11 Dec 2012

My First Car Was A Ford

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Everyone remembers their first car, good or bad. Check out Daemon's story about his first car, a 74' Mustang!

Social

My first car was a 1974 White Ford Mustang II. I saved up for that car with a summer job. Bought it used from a co-worker for $500. Drive it till it died. I’ve had several Escorts, an ‘84 Ranger, and now, I’m driving a 1998 Ford Taurus SHO. You can bet that as I continue my journey through life, I intend to get more Fords. A Mustang Cobra. A Ford GT. A Ford Explorer. Ford is the only American Auto Company that didn’t take any bail out money. THAT says something about the strength of the company. And every time I’m watching NASCAR or ROLEX, or ALMS< or Australian V8 Supercar, I’ll be cheering for my Blue Oval brothers and sisters in their Fords.

ONE LUV. FORD!!!!!

Courtesy of Daemon B, Ford Social

http://social.ford.com/your-stories/cars/Mustang%20II/my-first-car-was-a-ford-2/

4 Dec 2012

Pump the Brakes

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This story is a great example of why classic Fords are the best around! Read on to hear Chris G.'s story of driving his grandpa's Mustang.

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A couple years ago I asked my grandmother if I could take Grampa’s old mustang that my cousin was fixing up out for a spin. It was the car my mother and uncle grew up driving in southern Washington state on super windy roads. I grabbed the key and went to the garage. My younger cousin and I hopped into the car. I slid the key in and took a deep breath. I turned the key and… it tried to start, but it wouldn’t turn over. I tried it a couple more times and then looked up to see my uncle chuckling in the corner. He said “let me show you how it’s done”. I was 22 at the time and had no idea that you had to pump the gas a few times to get gas flowing into the engine. He got it started and I hopped back in. I took my cousin out for a spin… I had no idea this would be the first time I was driving a car without power steering (it hadn’t occurred to me), nor did I expect my braking would skid the car at the stop signs. I stalled it twice and brought it back into the garage. That was the greatest car I’ve ever driven, and I’m a valet driver in Los Angeles.

 

Care of Chris G. via Ford Social

http://social.ford.com/your-stories/cars/mustang/pump-the-brakes/

29 Nov 2012

Hey fans! Check out how Lincoln and THX worked together to create an amazing sound system in new models:

How Music Was Made to Sound

As phonographs, photographs, and film proliferated throughout the 1930s, critics began to question the purpose of original art. Why go through all the trouble of visiting the Eiffel Tower when you could see it re-created on film? Was the actual Mona Lisa any more valuable than its image on a postcard?

For some, though, the only way to experience art will always be as the artist intended. The philosopher Walter Benjamin believed that replicas couldn’t approach the experience of beholding a phenomenon firsthand. Physical presence, he argued, allows spectators to absorb a work’s “aura,” a visceral connection that cannot be found flipping through lifeless photos. Today he would say we’ve grown all too accustomed to consuming art in diminished forms, believing we’ve encountered the real thing.

THX DriveIn

Yet, in rare instances, technology can give us reproductions that match, and sometimes even surpass, the original. Such is the achievement of THX, the audio and video-fidelity company born of George Lucas’s desire for movie theaters to better express the director’s creative intent. Beginning in 1983 with the release of Lucas’s Star Wars Episode 6: Return of the Jedi, THX set the standard for authentic picture and sound reproduction, giving audiences a richer experience and ensuring that the work of artists and musicians is presented faithfully.

THX DriveIn

Since then, THX has taken this knowledge and translated it to other entertainment devices, allowing consumers to experience every sound and image as it was originally envisioned from their living room and now from their car. THX is bringing the same “no additives” approach to new sound systems available in Lincoln vehicles as they did to theaters 30 years ago. The results have been nothing short of remarkable. Lincoln THX® Certified Audio Systems are designed to reproduce high-fidelity, low-distortion audio regardless of the volume level or musical selection. When listeners toggle between disparate genres such as classical music, hip-hop, or electronica, the transition is seamless. Regardless of what you’re bumping, the stereo will match even the most eclectic tastes with optimal sound performance.

THX DriveIn

The creative cooperation between THX and Lincoln brings to mind all of the historical musical collaborations that have come out of Detroit. These musical works of art, which so often assert the importance of authenticity, can seem to be a pithy restatement of what Walter Benjamin was getting at all the way back in 1936. Yet despite these songs’ insistence that nothing ever measures up against the real thing, to hear these hits on a Lincoln THX® Certified Audio System is to experience the lush Detroit duets and rich harmonies just as the artists would have intended, and as any listener would wish. Together, THX and Lincoln have gone a long way toward proving that the original rendition doesn’t have to be the only authentic one.

 

Courtsey of lincoln.com

http://www.lincoln.com/now/articles/details/ln_article_19/

29 Nov 2012

Hey fans, check out this story of a Ford that is truly built tough!

Crown King And The Lookout

 

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During the Gladiator Fire in Arizona this last summer me and my F-350 hauled tons of water, gatorade, food and equipment from Mayer, Az up to the gold mining town of Crown King and beyond. The fire fighters went through alot of water and gatorade as it was already hot in may, and the terrian was straight up and down. We figured a pallet of water at about 2000 pounds and usually went up with at least one to one and a half. The trail up to the towers is like driving up a dry waterfall! When this type of work needs to be done, the vehicle has to be reliable and ready to go, not to mention all the folks on the fireline. I can say my F-350, which is basically stock, and all the people on this fire, who are not basically stock, never skipped a beat.

 

Courtesy of Preston G, Ford Social

http://social.ford.com/your-stories/trucks/F-350/crown-king-and-the-lookout/

23 Oct 2012

Robocop Gets A Brand New Ford For His Robo-Reboot

We love an 80s' flashback: the newest installment of the Robocop movies is starring another Ford! A photo of the Taurus Police Interceptor has been released. Check it out! http://myfrd.co/OIlApa

 

Since original movies are no longer a thing, there is a robo-reboot of Robocop currently filming to hit theaters and pillage teenagers of their money. In the original movie, Robocop drove a Ford Taurus.

While times and Robosuits may change, Roborides do not. Meet the new Robo Taurus.

It looks like Ford has signed on to provide a new Taurus Police Interceptor to the Robocop film. Our tipster saw the Robocop car in Toronto earlier today:

We've seen the terrible robo suit, but I've captured the new car. Theyre filming across the street from my dealership and saw this getting towed to the set.

Robocop Gets A Brand New Ford For His Robo-RebootIn a departure from the old Robocop car, which was an all black Taurus, the new one has some white accents and big block lettering.

Now hopefully the movie doesn't suck.
Robocop Gets A Brand New Ford For His Robo-Reboot

 

 

Courtesy of Jalopnik.com

18 Oct 2012

2013 Ford Fusion - Expert Reviews

Fusion
There are so many options for a midsized sedan on the market, how do you choose? A reference from a reliable source is a good place to start! Take a look at what Cars.com had to say about the 2013 Ford Fusion.

Trying to decide on a midsize sedan may be one of the hardest tasks for any car shopper. From the Hyundai Sonata and Toyota Camry to the redesigned Nissan Altima and Honda Accord, these cars offer quiet cabins, plenty of space and a fair amount of features even in base or lower trim levels.

The redesigned 2013 Ford Fusion breaks away from the pack in a big way. It outhandles the entire field and has a design that is James Bond dashing while the rest would be best fit for Miss Moneypenny.

If midsize sedan shoppers want fun and style, the redesigned 2013 Ford Fusion is perhaps the only option they have, but it does come with a few tradeoffs.

The 2013 is significantly different from the outgoing 2012 in terms of not just performance and technology but also size, inside and out. You can compare the two model years here.

Style

From the Aston Martin look of its front end to the geometric design of the tail, the Fusion is an exercise in aggressive styling. That was the plan. The entire car was developed to preserve the styling designers had penned. When engineers needed to make the car larger, they still had to maintain the design's aesthetics.

The design does translate to a high belt line, narrow windows and reduced visibility, though.

Performance

The looks may draw in shoppers, but an array of four engines — three of which are new for the Fusion — may be the hardest decision made at the dealership.

It's easy to dismiss the S and SE's base engine, a carryover from 2012. The 2.5-liter four-cylinder produces 175 horsepower and gets an EPA-estimated 22/34 mpg city/highway and 26 mpg combined.

Next up is the 178-hp, turbocharged 1.6-liter four-cylinder that achieves the best non-hybrid mileage at 25/37/29 mpg city/highway/combined with a six-speed manual transmission and 23/36/28 mpg with a six-speed automatic.

Replacing the previous generation's V-6 is a new turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder with an impressive 240 hp and 270 pounds-feet of torque that returns 22/33/26 mpg. It comes with an automatic transmission but is the only engine that can be teamed to optional all-wheel drive.

The turbo engines run on regular gas but premium is needed to achieve the posted horsepower ratings. Mileage is the same on regular or premium.

Finally, there is a hybrid with a 2.0-liter four-cylinder and electric motor producing a combined 188 hp and returning 47 mpg across the board in city, highway and combined mileage.

I drove the three new powertrains over hundreds of miles in hilly Southern California and found the variety welcome, but each with its own quirks.

The 1.6-liter with an automatic will likely be the volume leader in terms of sales, but I found it the least interesting to drive. The power rating is below most of the competition, and it's noticeable on the road. There is still ample passing power in highway situations, but it doesn't feel nearly as robust as the Nissan Altima's 182-hp four-cylinder engine. I was able to reconfirm my past experience on this point with a base Altima provided by Ford during the Fusion test drive.

With a manual transmission, the 1.6-liter is livelier, and downshifting to ascend curvy roads helps you appreciate the car's impressive handling.

No matter which Fusion I tested, it took curves with sports car aplomb. Even with low-rolling-resistance tires on all the Fusions — equipped with standard 16-inch or optional 17-, 18- or 19-inch wheels — there was ample grip. Steering feel on all the cars is exceptional: precise during dynamic turns and on point on straight stretches.

The 2.0-liter delivered considerably more power — obviously — and teamed with all-wheel drive was even more fun to pilot around California's curvy roads. While I'd never turn down more power, I wish the 1.6 had a bit more so the 2.0 wouldn't be a necessary option at all.

The ride in the 1.6 and 2.0 was tightly composed, showcasing the work that went into designing a global car that needs to meet the sporty desires of European customers, too. However, the car doesn't sacrifice too much comfort. It's not as soft as the Altima or Camry but on par with the Kia Optima over rough road surfaces. Road and wind noise fall in that same spectrum, as well.

The Altima may be the more comfortable cruiser, but when I took it on sharp turns at speed, my co-pilot and I leaned far out of our seats. Take the same turn in the Fusion, and you stick to your seat like there's adhesive on the fabric. This is confidence-inspiring during fun drives through the mountains, but for the daily driver, I question if it will be a deciding factor.

Hybrid

The Fusion Hybrid might have been my favorite of the bunch because it felt like it had the mix of power I was looking for with a slightly suppler ride while still featuring that impressive steering feel and handling.

The fact that it's rated at 47 mpg is just a bonus.

Ford also did a good job with the traits that often limit a hybrid's appeal. The brakes felt good under foot with none of the soggy or unpredictable feedback you can find in other hybrids and fully electric vehicles.

The battery pack in the trunk was also well-executed. There is a noticeable hump that reduces cargo space from 16 cubic feet to 12 cubic feet, but it is designed like a shelf so that larger cargo can fit in the deeper well and other items like groceries, dry cleaning and smaller bags can go on the shelf. The rear seats also fold to create a flat floor with that shelf.

Ford wisely left the stand-out Fusion styling as-is for the hybrid. There are no aesthetic or visible aerodynamic tweaks on the exterior to help cheat the wind. The Fusion Hybrid does get a set of shutters that close during certain types of driving to help with aerodynamics. Located behind the car's grille and radiator, the shutters reduce drag at higher speeds. All Fusions feature a significant amount of underbody shielding to decrease drag, but the Fusion Hybrid's underside is almost entirely shielded.

These changes aid the hybrid powertrain in returning the impressive 47 mpg mileage. There is no EV driving mode, and the hybrid features a digital gauge cluster identical to that found in Fusions equipped with the optional MyFord Touch multimedia system. The Fusion Hybrid does carry over the previous generation's familiar graphical leaves in the gauge cluster that grow as you drive more efficiently.

Interior & Cargo

Inside, the 2013 Fusion benefits from a considerably longer wheelbase as well as about an additional inch of exterior overall length. Interior measurements for headroom, legroom, hip room and shoulder room are all competitive or near the top of the class. The legroom numbers proved true. There was plenty of space for me in both the driver and rear seats. Front headroom wasn't an issue, but in the rear seats I felt like if I were an inch or two taller than my 5-foot-10 frame I might have some issues.

Both the fabric and leather seats I tested felt significantly firm but offered good support. After two hours of solid driving, my thirty-something back was feeling sore. My twenty-something co-driver had no back issues even after four hours of driving. But in my defense, I took my comparison test in the Altima at the two-hour mark, and its wider, softer seats felt therapeutic on my poor back.

The cabin materials are all of good quality and competitive for the class. The main issue for shoppers will be the ergonomics — and not just of the optional MyFord Touch system. Even the base console, which has physical buttons, sports dozens of them. And they're small. They look slick and futuristic, but that doesn't make a difference in their size. Luckily, knobs for stereo volume and tuning are large, and the small LCD screen and menus are straightforward.

The standard gauge cluster is also nice to look at with a sharp LCD screen between the analog gauges, a setup we're seeing across the segment.

I also liked the rather large cubby ahead of the shifter. It's a bit far forward to reach easily while driving but is large enough to stash larger gear like sunglasses, wallets or smartphones.

There's also a small cubby between the front seats that's able to accommodate similar-sized objects, and it's where you can plug devices into two USB ports.

The Fusion's trunk is 16 cubic feet and gets most of the space from being deep, not wide, but there are small cutouts for golf clubs by either side of the lid opening. It holds up well against the Altima and Camry's 15.4 cubic feet, Accord's 15.8 cubic feet and Malibu's 16.3 cubic feet.

You can compare the Fusion to the Accord, Altima and Camry here.

Features

The Fusion comes relatively well-equipped with the base S model getting standard Bluetooth, Ford's Sync system, power windows with express up and down for all windows, remote entry, body-colored mirrors and door handles, and a chrome grille at $22,495 (all prices include destination charges). But that's with the 2.5-liter engine, and this is where pricing will become a problem for Ford in this very competitive segment.

To opt for the more fuel-efficient 1.6-liter you need to move up to the SE, and to equip it with an automatic, you'll be paying a starting price of $25,290. It's $24,495 with a manual.

The Altima, Camry and Accord come standard with their most fuel-efficient engines and cost $22,280, $22,850 and $23,270, respectively, with automatic transmissions.

And to confuse even regular Ford shoppers a bit, there's no longer an SEL trim level. There is the base S, SE and Titanium. S comes only with the 2.5-liter engine. SE comes with the 2.5, 1.6 or 2.0, and the Titanium is equipped only with the 2.0.

Simple enough, but if you want more features with the 1.6, you need to add option packages like an Appearance Package at $1,250 or the Luxury Package at $2,300.

MyFordTouch is an option for the SE trim in the Technology Package at $1,000; it  also adds a backup camera and dual-zone temperature control. The Titanium MyFordTouch comes with an upgraded 12-speaker Sony stereo, which I tested and found rather robust. That makes paying the $30,995 price a bit more palatable.

The touch-sensitive capacitive buttons on models without the Sony system are few and spread out a bit to make finding the right one easier since you can't feel them blindly. The Sony system is busier with many more capacitive buttons — none of which feature an audible click or send a pulse of feedback through the panel to confirm you've actually achieved the desired result of your finger pressing. And to take this buttonless world to a new extreme, controls for the map lights in the roof console of all Fusion models are also capacitive touch.

Safety

The 2013 Ford Fusion has not been crash-tested by either the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The Fusion features a standard array of airbags and optional safety technology like lane departure warning and correction, backup sensors and cross-path detection.

You can see a list of safety features here.

Fusion in the Market

There is no denying it: The Fusion carries a price premium in this class to get a competitive engine under the hood. That premium can be an easier pill to swallow because the hood and everything around it is just that good looking, and the car is that much fun to drive.

The lingering question is just how many midsize sedan shoppers out there want a fun-to drive sedan when they can get more comfort and value from a variety of well-reviewed cars from other automakers.

 

Courtesy of David Thomas, Cars.com

1 Oct 2012

Ford unveils new F-150 King Ranch pickup in Texas

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The Texas State Fair can only mean one thing: which automaker can out-truck the other.

Ford is casting one of the first stones -- a new F-150 King Ranch. It has a new grille, 20-inch wheels, special King Ranch chrome and lots and lots of leather.

"While others are just starting to understand the appeal of Texas innovation and luxury, we're proud to have worked with our longtime partners at King Ranch who helped define both," said Ford General Marketing Manager Dave Mondragon in a statement. "The latest F-150 King Ranch extends this honor and tradition."

The 2013 comes with a choice of 5-liter V-8 or 3.5-liter turbocharged EcoBoost six-cylinder engine that has defied even Ford's own predictions about its popularity.

By the way, there really is a King Ranch. It covers 1,300 miles of Texas and there are 260 Ford pickups that roam it.

 

Courtesy of USA Today

12 Sep 2012

The Cheapest Generation

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In 2009, Ford brought its new supermini, the Fiesta, over from Europe in a brave attempt to attract the attention of young Americans. It passed out 100 of the cars to influential bloggers for a free six-month test-drive, with just one condition: document your experience online, whether you love the Fiesta or hate it.

Young bloggers loved the car. Young drivers? Not so much. After a brief burst of excitement, in which Ford sold more than 90,000 units over 18 months, Fiesta sales plummeted. As of April 2012, they were down 30 percent from 2011.

Don’t blame Ford. The company is trying to solve a puzzle that’s bewildering every automaker in America: How do you sell cars to Millennials (a k a Generation Y)? The fact is, today’s young people simply don’t drive like their predecessors did. In 2010, adults between the ages of 21 and 34 bought just 27 percent of all new vehicles sold in America, down from the peak of 38 percent in 1985. Miles driven are down, too. Even the proportion of teenagers with a license fell, by 28 percent, between 1998 and 2008.

In a bid to reverse these trends, General Motors has enlisted the youth-brand consultants at MTV Scratch—a corporate cousin of the TV network responsible for Jersey Shore—to give its vehicles some 20-something edge. “I don’t believe that young buyers don’t care about owning a car,” says John McFarland, GM’s 31-year-old manager of global strategic marketing. “We just think nobody truly understands them yet.” Subaru, meanwhile, is betting that it can appeal to the quirky eco-­conscious individualism that supposedly characterizes this generation. “We’re trying to get the emotional connection correct,” says Doug O’Reilly, a publicist for Subaru. Ford, for its part, continues to push heavily into social media, hoping to more closely match its marketing efforts to the channels that Millennials use and trust the most.

All of these strategies share a few key assumptions: that demand for cars within the Millennial generation is just waiting to be unlocked; that as the economy slowly recovers, today’s young people will eventually want to buy cars as much as their parents and grandparents did; that a finer-tuned appeal to Millennial values can coax them into dealerships.

Perhaps. But what if these assumptions are simply wrong? What if Millennials’ aversion to car-buying isn’t a temporary side effect of the recession, but part of a permanent generational shift in tastes and spending habits? It’s a question that applies not only to cars, but to several other traditional categories of big spending—most notably, housing. And its answer has large implications for the future shape of the economy—and for the speed of recovery.

Since World War II, new cars and suburban houses have powered the economy and propelled recoveries. Millennials may have lost interest in both.

Half of a typical family’s spending today goes to transportation and housing, according to the latest Consumer Expenditure Survey, released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. At the height of the housing bubble, residential construction and related activities accounted for more than a quarter of the economy in metro areas like Las Vegas and Orlando. Nation­wide, new-car and new-truck purchases hovered near historic highs. But Millennials have turned against both cars and houses in dramatic and historic fashion. Just as car sales have plummeted among their age cohort, the share of young people getting their first mortgage between 2009 and 2011 is half what it was just 10 years ago, according to a Federal Reserve study.

Needless to say, the Great Recession is responsible for some of the decline. But it’s highly possible that a perfect storm of economic and demographic factors—from high gas prices, to re-­urbanization, to stagnating wages, to new technologies enabling a different kind of consumption—has fundamentally changed the game for Millennials. The largest generation in American history might never spend as lavishly as its parents did—nor on the same things. Since the end of World War II, new cars and suburban houses have powered the world’s largest economy and propelled our most impressive recoveries. Millennials may have lost interest in both.

When Zipcar was founded, in 2000, the average price for a gallon of gasoline was $1.50, and iPhones didn’t exist. Since then, it has become the world’s largest car-sharing company, with some 700,000 members. Zipcar owes much of its success to two facts. First, gas prices more than doubled, which made car-sharing alluring. Second, smartphones became ubiquitous, which made car-sharing easier.

The emergence of the “sharing economy”—services that use the Web to let companies and families share otherwise idle goods—is headlined by Zipcar, but it also involves companies such as Airbnb, a shared market­place for bedrooms and other accommodations for travelers; and thred­UP, a site where parents can buy and sell kids’ used clothing.

From a distance, the sharing of cars, rooms, and clothes may seem a curiosity, more hippie than revolutionary. But tech­nology is allow­ing these practices to go mainstream, and that represents a big new step for consumers. For decades, inventory manage­ment was largely the province of companies, not individuals, and continual efforts to reduce inventory—the stock of things just sitting around—helped companies improve their bottom line. But today, peer-to-peer software and mobile technology allow us all to have access, just when we need it, to the things we used to have to buy and hold. And the most powerful application is for cars.

The typical new car costs $30,000 and sits in a garage or parking spot for 23 hours a day. Zipcar gives drivers access to cars they don’t have to own. Car ownership, meanwhile, has slipped down the hierarchy of status goods for many young adults. “Zipcar conducted a survey of Millennials,” Mark Norman, the company’s president and chief operating officer, told us. “And this generation said, ‘We don’t care about owning a car.’ Cars used to be what people aspired to own. Now it’s the smartphone.”

Some automakers are slowly coming around to that view. Last year, Ford agreed to become Zipcar’s largest supplier on more than 250 college campuses. Young people prize “access over ownership,” said Sheryl Connelly, head of global consumer trends at Ford. “I don’t think car-buying for Millennials will ever be what it was for Boomers. But we know if they have the opportunity to drive Ford, they’re more likely to choose Ford if they buy a car.”

Subaru’s publicist Doug O’Reilly told us, “The Millennial wants to tell people not just ‘I’ve made it,’ but also ‘I’m a tech person.’ ” Smartphones compete against cars for young people’s big-ticket dollars, since the cost of a good phone and data plan can exceed $1,000 a year. But they also provide some of the same psychic benefits—opening new vistas and carrying us far from the physical space in which we reside. “You no longer need to feel connected to your friends with a car when you have this technology that’s so ubiquitous, it transcends time and space,” Connelly said.

In other words, mobile technology has empowered more than just car-sharing. It has empowered friendships that can be maintained from a distance. The upshot could be a continuing shift from automobiles to mobile technology, and a big reduction in spending.

Millennials, of course, are sharing more than transportation: they’re also sharing living quarters, albeit begrudgingly, and with less gee-whiz technology involved. According to Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, between 2006 and 2011, the homeownership rate among adults younger than 35 fell by 12 percent, and nearly 2 million more of them—the equivalent of Houston’s population—were living with their parents, as a result of the recession. The ownership society has been overrun by renters and squatters.

Nine out of 10 Millennials say they eventually want a place they own, according to a recent Fannie Mae survey. But this generation’s path to home­ownership is fraught with obstacles: low pay, low savings, tighter lending standards from banks. Student debt—some $1 trillion in total—stalks many potential buyers as they seek a mortgage (or a car loan). At a minimum, homeownership rates are highly unlikely to soon return to the peaks they hit during the housing bubble.

Still, in the next decade, a group of people the size of California’s population—­most of them Millennials—will likely come together to form new households. The question is: Where, and in what manner?

In some respects, Millennials’ residential aspirations appear to be changing just as significantly as their driving habits—indeed, the two may be related. The old cul-de-sacs of Revolutionary Road and Desperate Housewives have fallen out of favor with Generation Y. Rising instead are both city centers and what some developers call “urban light”—denser suburbs that revolve around a walkable town center. “People are very eager to create a life that blends the best features of the American suburb—schools still being the primary, although not the only, draw—and urbanity,” says Adam Ducker, a managing director at the real-estate consultancy RCLCO. These are places like Culver City, California, and Evanston, Illinois, where residents can stroll among shops and restaurants or hop on public transportation. Such small cities and town centers lend themselves to tighter, smaller housing developments, whether apartments in the middle of town, or small houses a five-minute drive away. An RCLCO survey from 2007 found that 43 percent of Gen‑Yers would prefer to live in a close-in suburb, where both the houses and the need for a car are smaller.

Wholly apart from their urban sensibility, townhouses and other small houses are more affordable, all else equal, and developers know that to attract Millennials, they need to cater to tattered bank accounts. “The types of properties young people are buying now are different from what [that age group] bought five years ago,” said Shannon Williams King, the vice chair of strategic planning at the National Association of Realtors. “They are within walking distance of shopping centers. These buyers want bike shares and Zipcar. They like feeling connected.” In short, the future of the house might look a lot like the future of the car: smaller, cheaper, built for a new economy.

If the Millennials are not quite a post-­driving and post-owning generation, they’ll almost certainly be a less-­driving and less-­owning generation. That could mean some tough adjustments for the economy over the next several years. In recent decades, the housing industry has usually led us out of recession. When the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates in the midst of the sharp recession of the early 1980s, for instance, a construction boom helped fuel the “Reagan Recovery.” With the housing market moribund, the Federal Reserve has lost a key means of influencing the economy with lower interest rates. The service-led recovery we’ve gotten instead is not nearly as robust.

“I don’t think car-buying for Millennials will ever be what it was for Boomers,” said Sheryl Connelly, head of global consumer trends at Ford.

Smaller houses built in dense, mixed-use neighborhoods generally take longer to build than McMansions on green-field sites. And of course, because they require fewer fixtures and furnishings, their construction spurs less economic activity.

What’s more, both construction and automaking are solidly blue-­collar sectors. They employ millions of middle-class workers, who could be hurt by a transition away from home construction and auto manufacturing. The tech companies that sell personal electronics and provide high-speed Internet connections don’t need as many workers. And the jobs they do create—domestically at least—skew heavily toward the top of the socioeconomic ladder.

Yet in the long run, there’s good cause for optimism as well. Nobody is suggesting that the American consumer has bought her last house or car—only that houses and cars may lose some of the outsize importance they’ve had to the economy for the past 10 or 20 years or more. “There are a lot of countries, Germany for example, where homeownership rates are a lot lower than ours, and they have healthy incomes,” said Robert Lerman, an Urban Institute fellow in labor and social policy. Simple arithmetic says that if Americans spend less money on cars and houses, they’ll have more money left over to spend or save—and not all of that will go to electronic gadgets.

Education is the “obvious outlet for the money Millennials can spend,” Perry Wong, the director of research at the Milken Institute, told us, noting that if young people invest less in physical things like houses, they’ll have more to invest in themselves. “In the past, housing was the main vehicle for investment, but education is also a vehicle.” In an ideas economy, up-to-date knowledge could be a more nimble and valuable asset than a house.

What’s more, the shift away from traditional suburbs toward denser, urban-light living could have major economic-growth implications on its own. Economic research shows that doubling a community’s population density tends to increase productivity by anywhere between 6 percent and 28 percent. Economists have found that more than half of the variation in output per worker across U.S. states can be explained by density. Our wealth, after all, is determined not only by our own skills and talents, but by our ability to access the ideas of those around us; there’s a lot to be gained by increasing the odds that smart people might bump against each other. Ultimately, if the Millennial generation pushes our society toward more sharing and closer living, it may do more than simply change America’s consumption culture; it may put America on firmer economic footing for decades to come.

Sourced from: The Atlantic

 

6 Sep 2012

2013 Ford C-Max Hybrid Ford builds a Prius its own way, making it actually good to drive.

C-max_hybrid

A Real Car, Not a Gadget

If you’re considering a Prius or Prius V but are dreading a driving experience marked by ersatz steering, an ATM-like dashboard, and a spongy throttle, the C-Max has arrived just in the nick of time. With its driver-focused gauges and 225-width Michelin Energy tires, the C-Max is not a robotic electro-pod but a hybrid fuel sipper that Europeans would consider worthy.

While the C-Max seems to compete most directly with the Prius V, differences are abundant. The C-Max is 8.1 inches shorter than the big V, although it’s slightly wider and taller. The Toyota’s cargo hold is thus noticeably deeper and significantly larger dimensionally than the Ford’s, whether the rear seats are up or folded. For occupants, the second row in the C-Max is about as spacious as the V’s, and the Ford’s seats are comfortable and supportive. When compared to the Prius hatchback, however, the C-Max is slightly larger inside.

With its simple PRNDL gear selector, the Ford eschews a lot of the buttons found in the Prius; namely the EV, Eco, and Power modes, plus the regen-heavy “B” mode in the gear selector. Ford planners thought the Toyota’s various modes were “gimmicky,” says Davis, and unnecessary. Instead, the C-Max’s digital cluster “coaches” the driver by providing information with sweep meters on fuel and electricity consumption. Also, as in other Ford eco cars, a creeping-vine indicator tells at a glance how green you’re behaving. The C-Max does have a downhill speed control, which ratios down the transmission for more engine braking, operated with a button on the side of the shifter.

A Sensible Prius Alternative

We didn’t get to drive the plug-in C-Max Energi, which will have a much larger, 7.5-kWh battery pack to enable 20 or so miles of electric driving. Starting at $33,745, it is considerably more expensive than the C-Max hybrid.

You can choose to see the C-Max as a big Prius or a small Prius V, but it’s really its own animal. As with the Focus sedan and hatchback, the C-Max is dynamically proficient and rewarding to drive, and certainly more so than the cars with which it competes most directly. If you’re going to take on a giant like the Prius in its own backyard, it’s good to at least be quick on your feet, and the C-Max certainly is.

Sourced from: Car & Driver

4 Sep 2012

What if Your Car Could Talk to Other Cars?

 

Imagine a world where your car checks your blind spots for you, monitors traffic conditions on the road ahead and even avoids potential collisions. Ford believes that these capabilities aren’t just a dream for a distant future. In fact, the technologies necessary to make this vision a reality are scheduled to undergo a real-world assessment starting this fall.

The yearlong program, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, will test wireless communications between vehicles and roadside equipment, with the aim of developing future safety measures and technologies. Nearly 3,000 vehicles will participate in the test on more than 70 lane-miles of instrumented roadway. Consumer impressions of the technology will also be gathered. The test is being run in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Transportation and the University of Michigan.

So how exactly will these cars talk to one another? Communications will take place over advanced Wi-Fi signals, or dedicated short-range communications, on a secured channel allocated by the Federal Communications Commission.

The system works by having every equipped vehicle broadcast a short message to nearby vehicles, with information about vehicle position, speed and predicted path of travel. Vehicles equipped to receive this message may then be able to determine if another vehicle is on a path for a collision and then react quicker than a driver possibly could.

For this technology to truly be revolutionary, every car on the road, no matter what manufacturer, must be able to speak the same language. To that end, Ford is working closely with governments, standards organizations and other global automakers to develop global benchmarks for this technology.

The increasing use of wireless communication is part of the Ford Blueprint for Mobility, which was outlined by Executive Chairman Bill Ford during his keynote address at the 2012 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona earlier this year. This plan details the company’s early thinking on how to tackle the issues of mobility in an increasingly crowded and urbanized planet between now and 2025.

What kinds of uses can you imagine for vehicle-to-vehicle communications technology? Let us know at Your Ideas, and grab a Tech Geek badge to show off your love for the latest automotive technology.

Sourced From: Ford Social

 

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