By Jim Meachen and Ted Biederman

The idea came to mind when a diehard Chevy Silverado owner proclaimed admiration for the exterior styling of the all-new Ford F-150 truck while we were visiting a Ford dealer’s lot one Sunday afternoon.

By Jim Meachen

We’ve spent considerable seat time behind the wheel of the Ford Escape since the small sport utility was introduced for the 2001 model year.

All of our test vehicles came with the very responsive 200-horsepower V-6 engine. That engine put the Escape at the top of its class, ahead of the popular Toyota RAV4 and Honda CR-V, both with 4-cylinder engines.

By Jim Meachen and Ted Biederman

Only two of us were headed to the beach. But once there, our troop grew to six people, and then briefly to seven.

To accommodate this crowd and avoid having rent a bus or to drive two vehicles to the, what turned out to be a better than average seafood restaurant and to the putt-putt golf course, we needed something that had a family-friendly third-row seat.

Choices are limited. It had to be a minivan or a mid-sized to large sport utility vehicle.

By Jim Meachen and Ted Biederman

Livable! That one word more than any other sums up the new Ford Five Hundred, one of the Blue Oval’s two replacements for the long-running and once-popular Taurus mid-sized sedan. (Note: the second Taurus replacement is the yet to be introduced Fusion).
 
Livable as defined by our old, tattered Webster’s means “pleasant to live in.”
 

By Jim Meachen and Ted Biederman

Competition is a good thing. And that’s one of the reasons the USA is so wonderful. We thrive on competition. Competition gives us better stuff at a better price.

By Jim Meachen and Ted Biederman

TAMPA, Fla. — a late-model Mustang convertible appeared in our rearview mirror as we were cruising near the beach in Clearwater. He followed us for more than a mile and as soon as the road became four-lane, he pulled alongside our 2005 Mustang V-6 convertible, sans top. Nice car, he said admiringly.

He followed for a couple more miles and then moved in front of us where, surely to his amazement, there were about four or five ’05 Mustang GT convertibles, tops also down, rumbling down the beach road.

By Jim Meachen and Ted Biederman

LOS ANGELES --- We gained confidence quickly as we came down out of the San Gabriel Mountains, outside of Los Angeles. It was a stirring drive with vistas as beautiful as you can find. But we were not distracted from the task at hand and to the credit of the car we were simply at ease behind the wheel of this new, hot GT.

By Jim Meachen and Ted Biederman

Not since the once-vaunted Taurus left the building about a decade ago has Ford produced a car capable of going head-to-head in sales with the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry.

Ford once had bragging rights to the best-selling car in America. The Taurus was a ground-breaking aerodynamic sedan when it was introduced in 1986, perhaps the most important vehicle of that decade next to the Chrysler minivans. It soon gained status as the best selling car in America.

By Jim Meachen and Ted Biederman

There’s only one reason to put a 500-horsepower Mustang in your garage. It’s certainly not for fuel efficiency. It comes with an SUV-like gas mileage rating and a $1,300 gas guzzler tax. And it’s not because we enjoy lining the pockets of insurance companies. But a painful hike in your auto insurance premium will surely follow your purchase. And it’s definitely not because states have eliminated maximum speed limits on their highways. You know anyone with an abandoned runway?

By Jim Meachen and Ted Biederman

SAN FRANCISCO — The Ford Edge has a lot in common with the Saturn Aura. Odd, certainly, that we would compare an all-new crossover utility vehicle and an all-new mid-sized sedan, cars from different segments.