Here’s a little known fact: Henry Ford used natural material like hemp and stray to reinforce plastic components in his cars. Now, Ford is at it again with a small quarter trim bin found in the third row of the Ford Flex made out of wheat straw bio-filled polypropylene. Wheat straw!

Holy cats, Ford is going downmarket. Way down. Way, way down. Daniel Grossman, VP of Ford Motor Company, just announced to ONN the $650 car, which will be the least expensive, and cheapest, car available in any market. That’s right. A car I can afford to buy on my salary. My wife will be so excited. Watch the video announcement after the jump.

The days of automakers shoving the same OEM radio into all of their cars are long gone – at least for vehicles over $20k. Now if you drop enough coin, you can get a system that will rival your home theater gear. Sound & Vision recently spent sometime with the THX II sound system found in the Lincoln MKT crossover. Spoiler: your audiophile dad should like it.

Ford and Microsoft have found great success partnering together on Sync and the rest of the automotive industry have finally taken notice. We’ve taken Sync for a ride or two and know that it works as advertised. We even took a 2010 Mustang for a spin over the weekend and even without the full-fledged Nav system with touchscreen, Sync worked great. BTW- Ford kicked some ass on the new Mustang. The interior is plush.

Anyway, BMW and Nuance announced earlier today that they’ve partnered to bring Nuance’s Music Search and One-shot Destination Entry tech to the Bavarian’s 2010 lineup of whips with Professional. Said system launches this month in the US and Europe. The speech recognition technology will go hand-in-hand with BMW’s already overly complicated iDrive system. Have fun with that.

The U.S. Government created a requirement that by 2020, the majority of cars sold here must get at least 35 miles per gallon. This requires a big commitment on the part of auto makers and so the Energy Department was authorized last year to lend $25 billion dollars. The first round of financing is expected to be announced today with Ford, Nissan, and Tesla getting all getting a sizable chunk during this first round. GM and Chrysler both wanted a bunch of money too, but neither fit the criteria of being a “financial viable” so they were disqualified for this first round.

Nissan hasn’t announced how much the Japanese automaker has requested from the U.S. Government, but we know that Michigan-based Ford and California-based Tesla Motors Inc. are expected to get $5 billion and $450 million respectively.

This $25 billion fund was approved by Congress in 2008 to help auto makers retool facilities and speed up development of more energy efficient vehicles. It was the Government after all that decided that vehicles needed to reach an average of 35 miles per gallon by a random date instead of the natural evolution of development and technology.

Now, I can’t say I feel one way or the other about Ford and Sync in particular, but this is a worthwhile milestone. Cars are changing fast, and although I doubt they’ll look like these F-Zero-wannabes any time soon, the coalescing of all those dash controls into a single unit is a serious advance. Ford’s Sync is the poster child for these systems, what with Microsoft’s backing and all that. Now, it may not come standard yet (in fact, it costs a mint to get the whole setup) but getting it into a million vehicles means that it’s no longer a niche add-on but a legit option.

I say no, but that’s just me. What do I know, I just spent 10 days driving 3,200 miles in a 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid. But I’m not hyper-miller Wayne Gerdes or NASCAR driver Carl Edwards who are about to attempt this feat by spending 43 continues hours driving the hybrid a 1,000 miles. Ford states that the car will need to average 57 mpg to achieve the goal, which I guess is possible even though I never saw that type of mileage.

I dropped by the NY Auto Show yesterday and checked out this active park assist thing from Ford. I was a little skeptical about a self-parallel parking car, but it is 2009 and I’m pretty sure we were supposed to have flying cars by now. Check out the demo I got in the Lincoln MKS.

Ford speak for the Fusion’s new display cluster is SmartGauge Cluster with EcoGuide; I call it the coolest thing about the car. Two LCD displays flank either side of the speedometer and display vast amounts of info. Thankfully though, Ford leaves it up to the driver with four different settings on just how much info it displays. These two screens signal a departure from the standard dial-type clusters and I for one welcome the innovation. These dynamic screens can display a wider range of information than their static counterparts and can be customized for individual drivers. Just one question: when are we going to see this on more vehicles?

Oh, and those little leaves off on the right? They are clever reminders how much you are helping save the planet when driving this car; more leaves means your driving smart and achieving better fuel economy. The video after the break shows the cluster in action.

A wee bit ago I took a spin in the Ford Flex here in NYC. While it’s not a geek’s dream, it does have a few high tech goodies that kept my interest. That’s what we’re going to focus on with these Test Drive features going forward since we’re not an auto blog.

This ain’t your daddy’s Lincoln Town Car. In fact, it’s completely different than anything you’ve ever seen before. With balls to the wall power and a teeth shattering sound system, the MKS from Lincoln is a whole other beast. And I like it.

Like our other Test Drive features, I won’t get into the gearheadesque details of reviewing a car, but, rather, focus on the technological side of it. I will start with a few notes about how fast it is, though.

Ford and Microsoft has been hard at work upgrading their lovechild named Sync 3.0. The latest version upgrades simply adds more features but maintains the easy-to-use voice-activated system. Simply press the button on the steering wheel and say one of the pre-recorded commands. That’s it. Simple and easy. Exciting video demo after the break.

After a quick breathalyzer test at 11:30 am, we were granted access for a spin in Ford’s upcoming escape. Overall, we came away impressed with the drive but curious about the plug-in’s price will be set at for the 2012 model year. Will it be higher than the seemingly inferior Chevy Volt? Ford’s being tight lipped ’bout it probably while it surveys the every-increasing plug-in market. After driving it around the basement of the Cobo Arena, we can tell you that it’s a hell of a ride. Smooth and super-duper quiet. Well done, Ford. Well done. Video after the break.

Show of hands: who remembers WebTV? It was a great idea that was ahead of its time. Today, though, it seems like every product under the sun is Internet-connected, whether there’s demonstrable benefit or not. Sure, there’s an in-dash computer in a Ford F150 pickup allows service techs to browse the web. Is that a good idea?

Tech companies are struggling with the question of whether it’s gadgets or services that consumers want. As the New York Times observes, “If the most exciting thing about your phone or truck or TV is the Web sites you go to and the software applications you download, then the device itself is less important.”

Info ’bout Ford’s Active Park Assist parallel parking wizardry recently broke cover and now the Blue Oval released a video demo of the system. It seems to work well in the company-made video but excuse me while I hold judgement until a real hands on emerges. Video after the break.

Parallel parking is the bane of many student drivers but is an important skill to master. Ford, however, is set to take away all the fun and automate the process in upcoming Lincoln models. The system, dubbed Active Park Assist in Ford speak, seems to create the same result as Lexus’s system but ditches cameras in favor of ultrasonic sensors.