Ford

What is bright red, weighs 2,654 pounds, and was created from 380,000 LEGO bricks? Ford's LEGOLAND Florida Explorer, what else?

Rolling off the line at Chicago Assembly Plant today, the full-sized LEGOLAND Florida Explorer will soon be on its way to the new LEGOLAND Florida Theme Park, where it will be featured in front of one of the park's attractions, the Ford Driving School for children. This is just the beginning of a new long-term alliance between Ford and LEGOLAND Florida theme park.

No small task, it took 22 designers more than 2,500 hours to create the LEGOLAND Florida Edition Explorer. See for yourself in the video:

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Ford announced this week that owners of 2010 and 2011 Ford SYNC-equipped vehicles that are Traffic, Directions and Information (TDI)-capable can now download a free smartphone app designed to help get them where they need to go with less hassle. Called the SYNC Destinations mobile app, it is for Apple iPhone, Apple iPad and Android-based devices (BlackBerry coming soon).

With SYNC Destinations, SYNC TDI users can also better plan their commutes, accessing real-time traffic information, traffic forecasts and other time-saving features.

Benefits include:

• Traffic maps with real-time speed, accident and incident information for all highways, interstates, arterials and city streets in 126 metropolitan areas across North America
• Reliable traffic forecasts that predict how travel times are expected to change over time, based on sophisticated analysis of current traffic conditions, day of the week, season, holidays and related days, current and forecast weather, accidents and road construction, as well as other unique local events such as school schedules, sports games and concerts
• Fastest routes based on current and expected traffic conditions as well as recommended departure times, expected travel times and ETAs that make navigating to daily destinations, whether across town or cross-country, easier than ever
• Easy look-up of addresses for new destinations through local business search and address book integration

Ford announced some big news yesterday. For the first time, the Ford brand has the highest initial quality among all non-luxury brands in J.D. Power and Associates' 2010 Initial Quality Study (IQS).

The Ford brand moved to fifth place among all brands from eighth last year. This is the highest rank position Ford has achieved in the IQS since ranking 23rd in 2004.

Both the Ford and Lincoln brands had improvements, with the Ford brand moving to the best in the industry among all non-luxury brands. Lincoln, which was 26th on the list last year, moved up to eighth. Read more

Ford just announced that the company has added Google Maps to its 'Send to SYNC' feature. Drivers who use Ford SYNC with Traffic, Directions & Information (TDI) soon will be able to select a destination on Google Maps and send it to their Ford, Lincoln or Mercury vehicles.

When users visit Google Maps on the web to find locations, they will have the option to send a selected destination to their Ford, Lincoln or Mercury vehicle via a "send" menu on the site. Once in the vehicle, the driver connects to SYNC TDI using the "Services" voice command, and when prompted, confirms the request to download the Google Maps destination into the vehicle. Read more

J.D. Power and Associates yesterday released its 2010 Vehicle Dependability Study Results. The study surveys owners of 3-year old models that were purchased new and asks them if they have experienced any of almost 200 different problems within the last 12 months. The results of the study help educate consumers when considering the next new or used car purchase. Manufacturers also pay attention, giving them insight into what they need to do to build better models.

Porsche leads the overall rankings, but some big improvements were seen from domestic automaker Ford. All of its Ford, Lincoln and Mercury brands placed in the top 10 of the list with Lincoln showing the most significant improvement, climbing six positions from 2009 to rank second. The redesigned Lincoln Navigator contributed to Lincoln's rank position this year, improving by 61 PP100. Other notable Lincoln vehicles are the Mark LT and MKZ. Both ranked highest in dependability in their award segments:

• Entry Premium Vehicle – Lincoln MKZ (97 PP100)
• Large Premium MAV – Lincoln Mark LT (120 PP100)

American Performance car maker, SMS Supercar, have just announced its prices for the SMS 460 and SMS 460X. Both are fully certified and street legal and are fitted with custom supercharged V8s delivering 470hp (350kW) and 427lb-ft (578Nm) of torque and 655hp (488kW) and 600lb-ft (812Nm) of torque respectively.

The MSRP of the 460 Mustang will be $64,990 for the Coupe and $69,990 for the Convertible. No info yet on the 460X version. Read more

Last year's Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) Gathering of Eagles festival saw a custom Mustang from Ford auctioned off at $500,000. This year, Ford plans to auction off another Mustang GT, dubbed the AV-X10 Dearborn Doll.

This 2010 Mustang GT will come equipped with a glass roof, and thanks to Ford Racing, it will produce a solid 550hp (410kW) from its 4.6L V8 engine. Under the hood is a supercharger kit, a high-flow FR500S exhaust system, a short throw shifter, a new handling pack featuring dampers and lowering springs and an anti-roll bar. Read more

The Ford Fiesta is still about a year away from its U.S. relaunch, but we can check it out at ESPN's X Games with a trio of rally-prepped vehicles on July 30-August 2 in Los Angeles. The drivers will be Olsbergs Motor Sport Evolution's Kenny Brack and ROCKSTAR Energy Drink's Tanner Foust and Brian Deegan.

The Pike's Peak Fiesta was epic! These Fiestas will be a little bit tamer, but they are still fully equipped race cars. This is the first time a Ford has competed as a race car in X Games competition, too. I really don't think Ford has much to worry about, considering who they have driving.

I'm all the more excited now for the X Games, since we will get to see the Fiesta in its rawest form in the states!