News & Reviews- Make: Ford

Let's be clear. Two things matter most with the majority of electric car buyers: range and price. If it can drive far enough on a single charge to be practical and doesn't cost too much more than a conventionally powered equivalent then some semblance of sales success will follow. Being that the latter situation hasn't fully materialized I probably should've mentioned a third criteria to electric vehicle success, government support. Everywhere that EVs are relatively plentiful you'll also find well-funded taxpayer programs, first to reduce the cost of initial purchase through rebate programs, and secondly to supply the necessary public charging stations to facilitate life with a plug-in vehicle. Until recently, the highest EV rebate payout in Canada was Quebec at $8,000, compared to $5,000 in BC and zero anywhere else, other than Ontario that now gives buyers of some electric cars, including Ford's Focus Electric, up to $14,000 back through various programs. We can discuss how fair it Read Full Story

If your business needs a new cargo van, Ford's full-size Transit is a good place to start your search.

The Transit 350 Diesel Van available for my weeklong test made the just noted term "full-size" seem understated, as it was a bit too big for my garage. I left it sitting on the long patch of gravel in front of my office when not in use, although it's sheer mass had me worried it would cave the side of an adjacent ditch in, and we'd walk out to find it lying on its side. Fortunately, my concerns weren't warranted.

It really wasn't parked for much of its short tenure anyway. As you can likely imagine, I had a number of mobile activities that required such a large, dry space, foreknowledge of such a useful appliance causing a preplanned agenda that could never be fulfilled in just seven days.

The Transit 350 Diesel had no problem accommodating our every wish, mind you. Our tester's massive passenger side-slider and tall 50/50-hinged rear doors provided access Read Full Story

You'd think for a car available non-stop since 1965 there'd be more than six generations to the legendary Mustang's credit, but Ford ran the first generation (the many iterations of which any genuine car enthusiast equally loves and lusts after) for eight years and made even better use of the 1979–1993 third-gen Fox bodied model. I don't think you'd get much argument from all but drag racing fans that the current rear independent suspension-enhanced sixth-gen model, available since 2015, is the best Mustang ever.

It takes little coaxing for me to accept a week in any of its trims, the first of this type being a 2015 Mustang GT Premium Convertible, which was followed by the new 2.3-litre turbo four-cylinder 2016 Ecoboost Fastback and a 2016 GT Convertible, the latter much like our most recent tester other than its eye-searing Triple Yellow paintjob.

Actually, this 2017 GT Convertible Premium is coated in the same Ruby Red exterior paintwork and its seats covered Read Full Story

F-150 buyers love their special editions, and I must admit the new 2017 Lariat Special Edition upgrade added to my SuperCrew 3.5 Ecoboost 4x4 tester is something I could definitely fall for as well.

This thing looks fabulous! I can't tell you how many rubbernecking stares I got while driving around town, and my neighbourhood is one of the rarer places to find pickup trucks, at least when it comes to those that live here. There are plenty of plain white work trucks with side signage scattered across the myriad building sites throughout my ever-burgeoning inner-city-like suburb, while the streets are literally littered with the bourgeois supercars of the nouveau ultra riche, from Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, McLaren, and the like. Strangely, cars like that are commonplace, but a truck like this totally stands out.

Lariat sits third amongst seven trims on the F-150 hierarchy, the others being XL, XLT, King Ranch, Platinum, Raptor, and Limited. We really should consider Read Full Story

You don't need to spend a lot of money to own a serious performance car. Volkswagen GTI and Honda Civic Si fans have known this for years, while more recently the same can be said of blue oval aficionados.

I'm not talking the cult of Mustang, but rather those who bow to the initials "ST". The original Focus ST dates back to the model's first-generation when it became Ford's VW GTI killer in 2005, but like so many fabulous cars offered in other markets it was never brought across the Atlantic to play in our sandbox. Sure we had the 2002–2004 SVT Focus with a significant 170 horsepower, but that was still 52 ponies shy of the KKK-Warner turbocharged Euro version, whereas the ST variant of the Focus ZX4 built from 2005–2007 hardly deserves mention due to just 151 horsepower.

We'd have to wait six years after ex-Boeing CEO Alan Mulally took the reigns in Dearborn for his "One Ford" strategy to be more fully implemented before the 2013 Focus ST made its U.S. Read Full Story