2010 Ford F-150 Raptor  1st to visit Redding

What a treat to come in to the dealership today and have a Ford Raptor and a trainer from Ford visiting Redding for a product demonstration!  After reviewing the product enhancements that make this F-150 the meanest baddest 4×4 on the road we had to take some photos to show our customers.

We are eagerly anticipating the Raptors arrival for sale in Redding.  If you want to be notified when one arrives please email me.  mark@crownmotorsredding.com

Below is some facts about the Raptor recently written by poplar mechanics.

Ford’s 2010 F-150 SVT Raptor simply looks ferocious. With its swollen flanks, carved-in headlights and taillights, aggressive stance, visibly rugged suspension pieces and thumping 35-inch-tall BFGoodrich off-road tires, this nearly 3-ton, four-wheel-drive pickup is brutally gorgeous. It looks tough enough to run straight down the Baja Peninsula at full speed, jump across the Gulf of California, invade the Mexican mainland and then continue rampaging down through South America until it plowed over Antarctica and started up north across Africa. With that much visual firepower, the obvious question is this: Does the substance match the style? Let’s find out.

SVT Gets Dirty

The Special Vehicle Team (SVT) has been Ford’s hardcore performance division for nearly 17 years and gets credit for delectable road machines ranging from the 2002-to-2004 SVT Focus to the current GT 500 version of the Mustang (yeah, it did the Ford GT too). But until now, its concentration has been on pavement-based ability. And after two successful generations of the F-150-based SVT Lightning performance street truck, there was every reason for the team to do a third one. But the 2WD sporty truck market is a fickle one. And so this time SVT turned to high-speed, Baja 1000-style, off-road desert racing for inspiration. In particular they looked at “prerunner” trucks used by race teams to scout courses. The pre-runner look is jacked up, hogged out and explicitly mechanical. And that’s a function of what a prerunner is asked to do: skitter along the desert at high speed with its suspension soaking up ruts and the occasional armadillo strike without slowing. So SVT decided to concentrate on the F-150′s suspension and produce the most capable desert truck possible—while retaining civilized on-road manners and the necessary utility. 

The SpecsAltogether the Raptor’s track width is up 7 full inches, and that allows the front suspension to travel 11.2 inches (total rebound and compression) while the rear can move 12.1. In fact, the Raptor is so wide that it’s legally required to run with amber marker lights to demarcate its breadth. For this, SVT has cleverly integrated the appropriate LEDs into the front grille and across the tail.SVT has kept most of these new suspension pieces visible to anyone looking even casually at the Raptor. Wise move, because as tough as these new components seem to be, they look wicked too. The control arms are perfect castings that could be mistaken for an F/A-18′s landing gear, the shock bodies are polished aluminum and the diameter of the biggest branch on a redwood, and the wheel-and-tire package has the savage purposefulness of a bear’s claw. There’s an argument to be made that the only way to make the new Raptor tougher-looking would be to strip off its body entirely.To cover the additional width, all the bodywork forward of the cab’s firewall is new, and the cargo box gets its own set of flared fenders as well. Viewed from above, the Raptor has a Rubenesque hourglass figure with a healthy chest and seductively plump hips. From the ground it just looks awesome with open wheel wells, functional hood and fender vents, ready-to-pounce stance and a grille big enough to consume an entire Golden Corral buffet in a single gulp. The Raptor is an almost freakishly attractive pickup—the Megan Fox of half-ton trucks.

Article from http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/new_cars/4328691.html

Being a member of Congress rates as the least ethical and honest professions – faring worse than car salesmen by 4 percent – according to a new Gallup poll out Wednesday. 

In a poll ranking how Americans view the honesty and ethical standards of 21 professions, Congressmen were rated as having a “low/very low” ethical standards by 55 percent of 1,017 adults across the nation. Only 9 percent said members of Congress have “high/very high” standards, while 35 percent gave the lawmakers an “average” rating. 

 Car salesmen were the only other professionals to get a “low/very low” rating by at least 50 percent of respondents, receiving 51 percent. 

 Senators ranked third lowest in the poll, earning a 49 percent “low/very low” ethical rating, beating out stockbrokers, 46 percent, and HMO managers at 43 percent. 

 Only 11 percent of respondents gave senators a “high/very high” ethical rating. 

 Nurses ranked as the most respected profession with an 83 percent positive rating. Following nurses were pharmacists at 66 percent, doctors at 65 percent, police officers at 63 percent and engineers, who received a 62 percent “high/very high” rating. 

 Governors were the only other political job polled, and ranked much higher than lawmakers in Washington. Only 15 percent said they had a “high/very high” opinion of governors, but 48 percent gave governors an “average” rating while 35 percent rated them as “low/very low. 

FACT SHEET: AUTO SALES AND EXCISE TAX DEDUCTION

President Obama signed “The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009” into law on February 17, 2009. The law includes a new consumer tax deduction for State and local sales and excise taxes paid to purchase a motor vehicle during 2009.

• Provides consumers a new tax deduction on their 2009 Federal income taxes for “qualified motor vehicle taxes.”
• Qualified motor vehicle taxes include any State or local sales or excise tax imposed on the purchase of a qualified motor vehicle.
• Qualified motor vehicles include passenger automobiles or light trucks with a weight rating of not more than 8,500 pounds.
• Applies to NEW vehicles only.
• Deduction allowed for non-itemizers.
• Limitation on Vehicle Price: limited to the tax on up to $49,500 of the purchase price of a qualified motor vehicle.
• Income Limitation: Phased out for taxpayers with modified adjusted gross income between $125,000 and $135,000 ($250,000 and $260,000 in the case of a joint return).
• Effective Date: Purchases on or after February 17, 2009, and before January 1, 2010.

Customers with questions related to their particular tax situation should be advised to consult with a financial adviser.

First 50 people on Friday, Saturday, Sunday that come in for a test drive will receive a Turkey. This weekend only 11/20-21-22/2009.

Happy Holiday’s from Crown Motors

“This workhorse is like nothing available today in the American market,” said Derrick Kuzak, Ford  group vice president of Global Product Development. That’s not just PR spin.

 The smaller of two versions of the van sold in Europe, Transit Connect is specifically designed for tight, urban environments, where space is at a premium and fuel prices are high. These days, that’s beginning to look a lot more like the U.S.

Sized somewhere between the new Ford Flex and the automaker’s bigger E-Series vans, Transit Connect is initially geared for commercial applications. But in Europe, noted Kuzak, it is often converted for personal use. The same thing might happen State-side, as well.