ford

It's probably not generally known to the allergy-free public, but we pollen sufferers have been known to stay in our cars for temporary relief. Why? Because it's as close to a controlled air system as we can get, next to a plastic bubble. So it's actually not so weird that a major automaker has created what it calls an allergy-free model, especially at the height of hay fever season.

With its "Mondeo," which is about to go on the European market, Ford claims to have accomplished this by "abolishing chrome and nickel from the … Read more

Following our round up of state-of-the-art car safety features, we're continuing our Car Tech safety kick with a roundup of the 18 vehicles that the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has chosen as its top safety picks.

The shortlist is pretty evenly split between American, European, and Asian manufacturers, with two entries each from Ford, Acura, Subaru, and Audi. Take a look at the gallery here.

Here's a story for you. I recently invested in a cell phone with a QWERTY keyboard, and one of the things I love about it most is that there's no more need for triple-tapping or that whole T9word thing. The thing I hated most about T9word was its tendency to say "car" instead of "bar" when I was trying to text my friends and say "We're at this bar..." (Yes, I know there's a "next" key. That's way too complicated after midnight.)

That was more or less … Read more

This month at CNET Car Tech we are focusing on all things green, so how opportune that Roush, the pimp-upper extraordinaire of Ford Mustangs and pickups, should choose today to unveil its latest creation: the propane-powered Ford F-150. The Roush F-150 LPI (the suffix stands for liquid propane injection) runs solely on propane and, according to its designers, delivers the same horsepower and torque as a regular gasoline-powered 5.4-liter V-8 F150 pickup.

While it uses the same engine platform and drive train as its petrol-burning siblings, the F-150 LPI is modified with dedicated propane fuel lines, fuel rail assembly, … Read more

Ford introduced three distinctly diverse limited-run 2008 models at the New York Auto show this week.

First in the lineup is the most powerful Mustang to date, the Shelby GT500KR. But if you need something larger to haul your Ponycar, consider the 2008 Ford F-150 Foose Edition, named for famed car designer and star of Overhaulin' Chip Foose.

Sporting a 450 HP, 5.4-liter supercharged V8 engine that delivers 500 pounds of torque, this is arguably the most powerful F-150 since the 2004 SVT Lightning. Rest assured it will get you to the construction site and back with time to … Read more

We've barely managed to get our breath back following our review of the 2007 Shelby GT500, and now Ford has unveiled a more powerful version of its resurrected muscle car. The 2008 Ford Shelby GT500KR (the last two letters stand for "King of the Road," in case you were wondering) will make its official debut at this week's New York auto show. The GT500KR will feature a tweaked version of the GT500's 5.4-liter supercharged V-8, capable of an estimated 540 horsepower.

According to Ford, the KR's advanced ignition timing, cold air intake system, … Read more

Fed up with the withering death-stares we were getting from other drivers on the streets of San Francisco, we decided to take our 2007 Ford Expedition review car somewhere more welcoming. We found exactly what we were looking for among the tractor trailers and disused warehouses of an industrial estate just south of the city. There, we could just sit with the Expedition's 5.4-liter V-8 idling away and feel right at home next to other pieces of mammoth machinery.

We did have a few more creature comforts than the other truckers around us, however. The Expedition comes with … Read more

Ford works hard to show that its new Ford Edge crossover is hip and cool by offering music video playlists each month from its Web site. Its initial offering includes: "Lived in Bars" by Cat Power, "Gold Lion" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, "Woman" by Wolfmother, and "How We Operate" by Gomez. That's a better playlist than anything I've seen on MTV in a long time, and there are no commercials (besides the Ford sponsorship intro). And I'm pleased at the decent selection of bands, which shows that Ford … Read more

As though Ford wanted its experimental Edge to rank high on Google's results for any alternative fuel car search, it unveiled a research version of its Edge that combines every hot new propulsion technology. First, this Edge is a hybrid because it uses electricity and hydrogen, which should please the mainstream clean-car crowd. Ford puts 'plug-in' into the car's power train tech, which should please the fanatical plug-in crowd that thinks current hybrids just aren't efficient enough. For the really forward-looking people who don't really need a production car on which to base their arguments, Ford … Read more