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Woman reunited with Ford Mustang stolen 28 years ago

Published December 23, 2014

FoxNews.com

 (David Royal - Monterey Herald)

A California woman just got the best Christmas present ever, and it was only 28 years late.

A forest green 1967 Ford Mustang stolen in 1986 was discovered by the Department of Motor Vehicles and returned to its rightful owner, Lynda Alsip. It was her first car, the Monterey County Herald reports.





"I never thought I would see it again," she told the Herald, standing in a Salinas tow yard next to her car. "It's like winning the lottery."

She bought the car for $800 in 1985 when she was 17 years old. About a year later, it was stolen outside her Salinas apartment complex.

Police say the vehicle was found at the Department of Motor Vehicles in Salinas in September when a man tried to register the car he had for 23 years. Authorities were investigating whether the man knew it was stolen.

"It had been out of the system for so long that it came back with no file," California Highway Patrol Officer Jaime Rios said. "The officer did some digging and found out the car was stolen in 1986 from Salinas."

Alsip, who now lives in the central California valley town of Hollister, plans to have some work done on the car then show off her original personalized license plate, "LYNDA67."


The Associated Press contributed to this report

Ford Explorer

Ford Explorer Marks 25 Years of Innovation with More Technology, New Engine, All-New Platinum Series - The new Explorer, revealed at the 2014 Los Angeles Auto Show, builds on the strength and leadership of Ford’s new vehicle lineup (read more) http://qoo.ly/4bfbd

Finally the Wait Is Over

The 2015 Ford Mustang started rolling into dealerships this September.  It could not have come soon enough.  It arrived in a variety of colors and options that will get every car enthusiast pumped.  But did we mention this is not only in the United States.  That’s right, this Mustang is an International sensation.

When the original review of the 1964½ Mustang was printed in Motor Trend, editors noted, "When Ford finally offers disc brakes and their independent rear suspension, it should really have a thoroughbred charger."  Well it took nine CEO’s and 50 years but after getting the independent rear suspension just right, it now has that thoroughbred charger.  All three engine models available for the 2015 Mustang will have at least 300 horsepower.  They are offering a V-6 base model, a turbocharged 2.3L model and the beefy 5.0L V-8.

This is also the first Mustang to have an Eco boost engine.  The Eco Boost is one of the greatest automotive coups in modern history, pairing the green “eco” name with a direct injection, turbocharged engine that creates incredible power.  

Reviews from test drives have been exciting.  They say it has a nicely balanced ride.   It’s quick and nimble and lots of fun on the freeway.  They also rave about the three driving modes that will tighten up the steering, adjust the throttle and transmission shift points to make the drive more exhilarating.

I can’t believe you are still reading this.  Get up and go test drive it today at Hixson Ford of Leesville 11981 Lake Charles Highway Leesville, LA or give us a call at 337-239-3434 today!

   

2015 Ford Mustang 50 Year Limited Edition

The Ford Mustang and its symbol is one of the most recognizable in the automobile marketplace.  This year marks a special installment as it marks the 50 year anniversary of the Mustang.  The original Mustang was introduced in April of 1964 as a mid-year introduction, but 1965 was the first full model year.  This marks a very big celebration for Ford.  This years’ installment is also going to be the first one marketed all over the world.

Ford plans to celebrate this momentous occasion by making 1,964 of the special 50 Year Mustangs.  The final one will be auctioned in September and all proceeds from that auction will go to the Edith and Benson Ford Heart & Vascular Institute.  This just shows how Ford is committed to giving back to the community and charities alike.  This will be done in Las Vegas at the Barrett Jackson Auto Auction September 25th through the 27th.  They are estimating a potential of over $250,000 in proceeds.  The winner will also get airfare, hotel accommodations and VIP passes to the Ford Eco Boost 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup in Miami on November 16th.

“Ford Mustang inspires passion like no other car,” said Raj Nair, Ford group vice president, Global Product Development. “The visceral look, sound and performance of Mustang resonates with people, even if they’ve never driven one. Mustang is definitely more than just a car – it is the heart and soul of Ford Motor Company.”

For more information on the entire 2015 lineup, come by today at Hixson Ford of Leesville at 11981 Lake Charles Highway in Leesville, Louisiana or give them a call at 337-239-3434 today!

2014 Ford C-MAX Hybrid Earns Top Safety Pick from Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

Source: Ford

• 2014 Ford C-MAX Hybrid named a Top Safety Pick by Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
• C-MAX Hybrid earned a rating of “good” in moderate overlap front, side, head restraint and seating tests
• C-MAX Hybrid safety features include standard multiple airbags, AdvanceTrac® with Roll Stability Control™ and antilock brakes

DEARBORN, Mich., Aug. 08, 2014 - The 2014 Ford C-MAX Hybrid has been named a Top Safety Pick by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety for the second consecutive year.

The organization performed multiple crash tests on C-MAX Hybrid, resulting in a “good” rating in side crash, roof strength, restraint and seating evaluations.

“Ford takes the safety of our customers very seriously,” said Steve Kenner, global director, Ford Automotive Safety Office. “We are proud C-MAX Hybrid has achieved a Top Safety Pick from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.”

Standard C-MAX Hybrid safety equipment includes MyKey®, AdvanceTrac® with Roll Stability Control™, driver and passenger airbags, front seat-mounted side-impact airbags, safety canopy system, SOS Post Crash Alert System™ and a tire pressure monitoring system.

Available driver-assist features include a rearview camera, active park assist, forward sensing system, reverse sensing system and rain-sensing wipers.

The 2014 C-MAX has best-in-class passenger volume with 99.7 cubic feet. It also has class-exclusive features such as SmartGauge® with EcoGuide, integrated blind spot mirrors, Active Grille Shutters, dual-zone automatic temperature control and Easy Fuel® capless fuel filler. Available class-exclusive features include leather-trimmed seats and a hands-free liftgate.

Ford Introduces Innovative Airbag Design on New 2015 Mustang

Source: Ford News Center

•     Ford is introducing an all-new inflatable airbag restraint design that provides the front seat passenger in a Ford Mustang with knee airbag protection while significantly reducing system size and weight, enabling a roomier interior for more comfort
•     Ford introduces the first passenger knee airbag system packaged inside the glove box door with 15 patents granted and more pending
•     All-new Mustang has twice as many airbags, twice as many peripheral crash sensors and additional pretensioning safety belt technology compared to the outgoing model

DEARBORN, Mich., June 19, 2014 - A new airbag design debuting on the 2015 Ford Mustang raises the bar for passenger safety by providing inflatable restraint protection in a smaller, lighter package that also enables a roomier interior for more comfort.

The new airbag will be introduced later this year as part of a standard comprehensive safety system that includes a more robust package of sensors, safety belt anchor pretensioners, improved exterior lighting and double the total number of airbags on the all-new Mustang.

In the initial application of this technology, an inflatable plastic bladder is integrated into the glove box door and provides front passenger knee protection similar to a conventional knee airbag mounted under the instrument panel. Other applications for this unique and patented technology – which allows airbags to be placed in new locations inside the vehicle and provides more freedom to vehicle designers – are being considered.

“We provide a high level of safety, quality and design for our customers and their passengers,” said Sean West, Ford restraints manager. “With this innovative airbag design, we have developed technology that provides protection for vehicle occupants while also reducing weight and enabling greater design flexibility.”

To make the new knee airbag possible, Ford engineers developed and tested innovative materials and construction techniques. Unlike a traditional fabric airbag, the new system consists of a pliable, injection-molded plastic bladder sandwiched between the inner and outer glove box door panels. After an applicable vehicle impact is detected by the crash sensor system and classified, an inflator fills the bladder, extending the entire glove box outer door panel toward the front passenger’s legs. Once deployed, the outer door helps to provide cushioning in a manner similar to a traditional knee airbag.

Since the glove box-integrated airbag extends straight out from the instrument panel, it doesn’t have to travel as far as a conventional airbag, which deploys toward the floor before curving upward. Since the glovebox door distributes the impact load over a larger area than a traditional airbag, it is able to operate at a lower inflation pressure.

The resulting design is 65 percent lighter with an inflator that is approximately 75 percent smaller than a conventional knee airbag inflator, while providing comparable protection to the passenger. The improved packaging of the system is more discreet, with no visible seams or airbag cover. This has given designers more flexibility to move the dashboard closer to the windshield, enhancing the feeling of roominess in the cabin.

In developing the new Mustang passenger knee airbag, Ford has been granted 15 U.S. patents already, with more patents filed.

The active glove box knee airbag is among a number of technology features on the all-new Mustang, including:

• Eight airbags, twice as many as the current model. Along with the glove box knee airbag for front passenger, the new Mustang fastback and convertible have driver and passenger front and seat-mounted side airbags, as well as a driver knee airbag. The fastback adds two side curtain airbags, while the convertible gets a seat-mounted head airbag on each side
• Additional crash sensors are located on the front, sides and center of the car to control the deployment of airbags and safety belt pretensioners. The new Mustang now has two front sensors – two per side – and a roll rate sensor in the restraint control module, all of which contribute to a more adaptive safety system to protect occupants in different types of crashes
• Also new to Mustang are safety belt pretensioners added to the belt anchor side that further tighten the belt around front seat occupants, keeping them in a more secure spot early in the event of a crash
• Tri-bar signature lighting and high-intensity-discharge headlamps for improved visibility of the road ahead during nighttime driving
•     Industry-exclusive Ford MyKey® allows parents to limit top speed and audio system volume, and to set limits to prevent the disabling of driver-assist features

Tri-bar signature lighting and high-intensity-discharge headlamps for improved visibility of the road ahead during nighttime driving

    Industry-exclusive Ford MyKey® allows parents to limit top speed and audio system volume, and to set limits to prevent the disabling of driver-assist features

A Complete U-Turn

The Head of Ford Retires, Having Rejuvenated the Carmaker

By BILL VLASICMAY 1, 2014

DEARBORN, Mich. — One of the first questions asked of Alan R. Mulally when he joined Ford Motor as its new chief executive in 2006 was what kind of car he drove.

His answer stunned an auditorium packed with Ford employees. “A Lexus,” he said. “It’s the finest car in the world.”

His praise of a car built by Toyota was shocking, but it delivered a clear message of how Mr. Mulally, an outsider who was recruited from Boeing, viewed the products made by Ford, which at the time was spiraling into a financial crisis and desperate for a savior.

It was that brutal honesty, along with Mr. Mulally’s vision, that would lay the foundation for a stunning turnaround.

On Thursday, Mr. Mulally stood at the front of the same auditorium and announced that he would retire as chief executive on July 1 and, as expected, be succeeded by the veteran Ford executive Mark Fields.

This time, instead of silence, he received a standing ovation. The company he is leaving, the Ford workers knew, has been transformed from an industry laggard into one of the most successful carmakers in the world.

As he leaves, Mr. Mulally is drawing comparisons with Lee Iacocca, the executive who resurrected Chrysler a generation ago.

“It is terribly exciting and also terribly satisfying,” Mr. Mulally, who is 68, said Thursday of his personal odyssey and the transition of power at Ford.

Mr. Mulally said he never doubted that Ford could thrive again, even when the company appeared headed for bankruptcy in 2009 along with its chief American rivals, General Motors and Chrysler.

“I knew we could do this,” he said in an interview. “Every week I got more and more confident, even through the toughest of times.”

Ford managed to avoid bankruptcy and the government bailouts that G.M. and Chrysler needed to survive.

From the day he arrived at Ford, he stressed that everything was up for review at the company, and set out to streamline it by selling off brands that diluted its resources, like Volvo and Jaguar, and closing down the struggling Mercury brand.

Alan Mulally, left, president and chief executive of Ford Motor, with Bill Ford Jr., the company’s executive chairman. Credit Carlos Osorio/Associated Press        

He made painful cuts to the work force, laying off thousands in 2007 and 2008, and closing plants that were no longer needed in the face of reduced demand.

At the same time, he encouraged executives to emulate leaner competitors like Toyota, adopting team-oriented procedures, and forced executives to put aside their internal rivalries. As employees warmed to his approach, improvements in the safety, styling and fuel efficiency of each new Ford model followed.

Now Ford is increasing its market share in North America, and expanding its presence in China and other regions where the company had trailed other automakers.

Last week, Ford reported net income of $989 million in the first quarter of this year — its 19th consecutive profitable quarter and further proof of the staying power of Mr. Mulally’s turnaround plan known as One Ford.

Auto analysts on Thursday cited Mr. Mulally’s influence on Ford, which previously had a rocky history with chief executives who were fired or replaced when the company stumbled.

“Whether anyone else could have created the level of change and delivered equally strong execution is immaterial,” said Stephanie Brinley, an analyst with the firm IHS Automotive. “He was the one to do it.”

During Mr. Mulally’s tenure, Ford vastly improved the quality of its passenger cars, particularly smaller models like the Fiesta and Focus. He also encouraged the company to take risks with its top-selling F-series pickup, which is being revamped this year with a lightweight, aluminum body.

While he retooled Ford on the inside, Mr. Mulally also restored its reputation among consumers and investors. In November 2006, shortly after taking over as chief executive, he made his boldest bet, by mortgaging most of the company’s assets — even the trademark on its logo — to secure $23.5 billion in loans. It would finance a drastic downsizing of its bloated North American manufacturing operations.

It led to a high point in his career. During congressional hearings in autumn 2008, he sat alongside the chief executives of G.M. and Chrysler in seeking emergency financial aid for the domestic auto industry. But after the first round of hearings, Mr. Mulally reversed course and told lawmakers that Ford would not need government help to fix the company.

“His leadership enabled Ford to avoid the bankruptcies that swallowed up and then spit out General Motors and Chrysler,” said Jack Nerad, an analyst with the auto research firm Kelley Blue Book.

Ford’s executive chairman, William C. Ford Jr., has often told how he recruited Mr. Mulally from the aviation industry by emphasizing Ford’s unique heritage and respected status among American auto companies.

But he still marvels at how Mr. Mulally’s brand of optimism and emphasis on teamwork healed the company founded by his great-grandfather, Henry Ford.

Mr. Mulally kissed the hood of a Ford concept car at a trade fair in Berlin. Credit Odd Andersen/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images        

“We are enormously grateful for everything Alan has done — not only for what he accomplished but how he did it with great style,” Mr. Ford said on Thursday.

Mr. Mulally’s retirement had been expected, although he had earlier said he would stay through the end of 2014.

Mr. Fields, who has worked for Ford for 25 years, was the logical choice to become the new chief executive because he had run the company’s core Americas division for seven years before being promoted to chief operating officer in 2012.

The company’s board did consider outside candidates for the job, as it did with Mr. Mulally. But the decision to promote from within was to preserve the culture Mr. Mulally created, rather than change it.

Despite his own record of success, Mr. Fields will be judged initially on how well he continues the One Ford approach he inherits from Mr. Mulally.

“When Alan came in he was really able to turbocharge how we looked at things globally,” Mr. Fields said Thursday. “We are still going to be judged by results.”

Ford does have challenges ahead. Sales in the United States fell slightly in April, and it has said that profits will be flat this year as it introduces new models.

Mr. Mulally said his last goal was to ensure a seamless transition and spread the word to dealers and investors that Ford’s future was in good hands.

He gave no indication what he might do after leaving Ford. He was a contender last year to become chief of Microsoft, but took himself out of the running before a selection was made.

“I want to focus on this orderly transition, but I also look forward to retirement and whatever that brings,” he said. “I love to serve, and I want to see what the opportunities are to do that.”

A version of this article appears in print on May 2, 2014, on page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: A Complete U-Turn. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe

FORD IS BUILDING ONE-OFF ’50 YEAR’ MUSTANG CONVERTIBLE TO FIGHT MS

By Peter Braun  —   May 9, 2014

Special Edition 2015 Ford Mustang 

 The 50th anniversary of the Mustang is a big deal, and in case you forgot that Ford wants to remind you. We have already covered the special anniversary edition of the 2015 Mustang that Ford will be releasing in the fall, called the ’50 Year’ edition. But now Ford will be building a special one-off convertible version of the 50 Year, and it is even for a good cause.

 This special edition 2015 Ford Mustang will be raffled off to benefit the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Like the hardtop special edition, the convertible will feature the 5.0-liter Coyote V8 with more than 420 horsepower and 390 pound-feet of torque.

 Also like hardtop, it will feature a whole series of special styling touches inspired by Mustangs of yore. The most noticeable of these distinctions will be chrome accents on the grille, emblem, and tail lamps. Like the first Mustang ever sold, this convertible will be painted in Wimbledon White.

 The interior also gets a workover, including two-tone leather and cashmere seats, and cashmere accent stitching throughout the interior. As you would expect with a prestige edition like this, there are also numerous GT 50 Years badges throughout the car.

 In the end, all of these changes are basically superficial. But the results do look awfully good. What’s more, it is hard to complain when the proceeds are going to a cause as worthy as finding a cure for Multiple Sclerosis.

 If you are interested in helping to fight this debilitating disease, or just want a – slim – chance to win a shiny new Mustang tickets are available for $20.00.


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