Tag: Ford

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New Ford Mondeo Release Date – Updated

New Ford Mondeo‘s release date is announced by Ford. Unfortunately, it will on 2014. Due to restructuring and cutting costs of Ford Europe, three production plants will be closed (Southampton, UK – Genk, Belgium  – Dagenham, UK). These closures unfortunately changed the plans of Ford and New Mondeo cannot be available before late 2014.
I got in touch with the Ford Europe Head Office and they told me that, new Ford Mondeo will be available on 2014. However, they did not mention any exact date. So, it does worth to wait and see.
More News! The new Ford Mondeo will be available to European market on the last quarter of the 2014. This means, it will be available after October. The price starts from £15,500 and it will be the simple or basic model with nothing featuring at all. The engines will be 1.5-lt petrol engine with 148 HP and 240 Nm. 3-cylinder 1-lt EcoBoost engine will be available as well. There will be 6-speed manual and double clutch automatic. And also, the new Mondeo will be featuring all-wheel drive system and electrically adjusted steering wheel column. 

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Ford
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Cars

50 Years of James Bond: Bond Cars And Bond Girls Part 1

James Bond Skyfall, nowadays we tend to hear these from many people around us. The latest Bond movie!

This year is special for the James Bond, it is the 50thanniversary. The first James Bond movie was filmed in 1962, Dr No with Sean Connery and Ursula Andress. And the series followed by 22 movies.

Since 1962, James Bond became an icon of luxury lifestyle, charming women, fast cars, exotics places and eccentric technologies (Most of which can be purchased from Amazon now). Thanks to James Bond, the world’s most dangerous job spying, perceived as the dream job.

During the 50 years, James Bond had many Bond Girls and Bond Cars. I did a very comprehensive research to bring you all Bond Girls and Bond Cars since 1962. If you find any mistakes, please let me know :)

Part 2 | Part 3

50 Years of James Bond:

Bond Cars And Bond Girls Part 3

Sunbeam Alpine 
From Russia With Love (1963) (Sean Connery)

Daniela Bianchi

Bentley Mark IV
Goldfinger (1964) (Sean Connery)
Honor Blackman
Aston Martin DB5
Thunderball (1965) (Sean Connery)
Claudine Auger
Aston Martin DB5
You Only Live Twice (1967) (Sean Connery)
Mie Hama
Toyota GT2000
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) (George Lazenby)
Diana Rigg
Aston Martin DBS
Diamonds Are Forever (1971) (Sean Connery)
Jill St. John
Ford Mustang Mach 1
Live And Let Die (1973)  (Roger Moore)
Jane Seymour
Chevrolet Impala Convertible
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United Artists
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Cars

World Record Attempt for New Ford Fiesta: #FordFiesta24

Ford Fiesta, one of the oldest Ford model still on production for 35 years. Probably one of the longest production car on the market as well. And during the Paris Motor Show, Ford revealed the new facelifted Fiesta.
At the same time Ford started a new campaign and tries break Guinness World Record. Ford plans to break record for world’s largest mosaic image by asking people to tweet their photos with a Ford Fiesta using twitter hashtag #FordFiesta24. And there is a chance to win a personalised 3-D printed  1:20 scale model of a Ford Fiesta with your twitter printed name on it. And you have a chance to win a Ford Fiesta!
If you want to win 1:20 scale 3D printed Ford Fiesta and learn more about the campaign, please log into http://www.peerindex.com/perk/fiesta
New Fiesta offers the Ford’s new design bit the chrome engine grills. Like its competitors, Ford now offers common design language and we can see this through the chrome engine grill in Ford vehicle range. After the facelift, in my opinion Ford Fiesta became one of the best-looking cars on this segment. Don’t forget Ford Fiesta is not an expensive car!
New Ford Fiesta offers new engines as well, starting from 1-lt EcoBoost petrol engine (100 PS / 125 PS), 1-lt petrol engine (80 PS) and 1.5-lt diesel engine (75 PS). These engines are the new range for the Fiesta, however you may still have the previous engines. 1.25-lt petrol engine (60 PS / 82 PS), 1.6-lt petrol engine (105 PS) and 1.6-lt diesel (95 PS). But, buying new Fiesta with old engines does not make any sense and old engines are not efficient like the new ones. So, avoid them. The new engine will also offer the six-speed double clutch automatic gearbox (PowerShift). Again, my suggestion is to go for the automatic gearbox. New Fiesta offers start/stop technology, Active City Stop (Prevent collision in city traffic), LED headlights.
New Ford Fiesta will become a strong rival for its competitors with these features and new design.

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Newspress
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Cars

New Range Rover, New Mondeo, New Audi A3, New Mini: Are They Really New?

Mini, Range Rover, Bentley Continental GT, Audi A3, and Ford Mondeo they have all one thing in common. All these cars look pretty exactly the same as their predecessors. If this similarity between the old and new models just occurred with one car, I would not write it.
However, this became a tradition with the cars that have very high volume. Automotive industry is not that robust to global economic crisis and they had a very bad experience during 2009. Therefore, taking decision in automotive industry became more vital. Especially, introducing a new model is not like old days. A decade ago, a new model means everything will be new. Design, technology, interior and many other things. This tradition still keeps going but in a new way, except exterior design.
High volume cars are the cash cows and no one want to lose them, especially with a new design. And this restricted the path of the designers. Many new car looks very similar to previous model with a higher price tag. This is a very good strategy to keep existing customers and motivate them to purchase the new model by offering better technology and efficiency. However the look did not change that much.
This strategy can save the customers, on the other hand you may lose your existing customer or they may not wish to purchase. Basically, you will buy a new car with new technology but it will look the same. And I hear this from many people, new Mini looks quite similar to my previous one, why I should buy the new one. My previous Mini does not look that old! That’s the result of introducing a new car that looks exactly the previous one.
Why I should buy the new one, while mine does not look that old!
Without a radical design, you will keep your customers loyal to brand and they may repurchase your car, however this repurchase period would be longer as their car does not look that old!
This will be the next problem of automotive industry. And I am sure that, a decade later designers will say that, we do not revise the previous model like in 2010s. We design everything from the scratch.
Keep in mind, Peugeot 207 looked exactly the same as 206 and people did not have the motivation to buy them, New Peugeot 208 is a brand new car and perception of customers definitely altered!
First photo is the old model, second photo is the new model!

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Mini, Ford, Land Rover, Audi
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Cars

Quota from Henry Ford

Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.
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Cars

£148 Million Lottery Winner from UK Bought A Ford Kuga!

Which car would you buy if you win £148 million ($238 million, €185 million) from lottery? Many of you will start the list with Bugatti, Bentley, or more down-to-earth with Maserati or Mercedes AMG or Audi. For many people winning lottery is the short-cut to buy a super luxury car, without thinking the consequence of ownership of a super luxury car.
During August, a family in UK won £148 million from lottery and I was expecting them to buy a Range Rover or BMW 7-Series or something similar to these. Because, they have lots of money to buy any car on the planet and most probably the interest income will be enough to cover the maintenance and other costs.
What did British lottery winner buy? They bought something very very down-to-earth, Ford Kuga! Ford Kuga only cost to them around £25,000. I don’t convert to other currencies, because it is nothing when you compare with £148 million!
On the other hand, Ford Kuga is not a bad despite the fact that it is end of its product lifecycle. And unfortunately Kuga does not offer any downsized engines, the engine range is 2-lt diesel with 140 PS or 163 PS and 2.5-lt 200 PS petrol engine. You may have double clutch automatic gearbox, and I highly recommend it. Despite limited engine range, Kuga is not that bad at all, you still have lots of electronic gadgets and safety systems. And it looks really good! If it was branded as Range Rover, many people would definitely buy it!
I hope lottery winner family with their Ford Kuga and it seems like they bought the full spec, Titanium X model. Honestly, they should have waited for the new model :(

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Ford
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Cars

New Ford Mondeo in Details

New Ford Mondeo, this time a proper new one! More competitive, more innovative than ever! I would like to start with Advanced Active Park Assist; Mondeo will be the first Ford that is capable of parking perpendicular. I know many cars do this nowadays, not that exciting!
The more exciting functions are coming! In Mondeo’s segment there was a feature missing for ages and I was really annoyed with that, electric steering wheel adjustment. This function is very useful and reflects the brand’s precision to detail. And new Ford Mondeo is going to offer electric steering wheel adjustment with memory function, keep in mind you cannot have this function in an Aston Martin. Like many other brands, new Mondeo will feature electric assisted power steering and don’t worry about feeling, steering wheel will offer heating function :)
Another sexy function is the massaging seats, I always envy the BMW, Mercedes and Audi for their sexy massage function and now we can have it with new Mondeo. Moreover, seats also feature 10-way adjustment with memory as well. 10-way adjustment is really amazing and makes your journey more comfortable.
Let’s go under the new Mondeo; a new integral link suspension will be feature. This new technology improves the handling, ride comfort and noise especially for rear passengers. Previous Mondeos were a bit tough to rear passengers. Interior quality is also improved with soft-touch materials to increase premium feeling. For estate or station wagon model will be offering panoramic glass roof.
The engines of new Mondeo are; 1-lt EcoBoost petrol engine, ECOnectic 1.6-lt diesel, 2-lt petrol powered hybrid with 3.5kW li-ion battery, 1.5-lt and 2-lt EcoBoost petrol engines. Another diesel will be 2-lt TDCi. There is more under the new Mondeo, diesel models will be available with all-wheel drive system. 6-speed automatic gearbox will be available and I am sure Ford will offer double clutch automatic option as well.
Full LED will not be privilege to particular brands, new Mondeo will feature full LED headlights. First on the segment.
Ford SYNC with MyFord technology will be available and you will have a WiFi hotstop inside the new Mondeo with 8-inch touchscreen.
Lastly, new Mondeo improves the rear passenger safety by rear inflatable seatbelts.
In my opinion, new Mondeo moved the benchmark up to a new level. After the new Mondeo, this segment will not be same again. Audi A4, Volkswagen Passat, BMW 3-Series, Mercedes C-Class are others will be outdated with these new technologies. Especially with all-wheel drive option, Mondeo will be my first choice on this segment.

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Ford
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Cars

New Ford Mondeo

New Ford Mondeo announced today at Go Further event in Amsterdam. I already mentioned about the possible new Mondeo when the Ford America revealed the new Fusion model. And today we all saw that, the Mondeo looks exactly the same a the Ford Fusion.
New Ford Mondeo does not have very radical exterior design change from the previous model. Front of the new Mondeo looks more aggressive and following lines give a coupe look design. And, you may find the rear end of the new Mondeo similar to Audi A7. Interior is uprated with full digital instrument panel and materials are more premium quality. In general, Mondeo looks better now, however I cannot say this Mondeo is totally looks different than previous one. Like, Range Rover, Bentley Continental GT, and Audi A3 Ford did not wish to lose existing customer by revealing a totally new and different car. Therefore, new Mondeo has similar design bits from the previous model.
Ford did not reveal more details about the new Mondeo, however the 1-lt EcoBoost petrol engine with 123 PS and 170 Nm of torque (200 Nm with overboost) will be available, and new Mondeo will emit less than 130 g/km CO2. Also, as I heard some rumours from Ford, the new Mondeo with features double clutch PowerShift automatic transmission with 1-lt engine.

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Ford
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Cars

Ford Heritage Centre: Dagenham, UK

Yesterday I was in Ford Heritage Centre in Dagenham, UK for another MIPAA event. After the event, we all had opportunity to take pictures of Ford Heritage car. Unfortunately, I did not bring my camera and end up with iPhone :(

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Cars

New Seat Toledo is here!

New Seat Toledo is unrevealed today. I was waiting for the new Toledo for quite long time. Since the Seat revised their design concept, I was expecting to see the brand new Toledo with a unique design characteristic. And Seat achieved this!
Honestly, New Seat Toledo does not offer very aggressive design but, at the same time New Toledo offers unique details. Especially the angles of the A and C Pillars, rear stoplights are the key design items, which will help to distinguish Toledo from its competitors. On the other hand, Toledo looks a bit more conservative from the front. I was expecting see more aggressive front look. My assumption, Seat positions Toledo as a sport family sedan and expecting have different demographics for Toledo than Ibiza. And there is one thing I cannot ignore, New Toledo looks very high quality from exterior. In terms of numbers, new Toledo is 8cm longer than the previous model, which enables to increase the rear legroom!
As usual, Seat Toledo is packed up with Volkswagen technology. Current engine range starts from 1,2-lt petrol TSi engine (75 PS, 116g/km CO2), 1,4-lt petrol TSi (122 PS), 1,6-lt diesel  TDi (105 PS, 104g/km CO2). And in future there will be 90 PS diesel engine as well. I am more interested on the 1,2-lt petrol engine in Toledo, because new engine technology trend is focused on getting smaller and being stronger. Ford introduced the 1-lt petrol engine lowered the bar into a new level. I think in near future, we will see 1-lt engines from Volkswagen group as well. Anyway, New Toledo also offers double clutch automatic gearbox (DSG) through the engine range.
New Seat Toledo looks tempting for young families. Toledo looks nice, offer new technology and sportive. If you need extra space, Toledo would definitely satisfy you. Overall, Seat introduce a new benchmark for its brand! Me? I go for Ibiza ;)

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Seat