Sunset Ford Dealer Blog

If you spend a lot of time commuting in your 2008 Ford Focus or other smaller car, you might feel like you’re wasting a good portion of your day. Here are some things that you can do during the commute to make the most out of your travel time:

• Use a hands-free device with your cell phone to catch up on phone calls with friends and family. While you probably won’t be able to do this on the commute in to work, you can certainly do it on the way home.

• Bring your MP3 player and an FM tuner. You can catch up on podcasts that you regularly listen to, or listen to your favorite type of music. There are even audio books available in MP3 format today.

• Learn a new language. Language lessons on CD (or MP3, for that matter) are perfect for your commute.

• Expand your horizons a bit. Find some classical music CDs, or some other genre that you may not regularly listen to. Consider Jazz or Opera, or something wild and exciting like Techno Pop.

• Use the commute to relax. Spend some time focusing on the good things in your life. Visualize your dreams. Think about all of the positive things in your life, and about how successful you’d like to be today. Prepare your positive mental attitude on the way into work.

• Consider a portable car seat massager. Make sure, of course, that it doesn’t interfere with your operation of the vehicle.

• Use a voice recorder to record ideas, brainstorms, plans for your day or even a grocery list.

• If you participate in an extracurricular singing activity, such as a barbershop quartet, community theatre or a choir, practice singing during your commute. Just be aware that other drivers may be watching you!

Above all, just try to enjoy the ride. Your Ford Focus is built for the commute, so sit back, relax and realize that you’ll be to your destination in no time.

With school starting in only a few weeks, summer is quickly winding down to a close. There’s not much time to get that last road trip in before the weather starts cooling down. But any great road trip needs a good mix of road trip songs. Next week, I’d like to post a series of blogs about some of the best road trip songs ever. First, however, I’d like to define what makes a song ideal for driving down the highway.

1. Can you sing along with it? A good road trip songs NEEDS to have parts where everybody can sing along. Once you start singing some of your favorite songs with your friends or family, time flies by so fast. “I’m Gonna Be” by The Proclaimers, “Night Moves” by Bob Seeger and “Once Bitten, Twice Shy” by Great White are perfect examples.

2. Does it talk about driving? Songs that mention cities or driving are great for road trips. Some examples are “Amarillo by Morning” by George Strait, “I’ve Been Everywhere,” by Johnny Cash and “Paradise City” by Guns ‘N’ Roses will do just fine.

3. Does the song talk about escaping real life? Those are some of the best road trip songs. The reason you’re going on a vacation is to “get away from it all” and these types of songs remind you of that. “Breakaway” by Kelly Clarkson, “Time for Me to Fly” by REO Speedwagon and “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” by Meatloaf would be great additions to your mix CD.

If you want to create the perfect road trip, make some great mix CDs and use one of the great Ford cars on the market. There’s no better way to get from here to there and back again.

In a world where gas is more than $4 a gallon and steadily climbing in some places, how does a company strategically market a huge pickup truck? It’s not easy, but the Ford Motor Company has a plan.

The Ford F150 has been the automaker’s best-selling vehicle for more than 30 years. Now, it’s time to change its marketing because motorists no longer want a truck for everyday driving. So Ford is focusing on marketing the iconic truck toward contractors and construction workers.

Instead of producing more trucks with the four-door cab style, the new Ford trucks coming off the assembly line only have two doors. Those models have always been more popular for farmers, contractors and other fleet customers anyways. Mike Crowley, a marketing manager at Ford, said the automaker is going to focus on the “core truck buyer.” He said the people who “want a truck, and need a truck, will make a compromise to buy it.”

But that’s not all. Crowley also said Ford is going to focus on touting the improved fuel efficiency of the new 2009 F150s. the new models should get an extra 1.5 miles to the gallon because of the lighter weight and more aerodynamic design. Next year, Ford is also offering an optional diesel engine to improve the fuel economy even more.

Hopefully, the new marketing strategy takes off and intrigues more people to invest in these quality vehicles.