Archive for Ford

Ford Europe has two performance upgrade kits for two of their hot hatches, the Ford Fiesta ST and the Ford Focus ST. The 2.0 liter Duratec in the Ford Fiesta ST gets its power upgraded from 148 to 185 horses, thanks to new ECU software, cylinder heads, a new camshaft and exhaust system.

Imagine this kit in the similiar Duratec engine in our Focus 2.0 – the car’s excellent chassis and suspension would finally get the power it deserves!

The Ford Focus ST gets a kit comprising of an air filter kit, an updated ECU and an exhaust system, bringing up power by 38 horses to a total of 260.

The good news is this kit can be ordered with a new car, but it can also be retrofitted to exhaust Focus ST and Fiesta ST hatches already on the road.

Ford is taking the Ford Focus ST up another level with a top of the range Ford Focus RS. Above is a teaser image of the new car released by Ford. While the ST competes with the likes of the Golf GTI, the Ford Focus RS will be a Golf R32 fighter, with it’s Volvo inline-5 2.5 liter engine tuned up to produce 300 horsepower and 400Nm of torque. All-wheel drive is also very likely.

A concept version of the new Ford Focus RS is expected to be unveiled at the 2008 London Motor Show, with the production version following in early 2009.

BorgWarner has developed a new integrated 2-stage turbocharger called the R2S system, which uses two differently sized turbochargers in a sequential arrangement.

The smaller of the two turbochargers is a smaller conventional unit that provides quick boost response at low engine speeds, while the larger turbocharger is of the Variable Turbine Geometry type, which uses variable vanes to suit a wider range of engine operating states.

The first mass production petrol car that used VTG turbocharging was the 997 Porsche 911 Turbo, which also used BorgWarner turbochargers.

The first application of this new R2S turbocharger is the Ford PowerStroke 6.4 liter V8 diesel engine, which will go into the F-series of heavy duty pickups – the F250, F350, F450 and F550. The same engine will also be used by Navistar International, which will use the engine under the MaxForce7 brand in its light trucks.

There are now two Ford Verve Concepts, with the latest addition being a 4-door notchback recently unveiled at the 2007 Guangzhou International Auto Show, rather befitting as apparently the Chinese love notchbacks.

This small B-segment sedan could pose a mean fight to the likes of the new Toyota Vios and the upcoming Honda City replacement. while the 3-door Verve goes against the Jazz and the Yaris. They definitely have the looks.

The new Verve Sedan 4-door notchback joins it’s 3-door hatchback sibling unveiled earlier at the 2007 Frankfurt Motor Show and previews what the future Ford Fiesta replacement might look like.

More photos after the jump.

Related Posts:
Ford Verve Concept previews 2009 Ford Fiesta
Mazda 2 Sedan launched in China

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Being in the market for quite some time now, the Ford Escape is a familiar sight with Malaysia road users, and thanks to the various marketing efforts by Ford including tie-ups with radio stations like hitz.fm it is also in mind.

I drove the Ford Escape 3.0 V6, the top of the range model that looks pretty much the same on the outside as the 2.3 liter version, except for a two-tone paint scheme that is exclusive to the 3.0 V6.

Read a test drive report after the jump.

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We’ve already seen the new Ford Escape announced a few months ago with full details on how the exterior and interior looks like, but Ford surprises us with this new concept Ford Escape at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show called the Ford Escape Adventure Concept.

The front gets a new three-bar grille with silver-accented air intakes and new projector headlamps. The lower fascia air intake is flanked by two silver triangular intakes. The antenna has also been relocated from the right hand fender at the front to the roof. Finally, it is painted with a new colour called Fire red, a combination of a red base with a mix of yellow pearl in the clear coat.

On the rear, the Escape Adventure Concept uses LED tail lights. The lamp cluster takes a new approach to LED lighting for the reverse indicators – instead of multiple white LEDs, just two LEDs are used and this emits light which is carried through a light tube to illuminate the entire tail lamp in a more uniform way.

Check out more live photos of the car at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show as well as product photos after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of TOKYO 2007 LIVE: Ford Escape Adventure Concept

We might just be getting the next generation CBU Mazda 6 from Thailand instead of Japan, once Mazda and Ford’s second plant in Thailand goes online in 2009.

The US$500 million plant is a 50:50 joint investment between Mazda and Ford and it will build cars from the B and C-D segment. It will be built on the same site as the existing pick-up truck plant, which is currently pushing out 175,000 trucks a year.

Cars from this plant will be sold in Thailand and exported to other countries in Asia, Australasia and Africa. B and C-D segment cars will mean the Mazda 2, Mazda 3, Mazda 6, Ford Focus, and many other cars.

This is the largest foreign investment in Thailand ever since last autumn’s army coup – this shows investors still have much confidence in Thailand.

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The new 2008 Ford Focus facelift has been unveiled at the 2007 Tokyo Motorshow, and although still based on the same chassis most of it’s ingredients have been updated significantly for the new model year. The new Focus will come in 3-door and 5-door hatch forms as well as sedan, estate and coupe-cabriolet body styles. All models will be available first in UK showrooms, with the coupe-cabriolet and hot ST performance versions available from spring 2008 onwards.

The Focus has been updated with Ford’s new kinetic design that first made it’s debut on the new Ford Mondeo. The Titanium trim level also receives an interior update which includes a redesigned center console which also incorporates the new kinetic design language. The green backlighting for the meter cluster has been phased out for a more modern and sporty red colour.

The two 2.0 liter Duratorq TDCi turbodiesel versions of the new 2008 Ford Focus will have the option to be equipped with Ford’s new Powershift transmission – a dual-clutch automated transmission developed together with Getrag. Powershift uses two layshafts working in parallel, each with it’s own wet clutch. One carries gears 1, 3 and 5 while the other carries gears 2, 4, and 6. Upshift speeds are increased using pre-selection.

The most frugal 2008 Ford Focus will be the ECOnetic variant which uses a 109 PS 1.6 liter Duratorq TDCi turbodiesel engine that manages to snag the Ford a respectable 65mpg, or 3.6 liters of fuel consumed per 100km travelled. There will also be a Flexifuel version of the 1.8 liter Duratec petrol inline-4 engine that can use E85 bio-ethanol, conventional unleaded petrol, or a mixture of both. The 2.0 liter Duratec will be available in conventional unleaded petrol form, or two other derivatives which use Compressed Natural Gas or Liquid Petroleum Gas.

The Focus is a fantastic drive and this new facelift will certainly make it more desirable as I think it looks so much better now.

More images after the jump.

Related Posts:
Ford Focus 2.0S First Impression Test Drive

Click here to read the rest of 2008 Ford Focus facelift unveiled at Frankfurt

Ford has updated the Ford Everest in Malaysia to the latest generation version based on the new Ranger TDCi. As expected, the Everest carries over the Ford Ranger’s excellent 2.5 liter Duratorq TDCi engines, but the top of the range Everest takes the bar up further with a more powerful 3.0 liter TDCi engine.

Like the Ranger, the Ford Everest equipped with the 5-speed automatic transmission offers Borg Warner’s Shift-on-the-Fly system, allowing the driver to shift from 2H to 4H at driving speeds of up to 100km/h. There are also 4X2 versions available for those who do not need 4X4 capabilities. The Duratorq TDCi engines use a single variable geometry turbocharger. The new 3.0 liter Duratorq TDCi engine makes 154 horsepower at 3,200rpm and 380Nm of torque at 1,800rpm. The 2.5 liter model makes 141 horsepower at 3,500rpm and 330Nm of torque at 1,800rpm.

The Ford Everest is a 7-seater with 3 rows of seats. Every seat row has separate air-conditioning. The third row can be completely removed to increase luggage capacity. Other features include power foldable door mirrors with indicator lights and puddle lamps, offering the front passengers visibility of what is on the ground that they are about to step on at night.

The familiar interior (similiar to the Ranger’s) uses a two-tone colour scheme with a little wood trim used sparingly. The interior offers 5 cupholders and an MP3-capable CD player. Safety features include the usual ABS with EBD and load sensing proportioning valve, as well as dual front airbags and dual passenger side airbags.

Ford Everest 3.0L TDCi 4×4 LTD Automatic – RM172,488
Ford Everest 2.5L TDCi 4×4 XLT Automatic – RM158,288
Ford Everest 2.5L TDCi 4×2 XLT Automatic – RM145,188
Ford Everest 2.5L TDCi 4X4 XLT Manual – RM145,188

All vehicles except for the Everest 2.5L TDCi 4X4 XLT Automatic will be available at all Ford showrooms nationwide from the 12th of September onwards.

The production spawn of the Ford Iosis X concept car from Paris 2006 will make it’s debut at the 2007 Frankfurt Motor Show, but for those who are not able to see it in the metal – like me, here are details and photos.

The Ford Kuga will be on sale in Europe in the first half of 2008. It is available in either front wheel drive or intelligent four wheel drive modes, and the variant to be shown at Frankfurt will be the 136 PS, 320Nm (340Nm overboost) 2.0 liter Duratorq TDCi common rail turbodiesel with Garett variable geometry turbocharger mated to a Durashift 6-speed manual. More details on engine variants will be available closer to the launch date.

The Ford Kuga is not exactly the same as the iosis X concept and we’re not talking about matters of exterior styling and interior. The roof itself has been adjusted to have a slightly higher silhouette to help with passenger headroom.

Since the Kuga is essentially a Focus SUV, expect the new Focus facelift to carry some of the Kuga’s ‘kinetic design’ styling cues.

More photos after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Ford Kuga to be unveiled at Frankfurt 2007

There are a few cars that one would look forward to getting into in order to experience something because it has a certain reputation surrounding it. You have the BMW 3-Series with the expectations of its fantastic 50:50 weight balance, or the Mercedes Benz S-Class because it is seen as the pinnacle of comfort at under a million ringgit. The Ford Focus is one of those cars that you approach with anticipation.

Read the rest of the write-up after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Ford Focus 2.0S First Impression Test Drive

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This is the Ford Verve Concept which will preview the styling of the next generation 2009 Ford Fiesta, Ford’s B-Segment hatchback that shares the Mazda 2’s platform, and likely its Japanese sibling’s fuel efficient powertrains as well.

The Ford Verve Concept will be making it’s international debut next month at the 2007 Frankfurt International Motorshow, and the production Fiesta likely to follow next year.

Click here to read the rest of Ford Verve Concept previews 2009 Ford Fiesta

What we previously called the Ford X-MAX in speculation is now officially named the Ford Kuga, and naturally it is based on the Ford iosis X concept car that we saw at the 2007 Paris Motor Show.

Ford has a sketch of the car here, but the production car will be previewed at the 2007 Frankfurt Motor Show in September. It will go into production early 2008 at Ford’s Saarlouis plant in Germany, and will be launched across Europe in Spring 2008.

Related Posts:
Ford X-MAX: Focus with all-wheel drive?

It’s not often that you see a beauty such as this in Malaysia. Whether you hate pick-ups or not, there’s just something about it’s tough looks and tons of chrome everywhere that makes you wish like you had one. This Ford F150 Harley-Davidson Edition was spotted in Ford’s Jalan Tun Razak showroom.

More after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Ford F150 Harley-Davidson in Malaysia

The latest company rumoured to be interested in buying Volvo and Land Rover from Ford is Magna. Well, not exactly the two brands, but they’re more interested in the plants that belong to the two brands.

Auto Motor und Sport reports that Magna wants to use the plants of the two marques to build models from other companies, which will help achieve full capacity. All that unused plant capacity lying around is a wasted investment anyway. Magna does contract assembly – it’s subsidiary Magna Steyr manufactures the current generation BMW X3 in Austria but lost the job to assemble the next gen X3.

While Ford has hired Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and HSBC to evaluate the future of it’s Jaguar and Land Rover brands, effectively putting them on the table for possible sale, it hasn’t said anything about possibly selling Volvo. Volvo seems to be doing well recently, reporting that it is heading for a record amount of cars sold globally, despite a slowdown in major markets like Germany and the US. Sales are expected to surpass the previous 456,000 unit record in 2004.

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