Ford Windstar 1996 .silver, 94kmiles on 2040-cars

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2014 Ford Fiesta ST priced from $21,400* [w/poll]

The 2014 model year brings a whole host of changes to Ford's Fiesta B-Segment fighter, the most important of which (to our enthusiast eyes, anyway) is the addition of a potent new ST model. The US-spec hot hatch was first shown at the 2012 Los Angeles Auto Show last November, and thanks to Ford's build-and-price site, we've now learned that the Fiesta ST will slide in at $21,400 when it goes on sale later this year (*not including $795 for destination).
Under the hood of the ST is a turbocharged 1.6-liter EcoBoost inline-four good for 197 horsepower and 214 pound-feet of torque, mated solely to a six-speed manual transmission. Ford hasn't released performance data on its pint-sized puncher just yet, but know that these numbers make the Fiesta ST ever-so-slightly more powerful than the larger Volkswagen GTI while returning an estimated 34 miles per gallon on the highway.
Elsewhere in the lineup, the standard Fiesta also gets a smattering of improvements for the 2014 model year, including a new 1.0-liter three-cylinder turbocharged engine and revised exterior styling. Pricing for the 2014 Fiesta sedan starts at $14,000, with the five-door model adding $600 to that number (again excluding the $795 destination fee).

Ford celebrating 80 years of Aussie utes as it prepares to shutter Oz manufacturing

Ford is ending Australian production after 90 years in 2016, and with it may go perhaps the most iconic vehicles in its auto market - the ute. Car-based pickup trucks like the Ford Ranchero and Chevrolet El Camino were always more of a curiosity than a true market force here, but in Australia, they have long proven hugely popular.
As the legend goes, Ford invented the niche after a farmer's wife had asked Ford Australia's managing director for a more utilitarian car. Her request was simple: "My husband and I can't afford a car and a truck but we need a car to go to church on Sunday and a truck to take the pigs to market on Monday. Can you help?"
Ford's design team came up with a two-passenger, enclosed, steel coupe body with glass windows and a steel-paneled, wooden-frame load area in the rear. The sides of the bed were blended into the body to make it look more unified, and to keep costs down, the front end and interior were based on the Ford Model 40 five-window coupe. Power came from a V8 with shifting chores handled by a three-speed manual. Within a year, the new vehicle was ready, and production began in 1934. Lead designer Lewis Bandt christened it the coupe-utility.

Ford Australia pulls the ol' talking car prank

Siri from Apple has proven that being able to talk to your technology doesn't always work perfectly. But what if it could eventually go far enough to give a personality to inanimate objects like our cars? Ford took just this path to comedic effect by playing a prank on many unsuspecting Australians, in a new commercial for its EcoSport compact crossover.
The Aussies seem very nonchalant about having a random parked car talk to them, and they seem surprisingly game when it asks them to get in, call a celebrity and tell a joke. (We're guessing there are some hilarious outtakes, too.) Scroll down to watch some folks from Down Under have a conversation with Ford's CUV.