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Ford trademarking 'Mach 1,' possibly for Mustang

A legendary name might be accompanying the redesigned, 2015 Mustang when it finally makes its world debut - Mach 1. Stumbled upon by the team at Ford Authority, the Mach 1 title was found in a trademark filing with the US Patent and Trademark Office, and would revive a name last used on the fourth-generation, 2003 Mustang.
While the the 2003 vintage was well and good, the Mach 1 is really remembered for a three-year run from 1969 to 1971 - it's best to just forget the emissions-choked 1972 to 1978 Mach 1s - when power output ranged from a modest 250 horsepower with the two-barrel, 351-cubic-inch Windsor V8 to "375 hp" (actual output was rumored to be well north of 400 horsepower) with the righteous, 429-cubic-inch Super Cobra Jet V8.
What does the title hold for the sixth-generation Mustang? It's tough to say. The fanatics at Ford Authority seem to think Mach 1 could take the place of the Shelby GT500 at the top of the Mustang hierarchy, which sounds like a valid argument. At the same time, we could see the SVT Cobra moniker returning for the flagship model, and the Mach 1 doing battle with the Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 (unless the Boss 302 were to return). Confounding things is the historical precedent - the Mach 1 was responsible for the death of the Mustang GT in 1969, so it might make sense as a volume performance model.

Junkyard Gem: 1991 Ford Festiva with 317K miles

Most cars that make it to astoundingly high mileage figures tend to fall into one of two categories: engineering masterpieces that ended up being hard to kill (and got a lifetime of at least the most important maintenance items) or machines that inspired unquestioning love from owners willing to keep opening their wallets for decades to keep them on the road. Today's Junkyard Gem falls into neither of those groups; it's a penny-pinching Ford Festiva, one of the cheapest cars available in its time … and yet it cracked the magical 300,000-mile mark before getting discarded. So, a total of 317,207.3 miles over its nearly 30 years on the road. We just saw a discarded 1989 Honda Civic with a mere 308,895 miles on the clock, and this Festiva comes close to topping this 1993 Honda Civic DX. The highest-mileage junkyard car I've ever found (keep in mind that most cars before the middle 1980s had 5-digit odometers, and most cars this century have unreadable-in-the-boneyard electronic odometers) is this 1987 Mercedes-Benz 190E with an amazing 601,173 miles. This Mercedes-Benz 300D came close, with 535,971 miles. Detroit went to six-digit odometers late in the game, but this 1986 Olds Calais reached 363,033 miles, and this Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor reached the 412,013-mile figure thanks to a second career as a taxi. A Festiva surpassing the 300k mark, though, is not something I ever expected to see. These cars were sold as cheap, no-frills transportation, period. The MSRP on a base-level Festiva started at $6,620 in 1991, or about $12,610 in 2020 bucks. Not many cars could squeeze under that price at that time; the Subaru Justy could be purchased for $5,995, the Hyundai Excel 3-door hatch cost $6,275, and the Yugo GV (yes, it could still be obtained new as late as 1991) had a hilarious $4,435 price tag. Even the lowly Geo Metro, Pontiac LeMans, and Toyota Tercel EZ cost more than this Festiva. Still, this car came with snazzy pinstripes, now faded to near-invisibility by the Colorado sun. You can see the cover plate in the spot where the air-conditioning button would have gone, had the original buyer of this car been willing to squander precious dollars on such frivolity. Five-speed manual transmission, naturally. You could get an automatic in the Festiva, but anyone willing to spend that kind of money on extras would have been able to afford a much nicer Tercel EZ.

Ford, Chrysler and Mazda expand scope of Takata airbag recalls

The scope of the Takata airbag inflator recall is ballooning once again across the United States. Where Honda has elected to take its driver-side airbag campaign nationwide, Chrysler Group and Ford have now announced expanded regional actions to cover some passenger-side airbag inflators. Mazda is adding more regions, as well. For Chrysler Group, the campaign covers the inflators on 149,150 examples of the 2003-model-year Ram 1500, 2500 and 3500 pickups. The recall is limited to vehicles sold or ever registered in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and the territories of American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, Saipan, and the Virgin Islands. The company will begin notifying affected customers on January 19. According to Chrysler's announcement of the action, the passenger side inflators in these trucks "are of a type that is not used in any of the other vehicles affected by Chrysler Group's regional field action." The automaker says that it's not aware of any actual failures or accidents in these pickups and even claims there are no "observed failures in laboratory testing of its airbag modules." The company is continuing to study the problem, though. Ford is taking a similar step by issuing a recall of inflators for 38,500 examples of the 2004-2005 Ranger and 2005-2006 Ford GT. The campaign only affects vehicles originally sold or ever registered in Florida, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. Certain zip codes of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Guam, Saipan and American Samoa are also covered. There's already precedent for passenger-side airbags to be covered under the Takata inflator recall. When many automakers announced campaigns in June, BMW, Chrysler, Ford, Honda, Mazda, Nissan and Toyota all included that side in some of their repairs. Subaru subsequently did, as well. In addition, Mazda is expanding the scope of its recall to add Florida, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Saipan, Guam, American Samoa, US Virgin Islands, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas to the affected areas. The company estimates that it has a total of 86,773 vehicles in need of repair. Mazda is also teaming with Toyota to begin independent testing of the Takata inflators. Scroll down to read all of the automakers' announcements of these newly expanded recalls. Statement: Air-Bag Inflators December 3, 2014 , Auburn Hills, Mich.