2004 Ford Thunderbird Pacific Coast Roadster~mint Green~#0878~low Miles~superb! on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Junkyard Gem: 1993 Mercury Topaz GS Sedan

As long as the Mercury brand existed — a period spanning the 1939 through 2011 model years — nearly every Mercury sold in the United States was more or less a redecorated Ford model. The Torino had its Montego sibling, the Crown Victoria had the Grand Marquis, the Cougar was based on everything from the Mustang to the Mondeo, and so on. Naturally, when the folks in Dearborn developed the Ford Tempo compact, a Mercury version had to be created. This was the Topaz, with the official launch of both cars taking place on the deck of the aircraft carrier often referred to as the USS Decrepit. You can't make this stuff up! The Tempo/Topaz, also known as the Tempaz, has largely faded from our collective automotive memory by now, since it broke no significant new engineering or styling ground (this story would be much different if Ford had only put the amazing straight-eight "T-Drive" Tempaz powertrain into production) and didn't have any endearing features other than being a cheap domestic competitor to the Toyota Corolla and Nissan Sentra. Still, close to 3 million Tempazes left North American Ford and Lincoln-Mercury showrooms during the 1984-1994 period. As you'd expect, most of these disposable cars disappeared from both the street and the car graveyard long ago. It takes a very special Tempaz for me to break out my camera while I'm patrolling my local wrecking yards; generally, this means an ultra-rare all-wheel-drive version or at least a very early model in super-clean condition. Today's Junkyard Gem is neither, but I took one look at this spectacular Bordello Red crypto-velour-and-slippery-plastic interior and recognized that this was no ordinary junkyard Mercury. It appears that Mercury had dropped the idea of clever names for base-grade seat fabrics by the time of the Topaz, referring to this stuff as just "cloth" in all the brochures I could find. That's too bad, because Mercurys had cool names for upholstery (e.g., Chromatex) in the old days. The interior is in very good condition but the steering wheel shows substantial wear, so I think this is a high-mile Topaz that got meticulous care from its owner or owners. Ford used five-digit odometers on these cars until the end of production, however, so we'll never know if this reading indicates 65,404 miles or 365,404 miles. The body is very straight, but there's some nasty corrosion behind the right front wheelwell.

Ford Gets The Aluminum F-150 Ready For Prime Time

Russell Barnett, a Ford dealer in Tennessee, is ready for aluminum. Ford is using the metal almost exclusively in body of the 2015 version of its best-selling F-150 pickup, which starts arriving at dealerships next month. Barnett is already answering customers' questions about the truck. And he's updated his repair shop not only for the F-150, but in anticipation that other Ford brands such as the Mustang will eventually make the switch from steel. But, just in case, he ordered some extra steel-bodied 2014 pickups. "There will be some people who won't want to change for a while," says Barnett, who says pickups make up around half of the annual sales at his dealership in rural Winchester. Ford is doubling down on aluminum, which is lighter - and more expensive - than steel but just as tough. The new truck is the company's response to customers' requests for a more fuel-efficient and nimbler pickup. Fordhopes the advantages outweigh customer doubts about the durability of aluminum or potential repair costs for the pricier metal. It's a big risk. So far this year, one out of every three vehicles Ford sold in the U.S. was an F-Series pickup. Morgan Stanley estimates F-Series trucks account for 90 percent of Ford's global automotive profit. On Tuesday, it kicked off production of the new truck at its Dearborn Truck Plant, four miles from the company's headquarters. "Yeah, this is a risk, but it's one well worth taking." said Bill Ford, the company's executive chairman, as he stood alongside the assembly line. "For our customer, this is a big, big leap forward." The trucks have been the best-selling vehicles in the U.S. for 32 straight years; last year, Ford sold nearly 100,000 more full-size pickups than General Motors. Aluminum isn't new to the auto industry, but this is the first time it will cover the entire body of such a high-volume vehicle. Ford made 647,697 F-150 pickups at its two U.S. plants last year; that's one every 49 seconds. If Ford's bet pays off, it could pad its lead in the lucrative truck market. More importantly, aluminum "future proofs" the truck - and the company - in an era of rising fuel economy standards, says Karl Brauer, a senior analyst with Kelley Blue Book. Ford will announce the truck's fuel economy figures later this month. That could determine if it steals customers away from the Silverado or Ram. Truck buyers are among the most loyal in the auto market.

BMW, Hyundai score big in JD Power's first Tech Experience Index

While automakers are quick to brag about winning a JD Power Initial Quality Study award, the reality, as we've pointed out before, is that these ratings are somewhat misleading, since IQS doesn't necessarily distinguish genuine quality issues. JD Power's new Tech Experience Index aims to solve that problem. The new metric takes the same 90-day approach as IQS but focuses exclusively on technology – collision protection, comfort and convenience, driving assistance, entertainment and connectivity, navigation, and smartphone mirroring. It splits the industry up into just seven segments, based loosely on size, which is why the Chevrolet Camaro is in the same division (mid-size) as Kia Sorento and the Mercedes-Benz GLE-Class is in the same segment as the Hyundai Genesis (mid-size premium). It makes for some screwy bedfellows, to be sure. Still, splitting tech experience away from initial quality should allow customers to make more informed and intelligent decisions when buying new vehicles. In the inaugural study, respondents listed BMW and Hyundai as the big winners, with two segment awards – the 2 Series for small premium and the 4 Series for compact premium, and the Genesis for mid-size premium and Tucson for small segment. The Chevrolet Camaro (midsize), Kia Forte (compact), and Nissan Maxima (large) scored individual wins. Ford also had a surprising hit with the Lincoln MKC, which ranked third in the compact premium segment behind the 4 Series and Lexus IS. This is a coup for the Blue Oval, whose woeful MyFord Touch systems made the brand a victim of the IQS' flaws in the early 2010s. But Ford and other automakers might not want to celebrate just yet. According to JD Power, there's still a lot of room for improvement – navigation systems were the lowest-rated piece of tech in the study. Instead, customers repeatedly saluted collision-avoidance and safety systems, giving the category the best marks of the study and listing blind-spot monitoring and backup cameras as two must-have features – 96 percent of respondents said they wanted those two systems in their next vehicle. But this isn't really a surprise. Implementation of safety systems from brand to brand is similar, and they don't require any input from users, unlike navigation and infotainment systems which are frustratingly deep.