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Just in time for the holidays, Snowkhana 3 is here

The gift list for the 12 Days of Christmas is frightfully heavy on birds, so surely no one will mind if we sub out the three French hens for Snowkhana 3. Ford of Europe is back with another stop-motion video that – like versions one and two – throws a 1:64-scale Ford Fiesta in Ken Block livery around a fabulous world of action figures and make believe. This year's video "drives rings around some of the biggest YouTube hits," so those of you who've lost years of your lives to the greatest distraction since the human navel can put your knowledge to use. For anyone else just catching up, we'll help you get rolling: the opening Snowkhana scene channels Stalking Cat. You'll find the rest of your holiday homework in the video.

2013 Ford Mustang V6

Secretary Trim, Evolved
There was a time not so long ago when opting for a base Ford Mustang meant getting little more than some sheetmetal, an anemic four-cylinder engine and what may very well have been the world's most disappointing automatic transmission. During the Fox Body years, Ford seemed hell-bent on living up to Carroll Shelby's derogatory description of the coupe as little more than a runabout for demure office assistants, and the result was a base model with fewer sporting intentions than a Dilbert day calendar.
Some 20 years later, hopping behind the wheel of an entry-level pony is an entirely different experience. With all of the menacing aesthetics of the brawnier GT, a well-equipped interior and a drivetrain that toes the line between efficiency and power better than few before it, the 2013 Ford Mustang V6 is an attractive option for buyers in the big coupe market. But is it attractive enough to forgo the beastly GT?

Ford 'working very hard' on F-150 hybrid

The lighter, aluminum-bodied 2015 Ford F-150 gets (at best) 26 miles per gallon. That's not bad for a truck that size – and we should always remember that improving gas guzzlers can make a big difference – but what if the popular truck came with a gas-electric hybrid powertrain? How efficient would that be? We heard Ford talking about such a vehicle last year, and now we learn that Ford is still "working very hard" to make a F-150 hybrid happen. You want details? Well, we all want details, but those will not be coming for quite some time. Last year, Ford's global product development chief, Raj Nair, said that the company was planning to have hybrid pickups and hybrid SUVs on sale by 2020. With fuel prices dropping, Nair is now saying that a hybrid F-150 makes more sense, financially, than a diesel, but Ford could make both options available, depending on customer demand. The diesel wouldn't require all that much work, Nair said, since "we've got diesels in the portfolio." To date, the only hybrid F-150s we've seen have been conversions, often PHEVs, like this example from HVET or this one from Quantum. Pickup trucks from other manufacturers haven't been greeted with huge sales numbers. General Motors stopped making its big two-mode hybrids and cancelled the next-gen program.