News & Reviews- Make: Ford

Consider me a concerned Mustang citizen, but when Ford first revealed photos of this generation pony car I wasn't quite sure what to think. Had they gone too far in an attempt to modernize their classic muscle car?

Like most everyone I've now seen more than my fair share of sixth-gen Mustangs in coupe and convertible body styles, base to Shelby trims, not to mention aftermarket sport-tuned versions, and even spent a week with a GT Convertible and another seven days with this Ecoboost Fastback. I took the time to wash and dry both by hand, the best way to get a feel for a vehicle's design details, and viewed each at length from almost every possible angle (although I still haven't had one on a hoist), and can now say that I'm fully onboard as far as styling goes.

Even this morning I was caught off guard as a Magnetic Grey GT Fastback pulled up into my sideview mirror, its road presence as catch-your-breath intimidating as any premium-badged supercar. The grille still Read Full Story

Many Canadians will remember 2015 as a down year, especially when it comes to the price of oil, our directly related sagging economy and concurrently plummeting dollar, yet the new reality of a devalued currency hasn't effected automotive sales one iota, at least in certain sectors. In fact, we've had our best year yet in the compact crossover SUV segment.

Of the 13 models currently sold in the mainstream volume branded compact CUV category, only five didn't experience best-ever sales. Sliding sales from some of these models might be easy to explain due to old designs that don't fully measure up anymore, such as the GMC Terrain, but while it lost ground the identically aged Chevrolet Equinox gained a few hundred sales over its 2014 tally, although didn't come close to its strongest calendar year. The aging Kia Sportage and mostly new Mitsubishi Outlander experienced similar results, gaining numbers in 2015 while not achieving best-ever results, leaving only that Terrain and this Read Full Story

If I were to ask, "What's your favourite performance brand?" which carmaker would first come to mind? A prerequisite for me is motorsport pedigree, a qualifier that certainly narrows the field. Better yet, a brand that's long been competitive in multiple disciplines, from grassroots to F1, not to mention endurance, rally, touring car, V8 supercar, Trans Am, drifting, drag racing, stock car, and others in between. No other name can lay greater claim to such diversity of racing series than Ford.

From the lowly Pinto-powered Formula Ford that raised many a would-be challenger up from go-karting into open wheeled single seaters, to blue-oval branded F1 engines, the great Michael Schumacher having piloted a Ford-powered Benetton B194-8 to his first championship in 1994, the Dearborn, MI automaker has long walked the "win on Sunday, sell on Monday" talk. Dodge might currently be missing from the NASCAR ranks, but can anyone imagine February at Daytona without a Ford on the grid? Ford Read Full Story

The commercial and consumer truck world is about as far away from motorsport as can be, unless we're talking the FIA sanctioned European Truck Racing Championship or South American Formula Truck series, both of which actually race big highway tractor trucks on twisting road courses, or closer to home, the Camping World Truck Series that runs as part of NASCAR, although those trucks, like the cars that run in the Sprint Cup Series, don't actually feature any real vehicles on Sunday that you can buy on Monday.

Still, there are some very important rules of the road that affect road vehicles as much as racers, if you want to win on the street or track you need to 1) add more power and 2) reduce weight. Of course there area other factors too, such as aerodynamic development plus chassis design and refinement, but for now we'll just focus on the two, while adding in fuel economy which allows fewer pit stops and ultimately a better chance of winning the race, thus leaving more coin Read Full Story

Ford has effectively modernized the Mustang with few naysayers complaining about going too far, its loyal fans made up of serious traditionalists that would take offense to their beloved pony car turning into a poor man's BMW 4 Series or worse, something along the lines of a Hyundai Genesis Coupe. These are both great cars in their own rights, but a Mustang, the pony car that started them all, should never bow down and change to meet the expectations of the import crowd.

The reality is a stunningly stylish muscle car that received its fair share of smiles and accompanying thumbs up during my weeklong drive, from folks who were more than just infants when the Mustang hit the road in 1964 (I was merely a year old and therefore don't remember the event very well), so it appears the blue oval gang got the redesign just right.

A reworked Shelby-style grille follows the car's sporting tradition, while a pair of narrow headlight clusters look anything but classic despite paying Read Full Story