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George W. Bush's 2009 Ford F-150 fizzles with $300,000 bid at Barrett-Jackson [UPDATE: w/video]

Despite some truly impassioned pleading from Jay Leno himself - including calling on Arizona's notoriously Republican-rich voters to beat the $600,000 level set the last time Leno sold a vehicle for this particular charity... in California - bidding for George Bush's 2009 Ford F-150 pickup truck stalled at $300,000.
All proceeds will be sent to the Fisher House Foundation, so at least it's $300K going to a good cause. Feel free to check out the live image gallery above, which includes shots showing Leno's skills helming the auction, and read through the official auction description below.
*UPDATE: Video of the auction and Leno's prods to the crowd for more money can now be seen below.

2015 Ford F-150 configurator is ready to go to work

Ford is inching towards the on-sale date for the eagerly anticipated, aluminum F-150 pickup. While we're preparing to drive the new truck (expect our take on it sooner rather than later), the best-seller has reached another, albeit more minor, milestone as its online configurator has officially been switched on.
We took to Ford's consumer website to mess about with it and see just how ridiculous of a truck we can build. Among the fun things we discovered were these two nuggets - the most expensive truck we could configure was not the top-end Platinum model, but instead the King Ranch, which rang up at $65,955. The other exciting discovery? The new truck would be available in a questionable shade called Blue Jeans (shown above with the optional contrasting Caribou paint). Yep, Blue Jeans.
You can head over to Ford's consumer page and build your very own aluminum F-150 now. Take a look.

Ford recalls 1.48 million F-150s for transmission, plus other models

Weeks after recalling more than 800,000 F-Series pickup trucks for a fire risk, Ford has issued another separate recall for approximately 1.48 million 2011-2013 F-150s for a transmission fault. The six-speed automatics could unexpectedly downshift into first gear without warning. Ford and Lincoln tangentially issued much smaller recalls for the Mustang, Continental, Nautilus, and Navigator. According to Ford, some 2011-2013 model year F-150 pickups with six-speed automatic transmissions could "experience an intermittent loss of the transmission output speed sensor signal to the powertrain control module." This could potentially cause the trucks to temporarily downshift, which could be dangerous if it occurs while driving. Of the 1.48 million affected trucks, 1.26 million are in the U.S. while 221,000 are in Canada. Thus far, Ford knows of five reported accidents involving the issue. To remedy the problem, owners can take their trucks to dealers to update the power control module software. Ford also issued recalls for about 4,350 2019 Mustangs, Lincoln Nautiluses, and Lincoln Navigators in the U.S. and Canada due to a possible fault with the instrument clusters. Although there have been no reports of accidents, Ford says the instrument panel clusters assemblies might be blank or not turn out when the vehicle is started. Additionally, Ford issued a third recall for 28,200 2017-2019 Lincoln Continentals in the U.S. and Canada. Ford says silicon contamination might build up inside the door latch motor, causing it to malfunction. As a result, the door latch might not always fully engage, and the doors could possibly open unexpectedly. Despite no reports of accidents, Ford will remove and replace door latch assemblies on all doors for those affected by the defect. If any of these apply to a vehicle you own, contact Ford to discuss whether it is included in any of these recalls and have the vehicle checked out at a Ford dealership.