The Ford Flex rides like a luxury car. It possesses a decent interior, with Ford’s surprise and delight SYNC 2.0 system. The Flex is also socially unimpeachable, tracing its roots back to the wagons synonymous with East Coast gentry for nearly half a century (Ralph Lauren has one). Six months ago, I purchased a new 2009 Flex Limited AWD, complete with the amusing second-row refrigerator. So far, I have been pleased as punch. It does everything from cradling my infant son to towing my race car with perfect aplomb. Not everybody likes the way the Flex looks. And? And it’s a little slow.

There’s no doubt about it: the automotive landscape is changing. Carmakers around the globe are embracing electric propulsion, whether the volts are generated by a gasoline motor, a fuel cell, a distant power plant or a combination thereof. New companies seem to be springing up overnight to take advantage of the government’s desire (and money) to wean motorists from their petrochemical “addiction.” While everyone is rushing to produce politically-correct powerplants, one fundamental question that remains largely unexamined: from where will manufacturers secure the raw materials needed to mass produce this new technology?

The East Sussex, UK, police are attempting to have speed camera photographs removed from websites, claiming they represent copyrighted material. In particular, the police are targeting a set of images taken in June 2008 that motorcyclist Peter Barker used to prove that a radar device that clocked him at 38 MPH must have been wrong. Based on measurements of the photographic evidence, a Brighton Magistrates Court judge agreed and threw out the case against Barker. These are the photographs of Barker’s alleged infraction that East Sussex Police are trying to ban: photo one and photo two.

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Someone parks two cars near you. The first? A sports car. It could be a Porsche 911 C4 Cab, a Ferrari F430, or a Z06 ‘Vette. Something special. Expensive. Exotic. The other car is an oldie. Let’s say a 1976 Toyota Celica or a 1984 Volvo 240 wagon. Which one would interest you?

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Brad writes:

Some years ago in an effort to quiet hydraulic lifters, I ran a quart of ATF in my Isuzu Trooper for 500 miles before I changed the oil. ATF supposedly has a bunch of detergents and this would clean out all the oil passages. I can tell you, the drained oil was the blackest I’d ever seen come out of one of my cars. It also seemed to help with the valve clatter, but didn’t completely cure it.

So here is my question . . . I’m getting close to an oil change in my 1988 911 Carrera, I was thinking of doing the same thing to it, to really clean out the engine. What do you think?

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TTAC commenter j_slez has worked his magic again, this time on our new Ford monthly sales data. Hit the jump for a comparison with GM and Toyota.

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In prepared testimony before the House Judiciary Subcommittee, Car Czarlet Ron Bloom revealed that the government would no longer back GM and Chrysler warranties. “With the successful emergence of the new companies, consumers can now feel assured that the companies have the financial wherewithal to meet their warranty commitments on a continuing basis,” Bloom said. The $641 million spent by the government on the warranty program has been returned to the Treasury with interest, reveals Bloom. “This achievement represented a prudent short-term use of taxpayer funds,” was his conclusion. GM spokesfolks tell Automotive News [sub] that The General never even tapped the fund, while Chrysler reps are mum on the subject.

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In between long stints behind the keyboard and the wheel of an Audi, I’ve been reading Robert Lacey’s epic Ford: The Men and the Machine. Catching up on the story of Ford, one can’t help but wonder what would have happened if Crazy Henry had somehow cheated death and was still around to witness the recent travails of his company. Ford’s deep commitment to basic transportation may have been a liability in the heyday of the American automobile, but things seem to be coming full circle. The decades of glamor and expression in automotive design and marketing launched GM to dizzying heights and threatened to leave stolid old Ford behind. But Ford never completely embraced the planned obsolescence and marketing-heavy development patterns that defined GM’s success. The Blue Oval’s best products always had a certain affordable and rugged charm that seems to be coming back in style. Ford now finds itself positioned to become the first American automaker with a lineup weighted towards competitive small and mid-sized cars. If it can succeed with this strategy and stay focused, Ford has a chance to reinterpret its original brand appeal and vindicate Henry Ford’s philosophy in a thoroughly 21st Century fashion.

Ford got a whole lotta love around here yesterday for agreeing to hook up TTAC’s staff with better press fleet access. Though the move shows that Ford is more willing to face the truth than its Detroit competition, the announcement generated perhaps a bit more optimism about the firm’s fortunes than the data warrants. One commenter got so carried away by the good vibes that he opined “the Ford brand pretty much has a good car in every segment there is, with the exception of the minivan.” Not quite. Let’s turn to our XLS spreadsheets of Ford monthly sales since 2003, shall we? [Thanks to bumpy ii for the spreadsheet]

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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) woke up to a New York Times hatchet job. “In 2003, researchers at a federal agency proposed a long-term study of 10,000 drivers to assess the safety risk posed by cellphone use behind the wheel,” the NYT begins, without specifying who, what, when, where or how. But we do get a general sort of why: “They sought the study based on evidence that such multitasking was a serious and growing threat on America’s roadways.” And then, da da DA! “But such an ambitious study never happened. And the researchers’ agency, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, decided not to make public hundreds of pages of research and warnings about the use of phones by drivers — in part, officials say, because of concerns about angering Congress.” Dive! Dive! Dive!

Old GM’s marketing maven is New GM Sales and Service Supremo. Of course, Mark LaNeve held those latter two responsibilities before GM nosedived into bankruptcy. In fact, you could say that LaNeve’s administration of the sales and service elements of his tripartite position helped push GM’s corporate yoke into its maximum forward position. (I couldn’t possibly comment.) LaNeve should take some comfort in the fact that A) he still has a job, despite CEO Fritz Henderson’s dark hints about a sudden shiv in the shower; B) LaNeve still has a high paying job; C) his marketing remit has been filled by Bob Lutz, the only man on planet earth capable of making GM’s taxpayer-fronting taskmasters wish they’d stuck with LaNeve; and D) LaNeve gets a new business card! Automotive News [AN, sub]: “A GM spokesman said an official title remains to be created.” Suggestion box below. Meanwhile . . .

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Curbside Classics takes you back to 1971 for a virtual comparison test of six small cars, based (and partly borrowed) from a C/D test.

Hail the conquering hero! Well, not of C/D’s comparison test, but who cares, as long as the sales are there. And by 1971, the Corolla was well along in its conquest of the US small car market, despite being only three years fresh. In 1969, only its second year on the US market, the Corolla leapt to the number two import sales spot, and was nipping hard at the Beetle’s pointy tail. Try replicating that today! And by 1975, the “little crown” was lording over the defeated krabbeltier. So what exactly were the Corolla’s remarkable qualities that sent VW (and Opel) into such a deep and permanent retreat? And it’s shortcomings that kept it from winning this comparison?

joemoc1 writes:

Should Hollywood decide to remake of Bullitt, who would play Frank Bullitt, and should they still still use a Mustang? A Bullitt Mustang? And would the bad guys still drive a black Dodge Charger?

Before the days of anti-smog legislation and catalytic converters, anyone looking for more power in their ride needed a few tools, access to a drag strip and intimate knowledge of their carburetor. This concept lives on today, but the names and faces changed: Hot-Rodders are now Tuners. Here’s an idea: let’s see how much power is left on the table after a Tuner gets their hands on a fuel-injected, late-model performance machine. But first a word from our hacker . . .

Red light cameras have come under fire recently for focusing on vehicles that make right turns on red, a maneuver that is rarely responsible for causing an accident. But even cities that do not issue many right turn tickets focus on another type of violation that is not dangerous. According to data obtained from the city of Fullerton, California, tickets mailed to the owners of vehicles entering a through intersection less than a second after the light turned red added up to nearly $1 million last year. These technical violations rarely cause accidents. A 2004 Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) study showed that right angle accidents—the type caused by straight-through violations of red signals at intersections—do not happen until an average of nine seconds after the signal had changed from yellow to red (view study).

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