Ford researchers also are investigating ways to use plastics made entirely from sustainable resources such as corn, sugar beets, sweet potatoes and other vegetables. These renewable materials will help reduce dependency on petroleum, reduce CO2 emissions and allow the composting of the material at the end of a vehicle’s life.

“Natural fiber-reinforced plastics and plant-based polymer resins help reduce CO2 emissions by being entirely compostable, and in some cases reduce weight, which helps improve fuel economy,” said Debbie Mielewski, technical leader, Ford Plastics Research. “We have to entertain the thought of bio-replacement in baby steps, looking at every aspect of a car that could be green. One day I hope to see the world of automotive plastics go totally compostable, removing petroleum by 100 percent.”

“In theory, end-of-life vehicles are nearly 100 percent recoverable. In practice, however, the cost in energy and labor to recover all vehicle material often exceeds the value of the materials and offers insignificant value to the environment,” Viera said. “We remain focused on achieving the highest economically viable and environmentally sound recovery percentage possible.”

2012 Ford Focus SE

We were curious about how the Focus would drive with a manual transmission. Since our tested Foci (a SE sedan and a SES hatchback) are both automatics, we borrowed a stick-shift SE sedan from Ford.

As we’ve written before, the Focus doesn’t use a traditional automatic transmission. Instead it uses a manual gearbox that shifts automatically, without a clutch pedal. These transmissions can be more efficient than a traditional automatic since they eliminate the torque converter, thereby reducing parasitic losses. But the Focus’ PowerShift transmission doesn’t shift smoothly at low speeds; it feels like it’s being driven by someone who is just learning to drive a stick.

2011 Ford Focus Electric

Ford — which unveiled its electric Focus Friday in Las Vegas and will trot it out today at a press preview at the North American International Auto Show — isn’t touting how far its new car will go on a single charge. Instead, it’s saying the 2012 model can be recharged at home in half the time of a key competitor, the electric Nissan Leaf.

The electric Focus can have its battery fully recharged at home with a 240-volt system in as little as four hours, Ford says. That’s about half the time that it takes to fully recharge the battery of a Nissan Leaf, the first fully electric car to go on sale by a major automaker.

Not only will fast charging give customers more peace of mind if they need to recharge away from home, but equipping the car with a more powerful charger will help them take full advantage of lower electricity rates that are starting to be offered by utilities for electricity use in off-peak hours, says Nancy Gioia, Ford’s director of global electrification.

“In a three- to four-hour window, you get the lowest utility rate possible,” she says. “Economically, it works for customers.”

“This teamwork has resulted in a global racing platform using a common Focus body and a safety cage built to FIA regulations – a competitive platform that can be tailored for regional competition, based on different rules,” said Jost Capito, director of Global Performance Vehicles and Motorsport Business Development.

“By leveraging our collective experience and Ford technology worldwide, this approach parallels our global dedication to the Focus production car and specifically its exciting performance derivative, the new Focus ST, to deliver a competitive race car that can be campaigned around the world.”

Based on the new Focus, the Race Car Concept has been upgraded with AST performance dampers, sport sway bars provided by Ford Racing and enormous, 320 mm front brakes, for extreme stopping power. Hoosier race tires wrap around the 18-inch Anthracite alloy wheels.

Inside, there’s a roll cage and a Recaro racing seat with a six-point safety harness, alongside a fire suppression system. The AIM MXL Pista dashboard has a digital layout and features, among other data, a tachometer, rev counter and gear position indicator.

From the floor of the 2010 LA Auto Show, Jonathan Szczupak of the North American Design Team, explained the rationale behind the design elements of the new Ford Focus Race Car Concept. To learn more about the new Ford Focus, visit: www.facebook.com/fordfocus

The Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker has teamed up with Bertram van Munster and Elise Doganieri, the creators of “The Amazing Race” to produce a five-week online reality show documenting a cross-country road rally to promote the 2012 Ford Focus, which is due for a March 2011 launch. With a timely start in the beginning of February, the “Focus Rally: America” will tape six teams racing across the nation in a rally that will feature weekly challenges, and the episodes will be streamed live from inside the participating cars on Hulu. The show will come to an end just as the 2012 Focus starts entering the North American showrooms.

Russell and Smith Ford

The march up to the March launch will also see Ford releasing webisodes on Hulu five times per week. The automaker got the idea after the wide success of its Fiesta Movement, and is definitely looking for candidates with some impressive personalities and social networking skills. It has opened online applications and videos from interested individuals and live auditions will be held in 11 cities.

The winner among the six teams of two people will bag a $100,000 prize, and fans and supporters of the winning teams will be gifted with 10 new Focuses. Supporters can egg on their favorite teams along the way and send messages to assist them. This one seems to be an interesting race to look forward to.

The first global high-performance Ford model – the powerful new Ford Focus ST – was revealed by Alan Mulally, Ford President and CEO, and Stephen Odell, Ford of Europe Chairman and CEO, at the 2010 Paris Motor Show. This range-topping Focus will be true to the Ford ST model heritage, offering driving performance and handling and muscular sports design.

[flgallery id=9 /]

One common Focus ST model is being developed for all global markets, with the vehicle targeted for launch during 2012. This will be the first time that Ford has produced one of its highly regarded high-performance models for a global audience.

The Focus ST development program is being undertaken by the global Ford Performance Vehicles group, which comprises Team RS (Europe) and SVT (USA) engineers. The global group is responsible for developing and tuning products like the formidable Focus RS, Shelby GT500 and F-150 SVT Raptor.

For new Focus ST the development is being led by Team RS performance specialists based in Europe, building on their extensive experience in engineering sought-after cars like the previous ST models and legendary RS series.

At the heart of the appeal of the next-generation Focus ST is a high-output derivative of the efficient and advanced new 2.0-liter Ford EcoBoost™ four-cylinder engine that is projected to produce more than 240 horsepower. Compared to the 2.0-liter Ford EcoBoost engine used in other Ford vehicles, the version for the ST will feature re-designed intake and exhaust systems and a unique engine calibration to deliver the desired level of power and responsiveness. The engine will retain the strong torque delivery which is a feature of Ford EcoBoost designs, with a broad, flat torque curve.

The transmission for the Focus ST is a 6-speed manual gearbox, optimized with sporting ratios, carefully matched to the performance characteristics of the engine.

Compared to the standard Focus, the ST model will feature a comprehensive range of enhancements including a lowered chassis, a different variable ratio steering system, high performance brakes and unique suspension tuning that will enable the vehicle to deliver the acclaimed ST handling agility and poise.

Focus ST drivers will also be able to take advantage of the unprecedented level of smart new technologies incorporated in the latest Ford global C-car platform, including advanced new driver assistance, powertrain, chassis and active safety features.

Many of these features, such as the advanced new Torque Vectoring Control system – which acts like a torque vectoring differential to enhance cornering stability and agility – have a direct impact on improving driving quality to an even higher level.

The new Focus ST features a highly distinctive sports exterior, providing significant functional and aerodynamic benefits and clearly differentiating the ST derivative from other models in the new Focus family.

While sharing the already sleek and dynamic profile of the new Focus five-door, the ST features unique front- and rear-end designs, together with muscular extended rocker panels and striking new alloy wheels based on the classic Y-spoke ST pattern.

The performance theme from the exterior is echoed inside the car, with a very bold high-contrast sports cockpit featuring Recaro seats, unique instrumentation and modern, highly technical finishes.

Throughout the cabin, unique details ensure that the Focus ST clearly signals its sporting intent. Three additional gauges for turbo boost, oil pressure and oil temperature are housed in a dedicated binnacle on the upper instrument panel; the instrument cluster features unique ST sports graphics with red needle pointers; and the center console has a technical carbon-effect finish.

Each of the five Focus RS Le Mans Classic vehicles will be finished in the colours of one of the Ford cars which made 24 Hours history for Ford. During the event itself, they will even carry the race number of the cars to which they’re paying tribute:

Russell and Smith Ford

The remade Taurus has emerged as a flagship for the Dearborn automaker, restoring luster to a nameplate that had become synonymous with “rental car,” and helping to revive an automaker that had become dependent on trucks and sport utility vehicles.

It is a prime example of Ford’s strategy to build sales volume by using the same basic underpinnings for a lineup of vehicles, each with its own identity. The Lincoln MKS sedan and MKT crossover, the Ford Flex, even the redesigned Explorer, all share the D-size Taurus platform. As a result the signature Taurus doesn’t need to be high-priced or high-volume to make its business case.

A year after its introduction, analysts think the car is pulling its weight.

“Taurus is part of the engine driving Ford’s renaissance,” said James Bell, executive market analyst for Kelley Blue Book in Irvine, Calif.

Ford is now the top brand on buyers’ consideration list, KBB surveys show, and the Taurus is the best resale-value sedan. Ford says the resale value has increased 39 percent over the 2009 model.

The case to revive the Taurus factors in volume from sister vehicles that allowed Ford to set and reach modest volume goals for the Taurus, said analyst Jim Hall of 2953 Analytics in Birmingham.

Even though Ford has only sold 41,400 Tauruses through July, the Flex, MKT and MKS add another 36,100.

“Taurus volume was central to our D-size platform and it is the biggest piece,” said Pete Reyes, Taurus’ chief engineer.

Hall said by adopting that strategy, “the financial planning volume goals were probably met,” and Ford added other vehicles to share engineering, parts and plant capacity.

“Even if the Taurus is not a star, it doesn’t matter,” said analyst Joe Phillippi of AutoTrends Consulting Inc. in Short Hills, N.J. “Take a $28,000 car and turn it into a $42,000 Lincoln MKT. That’s good business. There’s a lot of margin in that.”

‘Design set it apart’

The Taurus itself appears to be netting a nice profit.

The average selling price exceeds $30,000, said marketing manager Amy Marentic.

Buyers, she said, are opting for higher trim levels and more features.

The car is selling well with little marketing support, due in part to the strength of Taurus’ 96 percent name recognition.

It’s attracting younger buyers. The average buyer is 57, seven years younger than a year ago, Marentic said. And the Taurus has captured 18 percent of the full-size car segment through July, according to WardsAuto.com.

But today’s sales pale in comparison with the original Taurus, which debuted in 1985.

It created a sensation with its aerodynamic jellybean shape and quickly became the top-selling midsize car.

“Its design set it apart,” Reyes said. “You didn’t see anything like it on the road.”

In those days, small cars were shrunken versions of boxy Crown Victorias, lacking strength and elegance.

“Cars got uglier as they got smaller,” Reyes said. The Taurus found its proportion and set a tone for American design.

Taurus sales peaked at close to 410,000 in 1992. But when SUVs took off, the Taurus suffered from a lack of updates.

“There was an incredible investment in trucks, and cars just didn’t get the money,” Reyes said.

‘More time in studio’

To keep plants in Chicago and Atlanta running, Ford pushed Taurus volume. But “there was no innovation, no reason to own a Taurus except that it was a good deal,” Bell said.

Many ended up in rental car fleets, and the Taurus was discontinued as a midsize sedan in 2007.

When Alan Mulally — a non-car exec — became Ford CEO in 2006, he asked what had happened to the Taurus name.

By then, the Ford Fusion was competing well against other midsize cars, but the Five Hundred, an oddly proportioned full-size sedan introduced in 2004, had failed to catch on.

Ford upgraded the Five Hundred and relaunched it with the Taurus name for the 2008 model year, while work continued on giving the new 2010 Taurus more style and power.

“We made the decision to spend more time in the studio, a year instead of six or eight months, to get the personality and lines of the car,” Reyes said.

To stay on track, engineering time was cut by four months. Reyes’ team made a single clay model. At one point it was in the wind tunnel with engineers adding and removing clay as aerodynamic data was gathered.

‘It caught me off guard’

Ford also decided to bring back the SHO, a performance version of the Taurus that was sold from 1989-99.

“It was an important part of the 2010 launch,” Marentic said.

Ford expected the SHO to be 11 percent to 15 percent of Taurus sales.

The “boulevard sledgehammer” has been running about 20 percent and is good for Taurus sales as a whole, Reyes said.

It hooked Darrell Stamper of Allen Park.

“I didn’t see myself as much of a Taurus guy. I saw it as an older guy’s car, a grandpa car,” said the 37-year-old firefighter.

But the family man needed to replace his pickup. He sat in a 2010 Taurus SHO.

“It caught me off guard. It’s the nicest car I’ve ever had.”

Ford insists it won’t let the current Taurus grow stale.

“It is important it continue to stay fresh,” Marentic said, in a segment where the newest car wins.

apriddle@detnews.com (313) 222 – 2504

From The Detroit News: http://www.detnews.com/article/20100816/AUTO01/8160336/1148/auto01/Taurus-a-blueprint-for-Ford-s-success#ixzz0x1OcXWaC

From The Detroit News: http://www.detnews.com/article/20100816/AUTO01/8160336/1148/auto01/Taurus-a-blueprint-for-Ford-s-success#ixzz0x1OItBY3

The limited-edition Ford Focus RS500 which is faster and more meaner than the previous version will hit its debut at the coming Leipzig Motor Show. With its larger air-to-air inter-cooler, upgraded software and a bigger exhaust it has gained a 15% increase in power. This road beast now has a 350HP can run from 0-60 MPH in just 5.6 secs. It’s really unfortunate for the US drivers since it will not be offered in the States just like the original Ford Focus model.

Visit a Houston Ford Dealership for a low price quote.