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Apr

What makes Ford products superior in safety

Categories: general

Ford’s focus on safety and stringent internal performance targets have earned Ford Motor Company products various recognitions in safety that would place it as a leader in this field.

Steve Kozak, Ford Motor Company’s Chief Safety Engineer, shows a 2008 Ford Taurus (Five Hundred in the Middle East) that was crashed at 35 mph into a 40% off-set barrier. The crashed Ford Taurus proved the advanced technology and safety systems that make the vehicle the safest full-size car in North America.

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The most recent ones include five Top Safety Pick awards from the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety (IIHS) of the US for the Ford Edge, Ford Five Hundred, Lincoln MKX, Mercury Montego and Volvo XC90.

The Ford Five Hundred and Mercury Montego also earned the maximum five-star ratings from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), earning their recognition as safety leaders and to be named the safest full-size sedans in America.

Hussein Murad, Sales and Marketing director of Ford Middle East said:

‘These recognitions are a result of Ford’s ongoing efforts in offering a better and safer driving experience. Ford is leading the industry in standardizing new safety technologies for millions of customers, including the industry’s first three-point safety belts; multiple-deployment air bags and the most advanced stability control system on the market’.

A car crash happens in the blink of an eye — 300 milliseconds, or about a third of a second, from start to finish.

And for this reason, a car’s safety system becomes prime consideration.

Ford is doing more to make its vehicles top performers in safety with the following:

1. Electronic Stability Control (ESC) — Ford Motor Company and its global brands have built 4 million vehicles globally with electronic stability control systems. Electronic stability control offers additional confidence to drivers in emergency situations by helping them stay on the road and avoid accidents. It significantly reduces crash risk by helping drivers maintain control of their vehicles during emergency maneuvers. Ford Motor Company will build all Ford, Lincoln and Mercury retail cars and trucks with standard electronic stability control (ESC) by the end of 2009. Ford already is a world leader in the technology, with ESC currently standard on all Ford mid- and full-size SUVs, and standard ESC expanded to small SUVs and all CUVs this year.

2. AdvanceTrac with RSC (Roll Stability Control) — The only available electronic stability control system with two gyroscopic effect sensors measure vehicle motion about both the Yaw and Roll axes. More than 1 million vehicles feature Ford’s industry exclusive AdvanceTrac with RSC (Roll Stability Control).

Ford Motor Company today has more than 80 patents worldwide for its innovative RSC system. RSC features roll-rate sensing and stability enhancement capability, offering assistance to the driver in maintaining vehicle control during extreme maneuvers. The system automatically engages counter measures to help the driver maintain maximum control and reduce the risk of rollover. Ford has licensed and continues to make this groundbreaking technology available to suppliers who are expected to provide it to competitive automakers.

3. Safety Canopy — Ford’s exclusive collision and rollover activated side curtain air bags feature ‘roll fold’ technology. Ford was the first in the industry to offer rollover deploying side curtain air bags, known as Safety Canopy, beginning with the Ford Explorer and Mercury Mountaineer in 2002.

Today, Safety Canopy with rollover sensors — which helps protect vehicle occupants during side-impact collisions and rollover accidents — is available on nearly all Ford Motor Company SUVs, and on certain vans and cars, including the 2008 Taurus and Mercury Sable, as well as the Taurus X crossover.

By the 2010 model year, all Ford, Lincoln and Mercury retail SUVs, crossovers, vans and trucks are planned to have standard Safety Canopy. Ford Motor now has nearly 1.5 million vehicles on the road with Safety Canopy rollover-activated curtains.

4. Ford’s BeltMinder — BeltMinder is a safety belt reminder technology first offered in 1999 that takes over after the initial safety belt reminder stops chiming. If the driver remains unbuckled, the system chimes and flashes a warning lamp for six seconds every 30 seconds for five minutes or until the driver buckles up, whichever comes first.

Ford first offered driver-side BeltMinder at no cost to customers in 1999. Ford has licensed its BeltMinder technology to four other vehicle manufacturers at no cost. Ford’s BeltMinder system now has been expanded to cover right front-passengers in all vehicles equipped with Ford’s Personal Safety System. Data show that BeltMinder works.

Research conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety showed that safety belt use was 5 percentage points higher in vehicles with BeltMinder. It’s a simple reminder that can make a great difference in saving lives.

5. Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) — Ford’s TPMS system warns a driver if one or more tires are underinflated. An active pressure sensor with a radio transmitter is mounted inside each tire. A receiver in the vehicle monitors each transmitter, and if tire pressure is not within specific limits, it will activate a visual warning light and message in vehicles equipped with a message center.

6. ‘SPACE™ Architecture’ — Ford’s Side Protection and Cabin Enhancement architecture (SPACE) was first introduced on the Ford Taurus and will be standard on the all-new Ford Flex. It is designed to help channel crash forces using strategically placed steel rails and square tubes under the car body, the vertical door posts (‘B-pillars’), in between the front and rear seats, and in the front diagonal posts (‘A-pillars’).

The rails are designed to bend and the tubes compress in a severe crash. This creates 10 different crush zones in different parts of the car to help channel crash forces away from the occupants inside.

7. More IIHS Top Safety Picks in 2007 Than Ever Before — The 2008 Ford Taurus, Mercury Sable, Taurus X, Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX all earned Top Safety Picks from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) for achieving the highest available individual ratings in front-, side- and rear-impact crash protection. Taurus, Sable and Taurus X also earned the highest possible five-star crash test ratings from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

8. Occupant Classification System — An advanced air bag controller uses front passenger classification sensing to determine if the seat is occupied, and if so, whether the passenger is a larger or smaller person. Air bag deployment is tailored — or altogether suppressed — to help provide an appropriate level of protection.

9. Research Tools: VIRTTEX and Servo Sled — Ford’s VIRTTEX (Virtual Test Track Experience) is one of the most advanced laboratories of its kind in the world. Since 2000, Ford Motor Company has used the controlled laboratory setting to study everyday driving tasks and how they affect driver performance during a variety of simulated driving experiences.

Ford’s state-of-the-art Servo-Hydraulic Reverse Crash Simulator is the first in the world to feature the full combination of simulation capabilities: frontal crashes in both pitching and non-pitching modes, rear crashes, and side impacts in both destructive and non-destructive modes.

The Servo sled accurately simulates real-world collisions by providing the same dynamics of a vehicle crash test without destroying the test device. This allows more testing in a given time period compared with other automakers, and enables Ford to more quickly bring safety features to market.

10. Adaptive Front Lighting — Ford’s Adaptive Front Lighting system, already available on the Lincoln MKX, features swiveling headlights that follow the curves in the road, which are measured and analyzed using a mini-processor to optimize lighting.

The headlights can swivel up to 15 degrees in each direction, and have the capacity to illuminate a longer distance when the road is winding. The angle of the headlights adjusts to variables such as vehicle load, acceleration and braking to help avoid headlights shining into oncoming road users.

The headlights are cleaned by an electro-mechanical, high-pressure system that washes one headlight at a time to offer excellent illumination.

11. Advanced Crash Dummies — Ford is making its crash test dummies more lifelike to better understand how injuries occur. The company’s new lifelike child dummy even has advanced technologies in the stomach to duplicate abdominal injuries – the most common for young occupants – especially those who don’t wear safety belts properly.

Apr

Ford to offer blind-spot tracking mirror

By Ron Olson Leave a Comment

Categories: Fiesta, Future Vehicles, IIHS, fiesta ford and technology

By TOM KRISHER

AP Auto Writer

Ford Motor Company/AP Photo

This undated photo provided by Ford Motor Company shows a side view mirror that shows a blind spot in Dearborn, Mich. Starting early next year, Ford will begin installing side-view mirrors on its vehicles that show the blind spots in the outside upper corners.

Ford Motor Co.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

DETROIT –

For most drivers there’s a lingering doubt when changing lanes on the freeway: Did I miss a car in the blind spot?

Starting early next year, Ford Motor Co. will try to eliminate that doubt. It will begin installing side-view mirrors on its vehicles that show the blind spots in the outside upper corners.

The Dearborn-based automaker and several industry analysts say they know of no other automaker that currently offers such a feature, although some are considering it and auto parts stores sell small mirrors that focus on blind spots.

“Those blind spots, changing lanes, we’re always having some challenges seeing who’s there,” said Jim Buczkowski, Ford’s global director of electrical and electronic systems.

Ford says it will put the mirrors on a few Ford, Lincoln and Mercury models to start, eventually making them standard across most of its lineup. It also will offer an optional radar-based blind spot warning system similar to those marketed by other automakers, but with the ability to scan parking lot aisles and warn of oncoming vehicles as a driver backs out of a space.

The additions come from research Ford did on customer wants and needs and is part of its campaign to be more customer focused, said spokesman Alan Hall. The new low-cost mirrors probably won’t add to the sticker price of a car or truck, he said.

Of 450 people who took part in Ford driving clinics, 76 percent thought the mirrors improved visibility, Buczkowski said.

Ford had to figure out a way to meet a federal standard requiring driver’s side mirrors to be flat, said spokesman Wes Sherwood.

Tom Libby, senior director of industry analysis for the Power Information Network, a division of J.D. Power and Associates, said he has seen many drivers with small convex blind-spot mirrors affixed to their side mirrors. Ford, he said, is capitalizing on that consumer demand.

“It may seem like a trivial thing,” he said. “It’s obviously something in the direction of being customer-focused. I think that makes a lot of sense.”

The new feature is almost essential as automakers shrink the glass area on the side of vehicles to create new, sleeker designs, said Jack Nerad, executive market analyst for Irvine, Calif.-based Kelley Blue Book.

“The blind spot issue, I think, gets to be more and more an issue every day,” Nerad said, adding that some new crossover vehicles have small third-row side windows that make the blind spots even tougher to see.

Plus, families on vacation often pack their vehicles with so much luggage that it blocks the view out the rear window, forcing drivers to rely totally on side-view mirrors, Nerad said.

People won’t buy a car or truck solely because of the new mirrors, but they are a feature that could help sway an undecided buyer, Libby said.

“I think it’s sort of a cumulative thing,” he said. “It’s one more thing that would help. It’s a little thing, and those things add up.”

The federal government doesn’t track crashes specifically caused by drivers failing to see other vehicles in their blind spots. The closest it can come is a category called “failure to keep in proper lane or running off road,” said National Highway Traffic Safety Administration spokesman Eric Bolton. Those reasons were a factor for 16,470 drivers involved in fatal crashes during 2006, the latest year available, according to the NHTSA’s Web site.

In Michigan, state police recorded 27,294 collisions between vehicles heading the same direction in different lanes in 2006, about 9 percent of the total crashes in the state. In those, 12 people were killed and hundreds injured, said Lt. Gary Megge.

If all cars were equipped with the blind-spot mirrors, Megge said he is confident the number of crashes would be reduced.

“That tells me that potentially this could have an effect on nearly 9 percent of the traffic crashes in Michigan,” he said. “People don’t just change lanes when they know somebody’s there. When these sideswipe same (direction) crashes occur, people don’t see the other car.”

Ford isn’t alone in its pursuit of the new mirrors. General Motors Corp. and other automakers also are considering them, although GM hasn’t developed a timetable yet to put them in vehicles, said spokeswoman Angele Shaw.

“We have done some studies and we’re looking at where we’re going to use them,” she said.

Apr

New Quality Study Shows Ford is Second to None

By Ron Olson Leave a Comment

Categories: Customer Satisfaction, Edge, Escape, F-Series, Fiesta, Focus, Fusion, Quality, Shelby, Taurus, fiesta ford, general and mustang

· Ford catches Honda in initial quality, putting it in statistical tie at the top with Toyota and Honda.

· Ford’s vehicle quality improved 8 percent versus last year.

· Every new car and truck, including the 2008 Ford Focus, launched with improved quality versus its predecessor.

DEARBORN, April 7, 2008 – When it comes to initial vehicle quality, no automaker performs better than Ford.

The quality of Ford, Lincoln and Mercury brand vehicles soared to the top of the charts equaling that of Toyota and Honda, according to the first quarter 2008 U.S. Global Quality Research System (GQRS) study conducted by RDA Group of Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

The study shows Ford’s domestic brands improved 8 percent versus last year with a combined average of 1,284 things-gone-wrong (TGW) per 1,000 vehicles during the first three months of ownership. This performance is statistically equivalent to the 1,250 TGW level of Honda and Toyota.

“Last year we tied with Toyota, and this year our quality performance is as good as industry-leading Honda’s too,” said Mark Fields, Ford’s president of The Americas. “Our world-class quality is one of the most important aspects of our turnaround in North America. This consistently strong quality improvement should offer today’s customer renewed confidence, setting the stage for important new products like Ford Flex, which is launching this summer.”

Ford’s dramatically improved vehicle quality will be highlighted in a sweeping new marketing campaign called “Drive one” that officially debuts Tuesday. The campaign tells the story behind Ford’s rise to the top of the industry in initial vehicle quality as well as underscoring safety, smart technology and improved fuel efficiency.

The company earned best-in-class honors in two important engineering functions: interiors, which includes such areas as trim, seats and instrument panel appearance; and electrical, which includes entertainment systems. Ford tied for best-in-class in two other functions, paint and vehicle engineering, which includes such areas as ride and handling and cabin quietness.

Additionally, Ford’s domestic brands pushed customer satisfaction up one point to 77 percent.

“There is an unprecedented level of teamwork at Ford. Everyone from the top floor to the plant floor is working together to deliver the highest quality vehicles for our customers,” said Bennie Fowler, Ford’s group vice president of Global Quality. “We are extremely proud to be among the industry’s quality leaders. But that’s not why we’re in the game. We want sole possession of first place, and we will keep working to earn it.”

A total for 15 Ford, Lincoln, Mercury vehicles are ranked in the top three of their respective segments for either TGW performance, customer satisfaction or both.

The following models are segment leaders:

Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 – TGW for sports car
Ford Taurus – customer satisfaction for large car
Ford Sport Trac – customer satisfaction for medium traditional utility
Mercury Milan – TGW for midsize car
Lincoln Navigator – TGW and customer satisfaction for large premium utility

The new 2008 Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable both recorded quality levels that equate to less than one problem per vehicle, as did the Volvo S80 (947). The Ford Fusion and Lincoln MKZ were close, with 1,030 TGW and 1065 TGW, respectively.

The Taurus also led a string of impressive new vehicles launched in 2007. Taurus showed a 33 percent quality improvement compared with the product it replaced. The new Ford Escape improved 16 percent over the out-going model, and the new Ford Focus improved 13 percent.

In fact, 36 of 40 Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, Volvo and Mazda nameplates improved this year versus 2007.

The 2008 first quarter U.S. GQRS study, which RDA Group conducts for Ford, asks customers of all major makes and models to comment on troubles and rate their overall satisfaction with their three-month-old vehicles. The survey includes vehicles registered from September 2007 through November 2007.

News and Events for the Ford, Lincoln, Mercury owner and enthusiast.

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