Friday, April 11, 2008

New Taurus Spy shots

Well it looks as if the cat may have gotten out of the bag sooner than Ford has liked. Some shots have been circulating the the Internet of the up coming 2010 Ford Taurus.

It looks like Ford will lean heavily on the styling the European Mondeo, and that's not a bad thing, If anyone happened to catch Casino Royal the James Bond flick form a couple of years ago, you got a brief shot of the car.

No.. Ford hasn't commented on the whole thing but has asked some sites to take down the picture which is usually a very good sign that they may be onto something.

The best I can do here is to post a Link and hope that Ford legal hasn't taken it down. Otherwise take a peek and decide if Ford is on the right track.

Monday, April 07, 2008

Ford improving quality

 Ford Logo

Ford is preparing to promote the fact that its quality ratings are improving and are quite competitive with the competition.

Ford Motor Co. says its quality has improved in the last year, pointing to results of a recent study it commissioned that finds Ford's vehicles are in a dead heat with import rivals Toyota and Honda.

Good news indeed, but the damage is done and Ford will have to preach high and low for years to come to regain the sheen that it once had and Toyota and Honda now own.

Fords engineers can design a product as good as anyone,the real work is to change their image to a public that has been conditioned to years of programing, some of right and some of it off base.

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F1s Future

Formula 1, what's not to love, the cars, the international circuits, the exotic technology and unrivaled professionalism.

There's no doubt that Formula1 is the pinnacle of motor sports and to win in F1 is to to win it all. But in my opinion, everything that F1 is and has become started in Europe and especially Britain.

F1s never ending hunger for the highest bidder seems to be at the top of the list for what  qualifies you to a race with Bernie Ecclestones circus.

The prospect of a 20-race Formula One calendar, with three events in the Gulf region, received broad support during the Motor Sport Business Forum Middle East during the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend.
McLaren boss Ron Dennis praised F1's expansion into new markets and said that 20 races would be the teams' logistical limit. Honda Racing's Nick Fry, Force India's Colin Kolles and Red Bull's Christian Horner echoed his remarks.
The 2008 championship is made up of 18 races, after 17 last year and a record 19 in 2005. With several new events in the pipeline, even 20 might not be enough to save all of the traditional venues. The Middle East's races would be in Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Qatar (still questionable), and those in Asia would be in Fuji/Suzuka, Kuala Lumpur, New Delhi, Seoul, Shanghai and Singapore. The Formula One group also wants to include Indianapolis, Montreal, Melbourne and Sao Paulo. The Australian Grand Prix, the British Grand Prix and the possible Qatar Grand Prix are the events most likely to be dropped.....Autoweek

You can't fault the show, and the racing has become closer and even more exciting, but with all the money that's being made, you'd think that they could allow Silverstone to squeeze by without having to cough up truck loads of money to stay on the schedule.

G8 Powers Pontiac

Pontiac Logo

This little snippet in Autoweek online touches base with the Pontiac G8 and the mostly good impression that it leaves on Cranky Automotive journalists.

Here's one for you, the G8 seems to be what Pontiac needs because it's based on a and tried and true formula, rear wheel drive, great balance and handling, very good looks and lots of value for the money

Some of this formula has worked well for the likes of BMW and Mercedes, and was pretty much the status quo for the American Auto makers for decades.

Then came the gas crunch and the Japanese, then the not ready for prime time response on the American side with badly executed front wheel drive cars, reliability and styling, and before you know it, here we are today.

GM seems to be finding it's way out of the darkness with these kinds of cars and shows that there's still people at the top who know what the public wants.

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