1965 Ford Galaxie 500 Xl Convertible 390 Big Block Runs Well on 2040-cars

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Best cars for snow and ice in 2023 and 2024

What's the best car for snow? The real answer is "the one with winter tires." What do we mean by that? You could have the finest, most advanced all-wheel-drive system or four-wheel drive in the world, but if you're running all-seasons (the spork of tires), your fancy four-wheeler won't matter much. The odds are, any vehicle on the road running good winter tires will probably perform adequately in slippery, slushy and/or snowy road conditions. (Here's a more complete explanation of why winter tires are totally worth it). In other words, you don't really need any of the cars on this list. With a set of winter tires, countless others will do the job, and even these will be at their best with proper rubber. You can find a variety of winter tires for your car here at Tire Rack. Keep in mind that you will need a full set of four snow tires for safety and performance, no matter what you're driving. The days of your dad putting just two snows on the family truckster to get it moving in a straight line are long gone. Don't get us wrong, getting a car that performs well in snow and ice is still a worthy criteria for car buyers. According to the U.S. Transportation Department, 70% of Americans live in places that get snow and ice. And much of the country has been blasted with arctic air for much of the new year. So let's look at the cars. First, we're highlighting choices for a variety of buyers and price points. Second, we're not just considering snow; we're considering general wintery conditions people will experience driving to work or school. As such, these are all choices with advanced all-wheel-drive systems, usually with "torque-vectoring" systems that not only automatically shunt power front and back, but side to side between the rear axles. Most have extra ground clearance for getting through deep snow, and we prefer those vehicles with more responsive steering, throttles and transmissions that provide a greater sense of vehicle control in slippery conditions.    Acura RDX Read our Acura RDX Review Acura's Super-Handling All-Wheel Drive system was one of the first to offer torque-vectoring, and besides often being touted for its ability to greatly enhanced dry-road handling, its benefits in the slick stuff can be profound. It's actually surprising that Acura hasn't leaned into this capability further by offering more rugged versions of its vehicles.

Ward's calls out Ford's EcoBoost engines for their crummy fuel economy

With a name like EcoBoost, one might expect Ford's line of turbocharged engines to be somewhat, um, economical. In other words, replacing displacement with a turbocharger is supposed to deliver better fuel economy. Based on the experience time and time again of multiple Autoblog editors, your author included, this is simply not the case. Now, Ward's is calling out the cruddy efficiency numbers of Ford's EcoBoost line of engines. The column dresses down not just the new 2.7-liter V6 of the 2015 F-150, but also the 2.3-liter of the Mustang, the 1.5-liter from the Fusion and the 3.2-liter PowerStroke diesel found in the Transit, while also explaining why just one Ford engine was named to Ward's 10 Best Engines list. In its testing of all four engines, Ward's editors never came even remotely close to matching the 2.7's claimed 26 miles per gallon (for two-wheel-drive models), with the truck's computer indicating between 17.6 and 19 mpg over a 250-odd-mile run. Calculating the fuel economy manually revealed an even more depressing 15.6 miles per gallon. Criticisms with the 2.3-liter four-cylinder focused on its strange soundtrack, although it was business as usual with the 1.5-liter and 3.2 diesel, with Ward's criticizing the fuel economy of both engines. The 1.5, which Ward's claims is sold as a hybrid alternative, failed to get over 30 miles per gallon, while the five-cylinder turbodiesel's figures couldn't stand up against FCA's 3.0-liter EcoDiesel. The entire column really is worth a read, especially if you were disappointed in Ward's decision to only salute Ford's three-cylinder EcoBoost while shunning the rest of the company's new turbocharged mills.

China-market Ford Edge spotted testing in Spain with a mystery wagon

There are a few threads to put together for this one. The U.S.-market Ford Edge and Lincoln Nautilus have been rumored to meet their ends during the 2023 model year; contract negotiations pointed to the Oakville Assembly Plant that that builds being converted to build five Ford electric vehicles in 2025. On top of that, we've heard years of rumors about a Ford Fusion Active wagon-esque product that would challenge the Subaru Outback and fill a perceived gap in the U.S. lineup. We're not sure what the Ford vehicles in the spy shots above are, nor were the spy photographers who caught them during hot weather testing in Spain. And we mean vehicles, plural, details like the side mirror attachment points, DRL signatures, rear bumpers and muffler orientations pointing to these being two products. Here are our guesses. One of them is almost certainly the new Ford Edge that will debut soon for the Chinese market (above and below). Motor1 saw that the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology published photos of that country's newest Edge in two configurations, a lesser trim that can seat five or seven, and a top trim that seats seven only. The camouflaged car in the gallery above with the mirrors that mount on the door would be the same vehicle. The headlights on the China-market Edge feature the same central, stacked DRLs instead of the single lower and side DRLs of the other vehicle. The taillights are temporary units, but they match the squared vertical design of the new crossover. And the rear bumper of the Chinese Edge features the same slanted cutout in the middle, and beneath that, the same enormous muffler on the driver's side of the car. Look more closely, and one can also spot the way the sheetmetal flicks up at the C-pillar then descends to the D-pillar. Engineers tried to hide it with camo, but it's there. Ford Authority believes the other vehicle, the one with the side mirrors mounted at the base of the A-pillar, could be a new Lincoln Nautilus. Ford's Changan Hangzhou plant in China builds the Edge and its sister Lincoln product for that market. Although both are presumed to be headed for the grave here, one is clearly carrying on over there, so there's no reason to believe the other wouldn't as well.       The big mystery is whether one of these is the Ford Fusion Active. Well, a bigger mystery would be to figure out if the Fusion Active is even a thing anymore, or if we — including Ford — collectively imagined it.