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Ford announces four recalls, 1.4M vehicles affected

Ford is taking a bit of the spotlight away from General Motors, announcing a major group of recall campaigns, covering a total of 1.4 million vehicles built between 2006 and 2013.
Let's start with the big one, which covers the Ford Escape, Mercury Mariner and, according to The Detroit News, Ford-built Mazda Tribute CUVs. 915,216 vehicles are covered, all of which were built in model years 2008 to 2011. 736,000 vehicles are in the US, while Canada then Mexico make up the vast majority of the remainder. The problem is due to an issue with the torque sensor in the steering column, which could lead to sudden power steering failure. Manual steering would still be available, though.
"Dealers will perform one of three service fixes, depending upon what diagnostic codes are shown when the vehicle is taken to the dealer," Ford spokeswoman Kelli Felker wrote to Autoblog in an email. "They will either update software for the power steering control module and the instrument cluster module; replace the torque sensor; or replace the steering column, which includes upgraded power steering control module software."

Woman trades 1914 Model T in for 2013 Corvette

We're sure that dealers must see all sorts of interesting trade ins, but this one may take the cake. Red River Chevrolet in Bossier City, Louisiana, recently had a customer come in with an odd request. Tina Boyter wanted to trade in three vehicles on a brand-new 2013 Chevy Corvette. Among the hardware was 1980 Corvette, a 1978 Cadillac Eldorado and a 1914 Ford Model T. While the '80 Corvette had been her personal car for years, the '78 Eldorado had belonged to Boyter's mother before she traded up to a Lincoln. The big Caddy had just 10,290 miles on the clock when it was traded in.
And the Model T? Boyter says the car was built as a racer by Ford, and that it had been a show winner for years when it belonged to her father. But, after spending the last 16 years in a museum with its fluids drained, Boyter decided it was time to shed some of the past. She walked into the dealer, laid eyes on a white 2LT Corvette with a red interior and offered to trade all three of the vehicles in on the sports car.
Why not wait for the C7? "I fell in love with that one when I walked in the door," She said. We can't fault her there.

Ford Mondeo with 1.5-liter EcoBoost debuts in China

Does the car above, posing fancifully in white, look familiar? Well, it should. Although it wears Mondeo badges in the form you see above for the Chinese market - as it does in Europe - the car is basically the same thing sold in the US as the Ford Fusion. Of course, it's what's under that shapely skin that counts.
Ford has chosen the Shanghai Motor Show as the venue with which to unveil its 1.5-liter EcoBoost four-cylinder engine. We'd heard about the engine before, but now we have a few performance estimates to share: 133 kW of power (about 178 horsepower) and 240 Nm of torque (about 177 pound-feet).
Those numbers pretty much confirm previous rumors indicating about 177 in each category, and it's right on par with what Ford's own 1.6-liter EcoBoost produces. Ford is claiming best-in-class fuel economy as well, but no specific figures have yet been provided. In any case, we'll surely have all the data soon enough, as the 1.5-liter mill is destined for the US Fusion in 2014.