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Ford board pushing Mulally for decision amidst fears story is drowning out other news

Automakers and their executives rarely like to divulge information regarding future goings on, but the board of directors at Ford sound like they're getting a little antsy about chief executive officer Alan Mulally and his plans for 2014.
According to Reuters, as news of Mulally's possible departure to Microsoft continues to swirl, Ford's board is looking to push the affable executive to make a decision about his future sooner rather than later. Apparently, the board is growing concerned that this will-he/won't-he drama may end up distracting the media from covering Ford's other big news events next year - items like the debut of key all-new products like the Mustang and F-150.
So far, the picture for Mulally's eventual successor remains fuzzy, but it's understood that the leading candidate remains the company's chief operating officer, Mark Fields. Just recently, we heard that Mulally will stay until the end of 2014, but a few months ago, Ford seemed open to the idea of him stepping down earlier than that.

Preposed class-action lawsuit targets 'defective' MyFord Touch

A national law firm, Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, has filed a proposed class action lawsuit whose presupposition is that MyFord Touch is defective. Specifically, the complaint states that the system - as well as the MyLincoln Touch and MyMercury Touch clones - often freeze, fail to respond to voice or touch commands and have issues connecting to mobile phones.
According to Hagens Berman managing partner Steve Berman, MyFord Touch is a theoretically "brilliant idea" that falls short in actual execution. Said Berman in a press release, "In reality, the system is fundamentally flawed, failing to reliably provide functionality, amounting to an inconvenience at best, and a serious safety issue at worst."
Other MFT issues enumerated within the 41-page filing include problems controlling the window defroster, rear-view camera and navigation system. The suit maintains that Ford is aware of the problem but has yet to submit a workable and acceptable solution to MFT customers. Scroll down if you'd like to read the full press release.

Preserving automotive history costs big bucks

$1.8 million is spent each year to maintain GM's fleet of 600 production and concept cars.
When at least two of the Detroit Three were on the verge of death a few years back, one of the tough questions that was asked of Ford, General Motors and Chrysler execs - outside of why execs were still taking private planes to meetings - was why each company maintained huge archives of old production and concept vehicles. GM, for example, had an 1,100-vehicle collection when talk of a federal bailout began.