2011 Ford F-250 Super Duty Lariat Crew Cab Pickup 4-door 6.2l on 2040-cars

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Ford will build Hackmobile out of Transit Connect Wagon

What you see in the above image is a rendering of the Hackmobile Transit Connect Wagon. What is that? It's a "mobile fabrication and hacking unit" that includes tools for metal- and woodworking, 3D and electronics fabrication, a three-axis CNC machine called "The Fabber," a video projector and screen, an air compressor, an 84x48-inch work surface that folds out like a Murphy bed and oh so much more. When not in use, all of the implements fold neatly into the back of Ford's award-winning van.
But perhaps the more important question is why is that? Because Make Magazine held an Ultimate Maker Vehicle Challenge in conjunction with Ford in which ten teams created were charged with creating "the ultimate Ford Transit Connect Wagon for the do-it-yourself enthusiast." Team Twin Cities Maker won the competition with the Hackmobile, and in addition to winning $10,000, Ford has declared it's actually going to build the thing - which is great, because if they can actually engineer a road-legal Hackmobile Transit Connect Wagon as envisioned, the inevitable A-Team movie reboot might need to think about including it.
Check out the video below for a cheeky walk-through of the Hackmobile, and get all the particulars in the press release below that.

Can an actual Ford F-150 ride on 4 Power Wheels F-150s?

A lot of kids are rough on their toys, especially when it comes to those made to be used outside, like a four-wheeled kid-size Power Wheels. Whether it's cruising through the sand box, carrying piles of rocks in the driveway or crashing around trees in the backyard, these motorized vehicles often take punishment from the moment the giftwrap comes off. The folks at Fisher-Price decided to give their latest F-150 Power Wheels a true torture test worse than any kid could have ever managed by setting a real 2015 Ford F-150 on top of four of them. Would the little toy trucks explode in a shower of plastic shards in a massive collapse, and if not, could they drive away afterwards? The latest F-150 might be 700 pounds lighter thanks to the switch to aluminum, but it's still a fullsize pickup. According to this clip, the truck weighs in at 4,120 pounds, which puts an average of 1,030 pounds on each of the toys. Check out the video above to see how the stunt goes, and click on the gallery below for some behind-the-scenes looks at the setup.

Ford made three big mistakes in calculating MPG for 2013 C-Max Hybrid

It's been a rough time for the official fuel economy figures for the Ford C-Max Hybrid. When the car was released in 2012, Ford made a huge deal about how it would beat the Toyota Prius V, which was rated at 42 combined miles per gallon, 44 city and 40 highway. The Ford? 47 mpg across the board. How did Ford come to this place, where its Prius-beater turned into an also-ran? Well, after hearing customer complaints and issuing a software update in mid-2013, then discovering a real problem with the numbers last fall and then making a big announcement last week that the fuel economy ratings of six different 2013 and 2014 model year vehicles would need to be lowered, the C-Max Hybrid has ended up at 40 combined, 42 city and 37 highway. In other words, the Prius trumps it, as daily drivers of those two vehicles have known for a long time. The changes will not only affect the window sticker, but also the effect that the C-Max Hybrid (and the five other Ford vehicles that had their fuel economy figures lowered last week) have on Ford's compliance with greenhouse gas and CAFE rules for model year 2013 and 2014. How did Ford come to this place, where its Prius-beater turned into an also-ran? There are two technical answers to that question, which we've got below, as well as some context for how Ford's mistakes will play out in the bigger world of green vehicles. Let's start with Ford's second error, which is easy to do since we documented it in detail last year (the first, needing to do a software update, was also covered). The basic gist is that Ford used the general label rule (completely legally) to test the Fusion Hybrid and use those numbers to figure out how efficient the C-Max Hybrid is. That turned out to be a mistake, since the two vehicles are different enough that their numbers were not comparable, despite having the same engine, transmission and test weight, as the rules require. You can read more details here. Ford's Said Deep admitted that the TRLHP issue is completely separate from the general label error from last year. Now let's move on to last week's announcement. What's interesting is that the new recalculation of the MPG numbers – downward, of course – was caused by a completely separate issue, something called the Total Road Load Horsepower (TRLHP). Ford's Said Deep admitted to AutoblogGreen that the TRLHP issue had nothing to do with the general label error from last year.