Narco Mk 12d Nav/comm Mounting Tray on 2040-parts.com

Ford's V6 gamble turbocharges sales of F-150

Five years ago, when Ford considered a push to put a pricey, premium V6 in more F-150s, it seemed like a dangerous gamble with a macho, full-sized pickup known for toughness and capacity. To many dealers and company insiders, it seemed like a bad joke. "I once said, "Bubba don't buy nothing but a V8, and we've got a lot of Bubbas out here,'" recalls Martin Gubbels, owner of Big Sky Ford-Lincoln in Torrington, Wyo.

SCARCITY OF ECO CARS KEEPS VALUES HIGH

ACCORDING to the latest AA Fuel Price Index, petrol prices rose in January by the biggest amount in recent times. Although there is considerable Government lobbying to slow down fuel price rises, there appears to be no immediate respite for private motorists. With this continued pressure on family finances, leading vehicle auction company, British Car Auctions (BCA) is seeing a significant increase in buyers seeking the most fuel efficient vehicles which, in turn, is pushing up prices at auction.

2012 Ford Focus ST gets 297bhp

Those clever chaps at SuperChips have given the 2012 Ford Focus ST a bit of an ECU tweak to deliver 297bhp and an extra 85lb/ft of torque. When we reported last week that WTC outfit Arena had in roped Ford’s tuner of choice, Mountune, to give the new Ford Focus a makeover, we were a tad disappointed to discover that they were tweaking the rather journeyman Focus Zetec S. That meant the Zetec S got 200bhp – a handy jump – but we bemoaned the fact that they hadn’t fiddled with the Focus ST to give us a car to fill the void left by the absence of a Focus RS in the current iteration of the Focus.