of the intake valve material to grinding processes that were not within control specifications. The intake valve material was changed for vehicles produced after October 31, 2021." Fixing the problem will require replacement of the entire engine. "Dealers will inspect each vehicle to determine its cumulative number of engine cycles. For vehicles that do not meet the engine cycle threshold, dealers will accumulate high revolutions per minute (rpm) engine cycles per a service procedure. Engines will be replaced on vehicles that do not pass the engine cycle accumulation," Ford says.

NHTSA opens investigation into Ford Explorer PI brakes

This year more than most, it's pleasant when we can string together a few days without word of an automaker or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announcing a bunch of new recalls. It's seemingly been a little quiet on this front lately (barring a spider-related Suzuki issue revealed early today), but now we have word of the government safety agency opening a Preliminary Evaluation into the 2013 Ford Explorer Police Interceptor, a probe that could potentially affect an estimated 20,000 vehicles.
The issue being investigated concerns failures of the front brake hose on the vehicle that show "small splits in the hoses near the body side ferrule of the hose assembly," according to the agency, and the issue could result in longer stopping distances. The feds have reports of 13 malfunctions affecting 11 Explorer units. However, it's important to note that all of the incidents come from a single, unnamed metropolitan police fleet that operates 46 of them. According to The Detroit News, the failures generally took place between December and July.
NHTSA is investigating further to find if this is a more widespread issue than just this one fleet. Ford spokesperson Kelli Felker confirmed to us, "We are cooperating with NHTSA on this investigation, as we always do." Scroll down to read the agency's report.