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Detroit 3 small cars lay an egg in latest Consumer Reports reliability study

Consumer Reports has released its Annual Auto Reliability Survey and the results are, in a word, interesting. While we already covered the score-damaging effects of infotainment systems, there's another big angle to the data that's getting some attention - the utterly dismal scores of the Detroit Three's small car offerings.
The turbocharged Dodge Dart and Chevrolet Cruze, as well as the Ford Fiesta were their respective brands' lowest-scoring models, a stat that's made worse by the fact that the American automakers finished 25th, 21st and 23rd, respectively.
That's not acceptable for The Detroit Free Press' auto critic, Mark Phelan, who has penned a scathing critique of the D3's small car reliability scores, arguing that GM, Ford and Chrysler are "out of excuses."

Barrett-Jackson 2014: First production 2015 Ford Mustang earns $300k for JDRF [w/video]

We've almost become immune to the huge dollar amounts that collectible cars earn for charity at Barrett-Jackson. To wit, $300,000 for the first production 2015 Ford Mustang initially didn't seem like very much money. In reality, though, it's probably about 10 times the actual asking price for the car, and we're pleased to report that 100 percent of the proceeds will go to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
According to Ford, the car's winning bidder will get to "choose a fastback with manual or automatic transmission, and any interior, exterior and stripe color combination offered by Ford on the all-new Mustang." Power will come from a slightly revised version of the well-known 5.0-liter V8 engine that will produce "more than 420hp and 396 pound-feet of torque."
We snapped live images of the 2015 Mustang prototype that Ford had on display here at Barrett-Jackson, and you can check them out above. The official auction description, along with a video of the auction as it happened live, is below.

2015 Ford F-150 brings big aluminum to the Rust Belt [w/video]

Just when you thought you'd figured the fullsize truck market out, Ford goes and throws us a massive curve ball with the 2015 F-150. The big headline news aren't tow or payload ratings, though we're sure those figures will be fully competitive if not class leading, they haven't yet been announced. Instead, the big headline news Ford is highlighting are the truck's new aluminum-intensive structure and 2.7-liter EcoBoost V6 engine.
And with good reason - all that aluminum means that Ford was able to cut a massive 700 pounds from the truck's curb weight. That is going to cause all sorts of great things to happen to the 2015 F-150's driving dynamics, performance and fuel efficiency, not to mention its ability to haul heavy loads. For those customers worried about the strength of aluminum versus the more conventional steel, Ford is quick to point out that many military vehicles, such as the HMMWV and Bradley Fighting Vehicle, use a very similar sort of aluminum alloy in their construction.
It's also worth mentioning that the backbone, a fully boxed ladder frame, is hewn from high-strength steel. Ford says "2015 Ford F-150 is the strongest and most durable F-150 ever," for what it's worth, claiming that "torture tested" in labs and in the real world for more than 10 million miles. What's more, the truck, in disguised form, completed all 883 miles of the Baja 1000.