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Ford Fusion Wins Motor Trend Car of the Year Award!

For the first time ever, Motor Trend announced the winner of its annual Car of the Year award this afternoon live via webcast. Though the field of 23 contenders was highly competitive this year (follow the jump for a complete list), we guessed immediately that the winner was a Ford as soon as the webcast came online. How'd we know? The fact they were broadcasting the announcement from Ford World Headquarters in Detroit was a not-so-subtle clue. The Fusion, Taurus and Mustang were all in the running, but it was Ford's redesigned mid-size sedan, the Fusion, that took home the coveted Golden Calipers.

In retrospect, the choice is a solid one and not all that surprising. The Fusion was extensively reworked for the 2010 model year and features a new exterior design, new models and new powertrains. Ford offers a four-cylinder model, two strong V6 options and a full-on parallel hybrid variant, which means buyers should have no trouble finding a Fusion that fits their needs. And indeed they have, as the Fusion has already broken its own yearly sales record - with two months left to go.

Like MT, we're big fans of the Fusion here at Autoblog, and even have high hopes that one day it could be the domestic car that knocks the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord from atop their perches as the best selling cars in the States. That said, this Ford still has a long way to go. Toyota has sold nearly twice as many Camry models as the Fusion so far this year, and the Accord and Nissan Altima are still flashing their taillights at Ford's CoTY winner. It's not just demand, as Ford doesn't even have the production capacity at the moment to match Camry sales, and it doesn't help that the Mercury Milan siphons off a few potential Fusion customers, as well.

Nevertheless, this is less about what the Fusion could be in the future than what it is today: the 2010 Motor Trend Car of the Year. Congrats to Ford and the Fusion team.

Source: http://www.autoblog.com/2009/11/17/ford-fusion-car-of-the-year-motor-trend/
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2011 Ford F-Series Super Duty Gets New PowerStroke Diesel

Date posted: 08-31-2009

DEARBORN, Michigan - Ford Motor said its new 6.7-liter PowerStroke diesel will be installed in the 2011 Ford F-Series Super Duty truck that goes on sale next year. The V8 turbodiesel, engineered in-house at Ford under the code name Scorpion, is larger, more powerful, cleaner and more frugal than the Navistar-sourced 6.4-liter V8 turbodiesel that's currently offered in the 2010 Super Duty.

The current 6.4-liter V8 PowerStroke is twin-turbocharged and delivers 350 horsepower and 650 pound-feet of torque.

Designed with an iron block and aluminum cylinder heads, the new 6.7-liter V8 PowerStroke uses a single turbocharger. Ford has not released official output and torque figures, but said the new engine will exceed the current one in both departments.

Ford also said the 6.7 PowerStroke is designed to run on a mixture of standard diesel and up to 20 percent biodiesel (B20).

In order to meet stringent new emissions standards next year, the new engine features a sophisticated after-treatment system to reduce soot and oxides of nitrogen. The three-stage system includes a diesel oxidation catalyst, a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system that employs urea injection (similar to Daimler's Bluetec) and a diesel particulate filter.

Inside Line says: In an era of dwindling natural resources, where many customers are starting to think smaller, it is curious that Ford chose to make its next heavy-duty truck diesel larger and more powerful. It remains to be seen just how much cleaner and more efficient it will be. - Paul Lienert, Correspondent

News and Events

Ford Fusion Wins Motor Trend Car of the Year Award!
For the first time ever, Motor Trend announced the winner of its annual Car of the Year award this afternoon ...