Ford is rather proud of its new SYNC system, and will be making it standard equipment on all 2013 Ford Fusion and Ford Flex models, the American automaker announced. Their MyFordTouch system will only be seen on upper trim levels however.

Surprisingly the 2013 model year of the Fusion and Flex will be the first time ever Ford has made their SYNC standard equipment. Since its introduction in 2007, Ford has installed SYNC in over four million vehicles. Now that it has become standard fare in the Fusion and Flex, Ford expects to add another nine million vehicles on the road with SYNC over the next three years.

“ Ford SYNC technology has led the industry in transforming the way we connect to our cars,” said Dave Mondragon, Ford general marketing manager. “SYNC has enabled Ford drivers to take advantage of the latest communication and entertainment technology with an easily upgradeable architecture that is friendly to use.”

GALLERY: 2013 Ford Fusion

GALLERY: 2013 Ford Flex

Setting the new standard in the mid-size family sedan category, Ford will unveil its all-new 2013 Fusion today at the Detroit Auto Show. Unequivocally good looking and perhaps even downright sexy, the new Fusion will be available with five different powertrains, and Ford claims the car will get best-in-class fuel economy in the gas, hybrid and plug-in hybrid segments.

Starting with three gas powertrains, the Fusion can be had with a 2.5-liter 4-cylinder with 170 hp and 170 lb-ft of torque as a low cost entry-level model. Nearly identical in power is a 1.6-liter EcoBoost 4-cylinder with direct-injection and turbocharging that gets a non-hybrid class-leading 26 mpg city and 37 mpg highway. In fact, that number is actually higher than the quasi-hybrid Chevy Malibu Eco.

Finally, in the gas-only department anyway, there will be an EcoBoost 2.o-liter 4-cylinder as a performance option making 237 hp and 250 lb-ft of torque – with AWD optional.

The new Fusion Hybrid will deliver 44 mpg city and 47 mpg highway to top the Camry by a significant margin, while the Fusion Energi plug-in hybrid is projected to get 100 mpge – better than even the Chevy Volt.

Along with technologies like SYNC and the latest edition of the MyFord Touch telematics system the new Fusion will also offer plenty of other safety and convenience technologies, including some that are segment exclusives like a new Lane Keeping System. A first in the mid-size sedan class, a camera that reads the road ahead will then signal an alert if the driver isn’t staying in his or her lane. If no corrective behavior is taken the system will then vibrate the steering wheel and finally, if no action is taken, the car will actually adjust the steering in order to return the car to its proper lane.

Other features include adaptive cruise control, a blind-spot monitoring system and Ford’s active park assist.

GALLERY: 2013 Ford Fusion

See AutoGuide’s complete 2012 Detroit Auto Show Coverage Here

Ford is taking a clever approach to virtually revealing the new 2013 Fusion sedan before its official debut at the upcoming 2012 Detroit Auto Show. Using an app, now available on Android and iOS systems for smartphones and tablets, is an augmented reality game app where users can virtually drive the new Fusion through a series of worlds that unlock to reveal the car.

Each track is loaded with video clips featuring insight on technology and design from key Fusion team members. A daily video clip will unlock more content to the app every day with demonstrations of key vehicle features on the new 2013 Fusion.

When the vehicle finally debuts at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show, users will be able to unlock access to the full image of the car. At that point, they will also be able to drive any of the four Fusions on the virtual track in addition to creating a custom image of the car to share via Facebook or Twitter.

The all-new Ford Fusion will also be the Official Car of the 2012 CES show.

Check out an app walkthrough video after the break.

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After encountering 30 incidents involving cracked wheel studs and steel wheels separating from the vehicles, Ford will be recalling 128,616 2010 and 2011 Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan sedans to fix the issue.

An investigation by NHTSA led to the recall, though no injuries have been reported. Ford will notify owners of the affected vehicles, inspect them at dealerships and replace any components free of charge. Check out the official article below the jump for more information.

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Ford is taking its engine downsizing strategy to extremes with the next-generation Fusion mid-size sedan, with plans to offer a 1.6-liter 4-cylinder version. That may sound unbelievably small, but the engine will get Ford’s EcoBoost technology with turbocharging and direct-injection and should deliver roughly 180-hp.

In addition, Ford will also offer a version of the 2.0-liter Ecoboost 4-cylinder that has just been introduced under the hood of the 2012 Explorer and 2012 Edge. In the Edge, that engine makes 247-hp and 270 lb-ft of torque, more than enough for any mid-size sedan.

In order to get the most fuel economy from this new model (which is expected to grow slightly from the current Fusion), the 2013 car is expected to get start-stop technology as well as grille shutters that close at speed to help improve aerodynamics.

Look for the 2013 Ford Fusion to bow at the Detroit Auto Show this January.

[Source: FordInsideNews]

Disregard the ads about the F-150 being the bestselling truck in 34 years: for only the second time in over a decade, Ford outsold crosstown rival GM overall, with 212, 295 vehicles, including some that aren’t pickups.

Ford last outsold GM in February of 2010, but only by 471 vehicles. This time, however, the margin was by 5,674 more vehicles. In 1998, GM fell to second thanks to a strike at supplier Delphi, which allowed Ford to beat them by 83,883 vehicles.

Many of those were fleet sales: a 29% increase there and a 50% increase in commercial sales. Crossovers saw the best increases by 30%, while cars like the Fusion increased 15%. The recently-released Fiesta reached 9,787 units sold, a 56% increase over the previous month. Ford is rather proud of these gains but would rather you not mention the 2% decrease in Lincoln sales, despite the manliness of spokesman John Slattery.

And maybe don’t disregard those F-150 ads just yet—despite crushing gas prices, most of Ford’s sales gains came from trucks, which increased by 21%. The more fuel-efficient V6 model made a bulk of these sales, in case you thought Americans had a propensity to act irrationally in the face of gas price fluctuations.

[Source: Automotive News]

NHTSA is beggining an investigation into the 2010 Ford Fusion, after recieving complaints of cracking wheel studs on the popular family sedan.

Over 280,000 vehicles may be affected by the problem. Wheel studs hold the wheel in place on the vehicle, and a failure could be catastrophic. Interestingly, NHTSA claimed that “Three complaint vehicles belong to the same 22-vehicle fleet but were assigned to different drivers who experienced the alleged defect on three separate occasions”, meaning the defect could be localized to a specific batch of cars.

NHTSA says that the vehicles in question all have fewer than 10,000 miles on them, and have never had the wheel studs or lug nuts serviced.

[Source: Automotive News]

There was a time when Ford cars regularly sold in excess of 200,000, units, heck the original Ford Taurus sold well over 300,000 per annum in the late ’80s. But times change.

Today, the best selling car in America struggles to sell 300,000 copies annually, but if anything, the T0yota Camry is consistent. It’s been the most popular car in the U.S. for years and with 296,581 delivered so far for 2010, it appears things aren’t likely to change soon. The Honda Accord is on track for the runner up spot with 253,073, while the Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic follow, with 244,024 and 231,955 units sold during the same period.

And what have you noticed from these stats? That’s right, all these cars are Japanese brand vehicles, what about the homegrown stuff that used to top the sales charts for years? Well, in recent years the big three have lost market share, particularly in the mid-size and compact car segments, however, that might be set to change. The Ford Fusion, revamped for 2010, posted a 21.5 percent gain in sales for November, versus a year earlier, making it the first car from Dearborn to top the ‘magic’ 200,000 sales mark since 2004.

Ford, on average, has been selling around 10,000 Fusions per month during 2010 which isn’t too shabby these days. Winning Motor Trend‘s 2010 ‘Car of the Year’ honor certainly hasn’t hurt either.

[Source: Ward's Auto]

Green Car Journal has announced its candidates for its Green Car Of The Year award, with the five car field being composed of some pretty serious competition,

Naturally, the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf are the leading contenders, with the Lincoln MKZ Hybrid, Hyundai Sonata Hybrid rounding out the field, and the Ford Fiesta being the sole nominee that runs solely on a gasoline engine and no electric components. Regardless, the Fiesta can still get 40 mpg on the highway, making it a worthy candidate.

The winner will be announced at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November

Hit the jump to see the official press release

[Source: Green Car Journal]

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