Ford has made parenting a little easier by introducing MyKey, a programmable ignition key for Ford automobiles that monitors teenage driving behavior. With MyKey in place, various driving habits that parents may consider unsafe, or merely obnoxious, can be curtailed.

One thing parents must worry about when handing over the keys for the family car to a teenager is if junior is going to have a lead foot. Ford saw a market for this worry and is addressing it by adding a new standard feature beginning with the 2010 Ford Focus. Th

Spain’s Telefonica yachts took top honours in Saturday’s inaugural event of the 2008-09 Volvo round the world race, an “in-port” regatta in the Mediterranean port of Alicante.

Telefonica Blue, skippered by Dutch veteran Bouwe Bekking, won the day’s event ahead of Telefonica Black, captained by Spain’s gold medalist from the Beijing Olympics, Fernando Echavarri.

The stylish and lively 2009 Mazda 6 hits the road this fall as the sportiest and most entertaining front-wheel drive midsize sedan on the market.

The new 6 ably fills the gap created when the Honda Accord grew a little larger and duller in pursuit of mainstream mega-sales.

Volvo AB, the world’s second- largest truckmaker, will eliminate about 1,400 jobs at factories in Belgium and Sweden as the financial crisis accelerates a slowdown in European demand for commercial vehicles.

Volvo will initiate other cost-cutting measures in the face of declining sales and higher raw material costs, the Gothenburg, Sweden-based manufacturer said today in a statement. The company has begun talks with unions regarding the job reductions at plants in Gothenburg and Umea in Sweden and in Ghent, Belgium.

Ford Motor Co.’s credit arm will no longer provide financing for customers buying vehicles in the U.S. from Mazda Motor Corp., Ford’s Japanese affiliate.

The lending arm for Ford told investors last month it is substantially scaling back the number of vehicles it expects to lease and warned that if market conditions continue to deteriorate, further losses could place Ford Credit’s lending plan at further risk.

Ford has earned more “Top Safety Pick” ratings from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) than any other automaker with a total of 16 to date.
Ford surpassed its closest rival Honda this week when four of its 2009 models — Ford Flex, Ford Fusion, Lincoln MKS and Mercury Milan — achieved “Top Safety Pick” ratings from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).

They say the middle child faces the most challenges in life. In autos, however, the midpoint may be the best position to hold. Take the Volvo S80 T6. It now seems to be selling the best of the three versions of the S80 available here.

Of course, this middle model of Volvo’s flagship luxury sedan was also the last to be introduced, so perhaps it is really the youngest that does well.

UK buyers thinking of investing in a used car should take note: Ford has been voted tops by two separate panels of used car experts this week.

What Car? put the Ford Focus and Ford Mondeo top of their respective categories (”Small Family Car” and “Family Car”), and put the popular Focus ahead of the opposition to become overall Britain’s the best used car of 2008.

No one will be killed or injured in a Volvo vehicle in the year 2020. That is the mid-term goal for employees, designers and engineers at Volvo Car Corp. Ambitious, for sure, but the company is actually reaching even further: one day, all vehicles simply will not crash.

Impossible? Perhaps. But it’s a vision that we’re working toward to address a problem of pandemic proportions. The World Health Organization estimates 1.2 million people are killed and more than 50 million are injured in automobile collisions every year.

The average fuel efficiency of the fleet of new cars and trucks rose only slightly in 2008, but the government said Friday an increase in the sales of smaller vehicles due to high gas prices could push the numbers higher.