Ford

With gas prices continuing a steady upward climb, you may be headed to the dealer in search of something less thirsty at the pump. But which cars' sticker price gives you the most bang for your buck? We asked Edmunds.com to look at the vehicles with the lowest sticker price per fuel-economy rating. The math was simple: divide the car's base price by its EPA rating for combined fuel economy. The result gives a look at how much each mile per gallon will cost you. Photos: Top 10 cars with lowest cost per mpg Topping the list is Ford's C-Max Energi.

After skipping out on entering a Newport Beach rehabilitation facility and facing the prospect of arrest for violating her probation, Lindsay Lohan has checked into the Betty Ford Center to begin a 90-day court-mandated stay in her reckless driving conviction. Lohan also rehired her former attorney Shawn Holley, who represented her for several years, and the lawyer arranged for the "Mean Girls" star to enter the Rancho Mirage facility. The moves capped a chaotic 24 hours in which Lohan showed up Thursday at Morningside Recovery in Newport Beach, only to promptly leave.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Danica Patrick's return to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in a stock car ended in a hard crash less than halfway through Saturday's Indiana 250. Patrick, the former IndyCar driver who now races in NASCAR's second-tier Nationwide Series, was running about 20th when the top five race leaders made pit stops. Patrick remained on the track and was running behind Reed Sorenson. As the two entered Turn 1 on lap 39 of the 100-lap race, Patrick's No. 7 Chevrolet tapped the back of Sorenson's No. 98 Ford, sending Sorenson into a spin.

Harrison Ford has made it pretty clear during his current press rounds for the movie "42" that he's not interested in discussing the upcoming "Star Wars" movies. But that hasn't stopped interviewer after interviewer from bringing it up. That all came to a head on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" on Wednesday night, when Ford confronted both "Star Wars" curiosity and a decidedly unsavory figure from his past: Chewbacca. In case you're wondering, yes this was a stunt. But an entertaining one. Kimmel brought up the upcoming "Star Wars" movies and Ford once again expressed his unwillingness to talk about them.

It's all crossovers these days. From the polo grounds of Malibu to the campgrounds of Maine, nearly a fifth of all vehicles sold in the U.S. last year resided somewhere in this netherworld between a car and an SUV. So the stakes were high for Toyota's overdue redesign of the RAV4, a pioneer of the segment in the mid-1990s that had grown stale in comparison with competitors. Often resembling small sport utility vehicles, crossovers are truck-like vehicles built on front-drive car platforms.

Chrysler Group will recall more than 200,000 of its vehicles, including its Ram pickup truck,  Dodge Challengers and Chargers and Jeep Liberty and Patriots for a variety of problems. In the biggest recall, the automaker will inspect and fix about 120,000 Chrysler 300s, and Dodge Challenger and Chargers sedans from the 2011 and 2012 model years because of an airbag problem. The wrong-sized crimps were used in building the airbag wiring harness, and that can can cause the airbag warning light to illuminate.

Auto leasing deals abound these days, with offers that often seem too good to be true. How about a well-equipped Honda Accord for $250 a month with no down payment or any other drive-off fees? Or better yet, $199 a month for a Chevrolet Malibu? So, what's the catch? There isn't any if you know what you're getting into. There are always details. You need top-tier credit to qualify. You pay a penalty if you turn that Honda in with more than 36,000 miles. And the payment is not $250 a month because of that little matter of tax. It is more like $275, depending on where you live.

A decade ago, as Ford engineers prepared the next-generation Mustang, they stared down an inescapable truth: The best Mustangs were built in the 1960s. So they set out to build a brand-new 1968 Mustang fastback, wrapping modern technology in retro sheet metal. That strategy carried its own risks, like asking the Rolling Stones to rerecord "Exile on Main Street. " It's clear now that it worked brilliantly, setting off an unlikely second coming of the muscle car era. In a familiar stampede, Chevrolet and Dodge - which scrambled in the '60s to make their own "pony cars" - followed Ford's lead again with refried versions of the original Camaro and Challenger.

With more than 4 million people visiting Yosemite National Park last year ? and that number expected to increase this year ? it's no wonder lodging inside the park is snatched up quickly. "We typically sell out during the summer season," Delaware North Cos. spokeswoman Lisa Cesaro said of its Yosemite accommodations (Ahwahnee Hotel, Yosemite Lodge at the Falls, Curry Village and the housekeeping camp on the Merced River; the Wawona Hotel, and in the back country, Tuolumne Meadows Lodge, White Wolf Lodge and the High Sierra camps)

Car dealers have found a new way to profit from people with money trouble: leasing them hand-me-down vehicles. The deals are pitched to customers as the cheapest way to drive a used car off the lot, with the added benefit of an easy escape for those who can't keep up with the payments. Few customers are told about the advantages on the other side of the trade. Leases can allow dealerships to sidestep interest rate caps, and there are fewer financial disclosures rules than with a conventional car loan.

Two of the biggest rivals in American industry - General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. - are again joining together to develop transmissions for their next generation of cars. The automakers said Sunday they will team to create nine-speed and 10-speed transmissions that will be smoother and more fuel efficient than the gearboxes currently in their cars and trucks. "Americans want smooth-shifting transmissions," said Dave Sullivan, manager of product analysis for AutoPacific Inc., an industry consulting firm.

The 2013 Shelby GT350 takes a standard Mustang GT and adds more than $40,000 in performance upgrades - bringing the whole package to about $74,000. That's a lot for a Mustang. But any doubts about spending Corvette money on the juiced-up Ford are erased after only moments in the GT350. This is a talented car. Key upgrades in the Shelby package include Wilwood brakes, a Ford Racing suspension, a short-throw shifter, Shelby 19-inch rims wrapped in ultra-sticky Goodyear tires and Borla exhaust, along with new front and rear bumpers and a new hood with a functional scoop.

Ford is headed to Mother Russia. The American automaker announced Thursday that the first Explorer SUV built from the ground up outside of the U.S. rolled off the assembly line in Elabuga, Russia. Previously, the Explorer was built in large chunks at Ford's plant in Chicago, and then shipped to Russia for final assembly. Ford said the Chicago facility will continue to build Explorers for the U.S. market and for export to 64 countries. The Russian-built Explorers are built by Ford Sollers, a joint venture between Ford and Sollers.

The Ford Theatres in Hollywood is featuring a new performance series named after county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky as part of its new 2013 summer season. The season, which was announced this week, includes Mandy Patinkin with the Pasadena Pops, Complexions Contemporary Ballet and the Lula Washington Dance Theatre. Last year, organizers announced that the Ford would undergo a multimillion-dollar renovation that would include new seating and resurfacing to prevent leaks. The reported price tag for this first stage of renovations was $7.5 million, with the money coming from the county.

Just two weeks after Shelby American introduced a supercharged Ford Raptor at the 2013 New York Auto Show, Ford itself announced a special edition package for its meanest truck on the lot. The F-150 SVT Raptor Special Edition makes no mechanical changes to the base Raptor that Highway 1 tested in 2011 , but instead focuses on the pretty stuff. A ruby red metallic paint joins the color palette, accented by unique graphics on the truck's bed. Inside, the Special Edition gets uniquely trimmed seats and other accents.

Ford and Toyota -- two of the biggest automakers in the world -- are in an ego contest over which car sells the most globally, the Focus or the Corolla. Earlier this week Ford Motor Co.  trumpeted how its Focus compact car is the bestselling vehicle in the world. Toyota says it's not true. Toyota Motor Corp. says it sold 1,160,764 Corolla nameplate vehicles globally in 2012, including sedans, wagon and liftbacks. Photos: Top 10 cars with lowest cost per mpg That's more than the 1,020,410 Focus models sold worldwide last year.

Ford is recalling its hot-selling new Escape sport-utility vehicle again -- the fifth recall for the auto since the redesigned model started selling last year. This time Ford is recalling about 7,150 cars from the 2013 model year, including the Escape, the Focus compact car and its C-Max hybrid to ensure the child lock on the rear left-hand door works properly. Ford said that in some of the vehicles, the left rear door child lock “may have been built incorrectly.” It might seem like the child lock is engaged, but it won't hold the door closed if someone attempts to open it. The automaker said it is not aware of any accidents or injuries attributed to this problem.

It's rare to see a hint of Maserati or a dash of Aston Martin in a family sedan. The reason is simple: Automakers need to sell mid-size sedans by the truckload. To please that many people at once, the design needs to avoid offending buyers even more than it needs to entice them. So it's refreshing to see Ford's 2013 Fusion, a good and good-looking car in a segment where form follows way behind function. The 2013 Fusion is the second generation of the family sedan from Ford, but it doesn't share a freckle with its predecessor.

An American automaker has the top-selling car in the world -- the Ford Focus. Research firm R.L. Polk & Co. said Ford Motor Co. sold 1,020,410 Focus models worldwide last year. About a quarter of the sales were in the U.S. The Focus beat out the second-best seller -- Toyota's Corolla with sales of 872,774  -- by a wide margin. Including the F-series truck and Fiesta compact car, Ford had three of the 10 top-selling vehicles internationally, the firm reported. “Ford has been among the leaders in Europe for a long time and the Focus and the Fiesta have traditionally done well there,” said Tom Libby, an analyst at Polk.

Over the decades, films about legendary baseball players have sometimes knocked it out of the park (1942's "The Pride of the Yankees" about Lou Gehrig) or struck out (1948's "The Babe Ruth Story. ") The latest baseball biopic to step up to the plate is "42," opening Friday, which chronicles Jackie Robinson's (Chadwick Boseman) breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball in 1947 when he took the field as a Brooklyn Dodger. Hall of Fame announcer Vin Scully, 85, who has been with the Dodgers since 1950, knew Robinson and Dodgers executive Branch Rickey.