Columbus Streetcars

Ford -150

With 22,500 miles on the odometer, the F-150 paid a dealer visit for its third scheduled maintenance stop, a $43.61 oil change, full inspection, and tire rotation. Senior editor Loh took the Ford on a camping trip and found it especially accommodating.

“Campsites filled up, so we had to change plans at the last minute and stay at a hotel with unsecure parking. Relieved to find that almost all the camping/climbing gear stashed in the truckbed fit into the cab without issue.

The sucker is huge. “Much credit to the Ford engineers who crafted the flat rear floor and flip-up seats.

There really is so much room in the back, I wonder if they could’ve moved those rear seats forward a bit so they could recline (even a little). That would be a feature few, if any, full-size trucks provide.”

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Ford Lincoln MKS - 2010

Ford’s fresh ambit acknowledgment is the anew minted MKS. It bumps the rear-drive Town Car (a redecorated Ford Crown Victoria) off the brand’s pedestal. Now a front-drive auto with a chrome-plastic, wing-faced grille is Lincolns creme. This machine’s metal comes from the Chicago’s Ford Taurus branch and shares some Taurus automated bits, which additionally affirm the Volvo S80. Lincoln’s premiere auto has the most recent electrical aliment (automatic aerial beams); a advantageous baritone-blast 275-hp, V6 engine; a apathetic six-speed automated manual with manumatic affection and alternative all caster drive.

After a anniversary motoring in the AWD MKS, its axiomatic that Ford’s ancestors car is abbreviate on finesse. Take its keyless access system. Please! The fob’s gun-sight logo with ablaze emphasis and aloft backbone makes simple tasks like alien locking or unlocking doors difficult. And naked lamps brighten bottom wells area you see apparent abject and ill-fitted panels.

A aesthetic car’s appearance should contentment rather than blight. You can acquisition added actual ambrosial affluence sedans, alike accustomed midsize ones that account for beneath than the tricked-out Lincoln’s $47,000 ($40,000 base). And if you ache for sports-car reflexes, again accumulate it Teutonic; the MKS chassis, which rides on alternative 19-inch tires, is capable; not adroit. Ford promises a hotrod 340-hp turbo-charged MKS.

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Ford F-Series Super Duty

Ford may have unleashed its new 2011 F-series Super Duty last fall, but the automaker just released performance figures for its brawniest full-size pickups. As the name suggests, they’re nothing short of super.

Arguably, the biggest news surrounds Ford’s all-new Power Stroke 6.7-liter turbo-diesel V-8. A new design from the ground up, the diesel pumps out 390 hp at 2800 rpm and produces an earth-shattering 735 lb-ft of torque from 2800 rpm. If you’re keeping score, that’s a 40-hp and an 85-lb-ft increase over the 2010 Power Stroke, and it also manages to trump diesel offerings from both Dodge and General Motors, although the latter has yet to release power figures for its revised 6.6-liter “Duramax” turbo-diesel V-8.

If diesel isn’t exactly your thing, the new base engine in the Super Duty — the same 6.2-liter V-8 used in the F-150 Raptor — still provides plenty of power. Ford says the 6.2-liter is good for 385 hp at 5500 rpm, and 405 lb-ft of torque at 4500 rpm. Those numbers fall between the previous base engine — the three-valve, 5.4-liter V-8 — and the 6.8-liter V-10, which remains an option on F-350, F-450, and F-550 models.

We’ve yet to see a detailed breakdown of the figures, but Ford is starting to talk payload and towing capacities for the new Super Duty. Both an F-250 and a base F-350 can reportedly tow up to 14,000 pounds with a weight-distributing hitch (a 1500-lb improvement), and carry payloads of 4050 and 4500 pounds, respectively. An F-350 with dual rear wheels can reportedly tow a fifth-wheel trailer weighting up to 21,600 pounds (besting the new 2011 Chevy Silverado by 1600 pounds); an F-450 can do the same with trailers weighing up to 24,400 pounds. At this point, it’s unknown if these numbers are attained with the new towing standard established by the SAE.

At this point, the only figures Ford won’t discuss at this point are related to pricing, but expect base MSRPs for all models to jump by roughly $2000. Look for this information to officially be released later in the first quarter of 2010, when the trucks are slated to arrive at dealers.