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Ford owns Automotive Loyalty Awards, Audi and Subaru are king of conquests

Customers are a commodity in the automotive industry, and like any other commodity, automakers trade them back and forth. Only nobody wants to give up their customers - just to keep the ones they have and try to attract others.
That's what the Polk Automotive Loyalty Awards are all about. Every year the industry research body names the automakers, brands and models that manage to keep their customers coming back for more - and attract buyers to switch from other makes. Ford usually does pretty well, but this year it rose above even its own track record.
Not only did Dearborn win the Overall Loyalty to Manufacturer award, but also the Overall Loyalty to Make. Ford also took the African American category, and the F-150 was named the top full-size half-ton pickup in customer loyalty. Ford COO Mark Fields (pictured above) accepted the awards and gave the keynote address at the awards ceremony.

Woman reunited with stolen Mustang after 28 years

An enthusiast Christmas story: Salinas, California resident Lynda Alsip bought a 1967 Ford Mustang in 1984 when she was 17 years old, having saved $800 after a summer of toil at a grocery store. She got a vanity plate that read "LYNDA67," for the year she was born, but she only got to enjoy the car for two years: in 1986, after a night out, someone stole it from her apartment complex. She hadn't seen it since. Then a man – another Salinas resident – tried to register the car at the DMV this year. He said he bought it as a project car in 1991, yet the DMV couldn't find any record of it. The DMV office sent the case of the untraceable car to the California Highway Patrol, where Officer Christopher Menchen dug into the records, and his search paid off. The officer located Alsip's stolen record report from 1986 and connected the Mustang to it's registered owner in 1986, who was Alsip's mother. The CHP found the forest green Mustang in the man's garage, and they figure it's been there since 1991. After waiting through the still-ongoing three-month investigation, the CHP reunited Alsip – now a wife and a mother of two – with her car on December 22. It's undriveable, but her original vanity plate is back on and she plans to restore it. The video above has the story. News Source: USA Today, NBC Bay Area Government/Legal Ford Coupe Classics Videos California stolen car 1967 ford mustang

Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell revisit bitter F1 rivalry in... Ford Fusion campaign?

Formula One World Champions Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell haven't been on good terms since the 1986 season, when Piquet joined Mansell at the Williams team and Piquet spent the year privately fuming about not being granted the status of number one driver. Things only got worse from there - even though Piquet won the title the following year with Williams, still partnered with Mansell, the fuming was a lot less private.
They're back together after a 25-year silence, in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil to drive the new Ford Fusion. Called "Fusion Grand Prix," both men get the new Ford sedan, prepped to their liking - but still street legal, we assume - for a race to decide... well, who is faster behind the wheel of a Fusion.
There will be four episodes, with the first two having already aired. The third episode comes on January 29 and the race happens February 5. You'll find two video episodes and a press release below, but note - because it's a campaign for Ford Brazil, Piquet's dialogue in the vids isn't translated, so hit the Closed Captioning button to hear his side of the smack talking.