2013 Ford Fusion, Explorer to Get Lane Mitigation System

For the 2013 model year, the completely redesigned Ford Fusion will get an available lane departure warning system. The safety feature, usually reserved for luxury vehicles from Mercedes-Benz or Volvo, will help keep drivers aware of lane markings and alert drivers if they're drowsy.

The feature, which Ford calls the Lane Keeping System, uses a camera mounted on the windshield in front of the rearview mirror; it helps record and detect lane markings. Once the car is traveling faster than 40 mph, the steering wheel will vibrate — simulating the feel of going over rumble strips — if you try to change lanes without using a turn signal. If the driver doesn't respond and continues to drift into another lane, the electric power-assisted steering will kick in and slowly steer the car back into its lane, Ford says. (Mercedes' system works in a similar way.) If the driver is actively trying to switch lanes without indicating, the slight tug of the Lane Keeping System can be easily overridden, Ford says.

2012 Toyota Camry Earns Five-Star NHTSA Rating

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released its first batch of 2012 model year ratings this month. Under the stricter guidelines, only three 2012 models — the Chevrolet Camaro, Cadillac CTS and Toyota Camry — have earned five-star composite scores from the safety agency. In fact, as we previously reported, the Camaro is the only vehicle to earn a perfect rating across the board since the new guidelines took effect for the 2011 model year.

NHTSA’s composite scores are composed of five-star ratings for frontal, rollover and a combined side pole and barrier tests. The side pole test, which is new, simulates a 20-mph side-impact crash into a 10-inch-diameter pole or tree at a 75-degree angle just behind the A-pillar on the driver’s side.

The redesigned 2012 Camry earned a five-star overall rating, getting four stars in the frontal test, five stars in the side-crash test and four stars in the rollover test.

Updated Favorites Top Holiday Car-Shopping Lists

Black Friday shopping isn't just relegated to hot new gadgets and deep discounts. Last month, car buyers snapped up nostalgic nameplates like they were going out of style. But while the names were familiar, the oldies that sold best had shiny new wrappers.

America's longtime best-selling car, the Toyota Camry, was recently revamped for 2012. Sales jumped 13% last month thanks to the new design, and the Camry beat Honda's staler Accord by more than 9,000 units. The Camry reigned supreme as America's best-selling car with a 2,827-unit lead over the Nissan Altima.

America's fourth- and fifth-best-selling SUVs in November were two much-improved versions of formerly past-their-prime nameplates. Year-over-year, Ford Explorer sales jumped 217% to 12,888. Compared with October, Explorer sales climbed 7.5% in a market that shrank 2.6%.

Nearly 250,000 Owners Will Get MyFord Touch Upgrade

As we reported earlier, Ford will upgrade the performance speed and usability of its MyFord Touch system and will deliver the upgrade via USB jump drive to existing customers starting early next year. The 2013 Ford Escape, Flex and Taurus will be the first new Fords equipped with the upgraded system.

We’re now learning that the performance upgrade will affect some 250,000 existing Ford owners — purchasers of the Ford Focus, Explorer, Edge and Lincoln MKX, according to the Los Angeles Times blog. MyFord Touch debuted more than a year ago, on the 2011 Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX.

The jump drive will be mailed to owners, and Ford says the upgrade should take about 45 minutes to complete. If owners don’t feel up to upgrading the system themselves, Ford says you can bring your Ford to a dealership that will perform the upgrade for free. Another 200,000 Fords equipped with MyFord Touch were sold outside the U.S.; Ford is still deciding on how to upgrade the system for those owners.

The improvements come after intense customer and critic complaints that the system was confusing, slow and buggy. In fact, the prolific introduction of MyFord Touch over the year, apparently much to chagrin of Ford buyers, was enough to dramatically decrease Ford’s reliability and initial quality scores with Consumer Reports and J.D. Power and Associates, respectively. Ford says that nearly 85% of people who own vehicles with MyFord Touch find it easy to use, before the upgrade.

2012 Ford Explorer: Car Seat Check

The popular Ford Explorer remains mostly the same for 2012. It does get a new four-cylinder EcoBoost engine that delivers V-6 power. On the inside, the crossover’s interior remains unchanged from 2011, with three rows of seats standard. The Explorer can haul seven passengers, but seating drops to six if the standard second-row bench is replaced with two captain’s chairs. We tested a seven-seat Explorer. Find out how the 2012 Explorer performed in Cars.com’s $37,000 SUV Shootout.

Reader Review of the Week: 2012 Ford Explorer

Dave is the proud owner of a 2012 Ford Explorer XLT. While others have complained about the underpowered V-6 and the complexity of the Sync system, Dave hasn’t had problems with them. However, the third-row seats aren’t great for road trips, Dave says. Read his full review below and write a review about your own car here.

Ford Drops; Lexus, Mazda and Jeep Improve in Latest Consumer Reports Survey

Ford's dashboard doldrums persist. The automaker's buggy MyFord Touch multimedia system, rolled out in summer 2010, contributed toward a steep decline in J.D. Power and Associates' 2011 Initial Quality Study. Now it has become a sore spot for Ford owners responding to Consumer Reports' latest reliability surveys.

Problems with the dual-clutch automatic transmission in the Fiesta and Focus also tarnished the brand, which tumbled 10 spots in overall reliability to 20th among 28 major carmakers. Ford's Lincoln division, whose MKX SUV uses a variant of MyFord Touch, improved one spot to 14th place. Other movers included Lexus (up seven spots to second place), Mazda (up eight spots to third) and Jeep (up seven spots to 13th).

The survey, based on responses from the magazine's 1.3 million subscribers, covered cars from the 2002 to 2011 model years, from which Consumer Reports predicts reliability for 2012 models. Consumer Reports says other Ford models, most notably the Fusion Hybrid sedan, remain as reliable as ever. And Ford appears committed to MyFord Touch, with plans to introduce it in the 2013 Taurus.

Cars.com's $37,000 SUV Shootout

Cars.com's editors continue to dissect some of the most popular car segments in the country. We've tackled midsize sedans, compacts and small crossovers, but what about the vehicles of choice for people needing three rows of seats? The three-row crossover/SUV segment is booming with the entry of the redesigned Ford Explorer and Dodge Durango. However, tried-and-true picks like the Mazda CX-9, Toyota Highlander, Honda Pilot and Chevy Traverse held their own in our competition. We even threw in the smaller Kia Sorento. Oh, and they all had to be priced under $37,000 as-tested.

See which one wowed our editors and our real-life test family.

Cars.com $37,000 SUV Shootout

2012 Ford Edge, 2012 Ford Explorer EcoBoost: First Drive

Ford is addiing its turbocharged EcoBoost engines to the Edge and Explorer crossovers — but not the 3.5-liter powerhouse from the Flex and Taurus SHO. Instead, for 2012, the crossovers get a 2.0-liter EcoBoost four-cylinder whose power rivals a typical V-6: 240 horsepower and 270 pounds-feet of torque. The front-wheel-drive EcoBoost Explorer is EPA-rated at 20/28 mpg (city/highway), while the EcoBoost Edge, gets an impressive 21/30 mpg — nudged to the 30 mark by active grille shutters, which the Explorer lacks.

Both cars are on sale now. Near Ford’s Romeo, Mich. proving grounds last week, we took the people-haulers, well, people-hauling.

Honda Accord, Civic Most Popular Stolen Vehicles

The most popular stolen vehicle last year was the 1994 Honda Accord, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau.

Of the 52,000 Honda Accords stolen in 2010, some 44,000 of them were models made in the ’90s, the non-profit group said. Older cars and models are typically stolen for the value of their parts, while newer cars are typically stolen and then resold, the bureau says.

The 1995 Honda Civic and 1994 Acura Integra — which placed second and eighth, respectively — are popular among car thieves because their engines are easily swappable. You can place the more powerful Integra powertrain into a more lightweight Civic, for example. Both models are popular with street racers and car remodeling enthusiasts, so demand for parts is strong.