Autoblog

While Toyota and General Motors continue to duke it out for first place among the world's largest automakers, the lower rungs have been equally hotly contested. It came as a shock to many that Hyundai-Kia had surpassed Honda to take the Number 5 spot, but if you think the battle is being waged purely between the Far East and North America, don't discount Europe for long. The continent's largest auto group, Volkswagen, has claimed its place on the podium as the world's third largest automaker, beating out Ford in the first half of this fiscal year.

The numbers, of course, are based on sales worldwide, and they could very well change by the end of the year. Although Ford's own namesake brand surely accounts for the bulk of its sales, the FoMoCo multi-brand conglomerate that once included the Premier Auto Group has dissipated of late, while VW's numerous subsidiaries – including Volkswagen, Audi, Skoda, Seat, Lamborghini, Bentley and Bugatti – continue to thrive. All the more impressive, then, that a tiny company like Porsche is on the verge of seizing it all.

[Source: Volkswagen]

Click above to see the 2010 Mustang hood

Ford gave us a hint what changes we would be seeing on the 2010 Mustang by releasing images of its new edgy pony emblem yesterday, but a three-inch badge leaves a lot of room for speculation. We want to see more of the real deal. A member of MustangForums.com might have just the thing with what appears to be a photo of the 2010 Mustang hood. At first we had doubts that such an aggressive design would make it to production, but after taking a look at the spy photos, it looks like at least one of the test mules has a cowl hood lurking beneath all that camouflage. We'll be on the look out for more photos of the 2010 Mustang, and hopefully we'll have the whole car pieced together by the time the LA Auto Show rolls around!

[Source: MustangForums.com via Jalopnik]

2008 has been a historically woeful year for the auto market, but Ford dealers have been in the crosshairs of a sales decline for over a decade. That brutal reality, along with financial incentives of up to $700,000 or more from the Blue Oval, has lead to the closure of over 500 dealers since mid-2006, and over 150 so far in 2008. To close still more dealers while giving remaining stores a heads-up of future happenings, Ford is embarking on a series of meetings with Ford and Lincoln Mercury dealers. Among the topics of discussion will be future products, product volume and market conditions.

Though Ford isn't stating publicly how many dealerships it wishes to close, the Blue Oval is hoping to have enough departures to make the remaining dealerships healthy. Ford would like to see Ford brand dealers with 1,500 sales per month and Lincoln Mercury dealers with 600 sales per month, which is far higher than what Ford's 3,900 stores are averaging now. To help entice dealers to hang up their plaid sport coats, Ford will be offering cash incentives, but Ford Market Representation Director David Kelleher is hinting that those deals won't last long.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd, Photo by Scott Olson/Getty]

Click above for high-res gallery of 2010 Ford Mustang badge

The countdown to the 2010 Ford Mustang debut has begun, and it looks like Ford can't wait to show us what the car looks like just as much as we can't wait to see it. Today it released an image of the new 2010 Mustang badge, hinting that its edgier design gives clues as to what the rest of the car will look like. Ford says its designers spent hours researching photographs of horses to give the new Mustang logo a more realistic feel, and we think it paid off. The new pony looks more defined and muscular, and it even got a cool new haircut! We've been anxiously waiting to see what direction Ford will take the retro design of the new Mustang, and if the logo is anything to go by then we shouldn't be worried. Let us know what you think about the new design with your comments and vote for which you like most in the poll below.

[Source: Ford]

click above to view more high-res shots of the Euro-Focus

News flash: small cars like the Ford Focus are selling beyond expectations (ours anyway) while trucks and SUVs are sitting on dealer lots much longer than auto manufacturers would like. For this reason, Ford is moving as quickly as possible to switch a few of its truck plants into car plants, including its Michigan Truck plant where behemoth SUVs like the Expedition and Navigator were being built. The switchover is going to cost the automaker since these are not flexible manufacturing facilities, with the first bit of retooling ringing the registers to the tune of $75 million bucks -- and that's just for a new bodyshop. The total cost to retool the plant will be in the hundreds of millions. As they say, it takes money to make money. While the plant is being refurbished, workers will be shuffled to the nearby Wayne plant to build even more Focuses. The best bit of news, though, is that Ford will finally be building its small cars from Europe at its converted truck plant, the ones we've all been asking for since the Euro-Focus got a new platform and we didn't. Not that we're still sour or anything...


[Source: The Detroit News]

Click above for high-res gallery of Saleen's pre-pro Ford GT

The Ford GT went from concept to production in record time thanks to companies like ROUSH and Saleen that have niche manufacturing capabilities. Saleen handled the assembly of the GT in its 200,000-sq ft facility in Troy, MI, and whether it was part of the deal or just a thank you from Ford, Steve Saleen ended up owning a pre-production Ford GT, one of only nine built. There are some differences from the production version, including a 4.6-liter Mustang Cobra V8 that has been bored out to 5.4-liters, as well as a unique supercharger system made specifically for the car. The bad news is that its pre-production status means it can't be registered as a street legal vehicle, so this Ford GT will most likely be relegated to a collector's garage.

[Soure: eBay Motors]

"You guys are obsessed with rear wheel drive," Alan Mulally mused to the Australian press after a browbeating about which pair of wheels might propel the Falcon into the future. Try as they might, the Ford Chief would not be pinned down about the chassis architecture of future Falcons, saying only that the choice would be customer driven, and plugging front and all-wheel drive vehicles as "pretty spectacular."

Mulally is right that Ford's global push to put exceptional small cars in showrooms is what the automaker's focus is and should be. The Falcon has long fallen off its sales peak from the halcyon days of two decades ago, and while Mulally agrees that it's "an absolutely dynamite vehicle," small cars in the future will prop up the more niche-y vehicles like the FG Falcon. Mulally went on to say that Australia will serve as an engineering and product development outpost for Ford, and the big-vehicle prowess in Oz will be useful regardless of layout. As Ford pulls its global platforms together, the Ranger and Focus will come at us from Australia, too.

Click above for more high resolution photos of the Mustang Bullitt

If you want to be the next critically acclaimed filmmaker, the Ford Mustang may be your ticket to an audience of millions. Ford and Filmaka.com are teaming up on a contest to see who can create the best Mustang-themed script. Would-be filmmakers can choose from one of eight Mustang stories or pick a tale of their own, then write a script about it. The people with the top 20 scripts as chosen by Ford and Filmaka.com will get a budget of $5,000 to produce their film, along with contacts at local Mustang clubs for the use of vehicles to shoot. Those 20 winners will have two weeks to submit their finished work, and nine winners and an alternate will receive an additional $5,000 in prize money. The top 10 will also get the chance to create a promo that will appear on network TV. The grand prize winner gets the opportunity to direct a film for promotional materials for the 2010 Mustang.

That's a pretty cool contest for aspiring filmmakers everywhere, but there isn't much time at all to get in on the fun. The contest ends on August 26 (today!), and the top 20 winners will need to have their initial work completed by September 16.


[Source: Ford]

Credit goes to our friends at Jalopnik for orchestrating the shot you see above, which took some quick planning and a lot of luck. General Motors recently held a sneak peak media drive for the Chevy Camaro V6 out in San Diego, and unfortunately only the biggest buff books and Edmunds Inside Line were invited (tsk, tsk). Jalopnik decided to crash the party the best way they know how - by showing up driving the Camaro's two biggest competitors, the Ford Mustang and Dodge Challenger. Classic Jalopnik, and how they managed to find two black ones we'll never know.

This is the first published picture of all three modern muscle cars together, at least that we know of. Jalopnik EIC Ray Wert and his team weathered an extremely miffed GM PR person to get it, and word is we'll have video later of the heated exchange. What GM got miffed about is unknown, since last we checked San Diego had no laws against driving your car and parking it on public streets. Now if you'll excuse us, we have to rummage through our junk folder to find the invitation to this event that we're sure GM sent and we somehow never got.

[Source: Jalopnik]

Outdoor enthusiasts and urban cowboys get some love from Ford this year in the form of the Blue Oval's first-ever Cabela FX4-edition F-Series and the latest Harley-Davidson tie-up -- the first time ever the Bar and Shield logo has appeared on the heaviest-duty F-450 model.

Apparently, Ford has found that 76-percent of F-Series buyers hunt and fish, hence the newly expanded relationship between the automaker and the outdoorsy retailer. Consisting mostly of a paint and badge job, the Cabela buyer gets his or her choice of five two-tone paint schemes: Ebony, Oxford White, Forest Green Metallic, Royal Red Metallic and Silver Metallic -- all with Sterling Grey Metallic lower accents along the rocker panels, running boards and wheel arch moldings.

For the twelfth iteration of the Harley-Davidson edition, Ford will put blue-flames along the length of the vehicle and on the black leather seats. Also included are large chromed vents just aft of the front wheels. Expect plenty of Harley logos all over the truck, though a photo has yet to appear.

Along with these two new models, the Super Duty trucks receive an optional spray-in bedliner from the factory, an integrated trailer brake controller, the new Ford Work Solutions suite, Voice-Activated Navigation System with SIRIUS Travel Link and the heavy duty trucks first application of SYNC.

[Source: Ford, Pickuptrucks.com]