Free Republic

Men like Ford was the catalyst that generated opportunities and because of needs provide jobs for many, many citizens across the nation and than spawn other kinds of creations that we enjoy today. Capitalist Henry Ford’s Mirror of America museum what a legacy Ford left us! - Clip 1 video Introduction

Ford offers buyouts to all UAW workers Photo 3:27pm EST DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co said Monday it is offering its 41,000 U.S. factory workers buyouts and early retirement offers in a bid to reduce its payroll costs as it aims to return to profit by 2011. The buyouts mark the second round of such offers for Ford workers represented by the United Auto Workers union. About 1,000 workers took offers to leave the automaker in July. Ford workers have until late January to accept the offers, which include payouts of up to $70,000 cash for newer hires to...

Now 45 years old and revamped for 2010 with new styling and more powerful V-8, the "pony car" that debuted in 1964 is strikingly muscular, more energetic than before and thoroughly cool for a modern buyer. You dont even have to pretend to be Steve McQueen, the lead actor in the 1968 film "Bullitt" who famously drove a Mustang in one of Hollywoods best chase scenes, to enjoy the new Mustangs unique persona.

Detroit, Mich., Dec 1, 2009 / 02:05 am (CNA).- Responding to an increasing number of women who continue to drive late in their pregnancies, car manufacturers are researching safety devices to help protect expecting mothers. The research includes a crash test dummy of a pregnant woman named MAMA 2B.Researcher Stefan Duma of Virginia Tech told USA Today that although states are not required to report fetal deaths in accident data, between 300 and 1,000 unborn babies die in car accidents each year. This accident fatality rate is about four times the rate for victims between infancy and four years...

Researchers trying to protect pregnant drivers

What was expected to be a boring congressional hearing erupted into high drama yesterday as an unnerved Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner sparred with frustrated lawmakers calling for his head over his handling of the economy. Clearly rattled by a fusillade of attacks from Republican members of the Joint Economic Committee, the usually reserved Geithner lashed out, laying blame for the current economic mess at the feet of the GOP and rejecting suggestions that he resign. Republicans "gave this president an economy falling off the cliff," Geithner fired back at Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), one of the Treasury secretary's harshest critics...

While on the board of a Chicago-based charity, Barack Obama helped fund a carbon trading exchange that will likely play a critical role in the cap-and-trade carbon reduction program he is now trying to push through Congress as president. In 2000 and 2001, while Barack Obama served as a board member for a Chicago-based charitable foundation, he helped to fund a pioneering carbon trading exchange that is likely to fill a critical role in the controversial cap-and-trade carbon reduction scheme that President Obama is now trying to push rapidly through Congress. During those two years, the Joyce Foundation gave nearly...

During his testimony today, two Republican Congressmen urged Tim Geithner to resign, or said he should be fired. The commentariat seemed shocked that something like this would come up during an official Congressional hearing. And yet, now they're discussing it on CNBC, as a serious question, which is exactly what the Congressmen hoped. It's like when that one Congressman screamed "you lie" during Obama's speech about healthcare. Everyone was scandalized, but it accomplished the goal of getting people to talk about whether or not illegal immigrants would be covered by new healthcare reforms (which is what the shout was in...

A year ago, when the heads of Detroit's Big Three - GM's Rick Wagoner, Ford's Alan Mulally, and Chrysler's Bob Nardelli - appeared in the infamous Capitol Hill bailout hearings, many lawmakers, and many Americans, decided that this trio from the industrial heartland could all be tarred with the bad-CEO brush. There was a telling moment, during a discussion about executive compensation, when the three CEOs were asked if they were willing to work for a dollar a year. Mulally's polite reply, "I think I'm OK where I am," was a juicy piece of red meat for the national media,...

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) -- Ford Motor Co. says it plans to sell a new police cruiser vehicle to replace the Crown Victoria once the sedan is phased out of production in 2011.

Paul Ingrassia's "How Ford Is Making Its Comeback" (op-ed, Nov. 5) is encouraging in illustrating that industrial America can succeed with the proper leadership. The disheartening aspect is the failure of the United Auto Workers to give the same contract amendments to Ford that it gave to General Motors and Chrysler. This puts Ford at a competitive disadvantage versus its government- and union-owned competitors. The UAW is behaving in the same shortsighted and greedy manner that contributed to the bankruptcy of GM and Chrysler. One could conclude that the UAW has learned nothing from the near-death experience of the American...

Ford Learns The Price Of Solvency Logan Robinson, 11.07.09, 12:00 PM EST But what has the UAW learned? In plant-by-plant voting over the last few weeks a large majority of the 41,000 United Auto Workers (UAW) workers employed by the Ford Motor Company voted to reject modifications to their collective bargaining agreement negotiated by their own national union. The modifications were designed to bring the Ford-UAW agreement into parity with concessions the UAW gave to GM and Chrysler as part of their government-brokered bankruptcies. They included a wage freeze for entry-level workers until the 2015 contract, a commitment to binding...

As U.S. car manufacturer 'stuns' Wall Street with 3Q profits, some media forget to report Ford didn't take government cash. Ford Motor Company took everyone by “surprise” Nov. 2, when it announced nearly a billion dollars in profit for the third quarter of 2009. The company also said it would be “solidly profitable” by 2011. CNN repeated the announcement on Nov. 3 “American Morning,” saying, “Turning now to the Big Three in Detroit, Chrysler extends its buyout offer to more than 20,000 employees while General Motors is still trying to restructure spending billions of bailout dollars, but Ford – which...

The news from Dearborn is sunny, except for the auto maker's labor relations. A year ago, Ford Motor Co. steered clear of the auto industry's version of the "public option." You know, a government-funded bankruptcy. Maybe the decision wasn't entirely altruistic. Plan B, as in bankruptcy, would have ended more than a century of Ford family control. Whatever the motives, Ford chose a private solution for regaining its corporate health, and today the patient is walking without a government crutch. Last week Consumer Reports gave the company quality ratings comparable to those of Honda and Toyota. On Monday, Ford reported...

Ford, the least public of all U.S. auto firms, has increased its market share in 12 of the past 13 months.

Ford Motor Co. will haul out piles of arsenic-laced soil found in Ringwood State Park, ending a four-year battle over the source of the waste. The company failed to prove the cancer-causing element was a naturally occurring remnant of mining in the remote mountain in Ringwood, rather than a byproduct of the paint sludge it dumped decades ago. As a result, the federal Environmental Protection Agency is demanding Ford remove the contamination as part of its Superfund cleanup. Plastic tarps now cover several hockey-rink size swaths of the toxic-laden soil. Federal officials say the arsenic isn’t leaching and has not...

C4C Since “Cash For Clunkers” applied to Ford, GM and Chrysler. Why did Ford Motor Company post a ONE BILLION DOLLAR 3rd quarter PROFIT and GM and Chrysler post losses? It couldn’t be the autos since all models are about the same size, design and price. I believe it was the consumer buying more Fords as a REWARD for not taking TARP money and remaining a private company. The more units sold, the more profit. Consumer votes have been cast. Ford, GM and Chrysler have gone their separate ways. Now when GM and Chrysler look up they see the gutter...

Ford, the only Detroit automaker to dodge direct government aid and bankruptcy court, surprised investors with net income of nearly $1 billion in the third quarter and forecast a "solidly profitable" 2011. The automaker said Monday earnings were fueled by U.S. market share gains, cost cuts and the Cash for Clunkers program, which drew flocks of buyers to showrooms this summer. Ford's shares rose 58 cents, or 8.3 percent, to $7.58 in pre-market trading. The latest results signal that Ford's turnaround is on more solid ground. The company lost more than $14.6 billion last year and hasn't posted a full-year...

DEARBORN, Mich. — Ford, the only Detroit automaker to dodge direct government aid and bankruptcy court, surprised investors with net income of nearly $1 billion in the third quarter and forecast a "solidly profitable" 2011.

Do I detect a bit of payback in this story? The UAW rank-and-file rejected a renegotiated contract from Ford intended to bring themselves into parity with GM and Chrysler, as has long been the practice for the Detroit automakers. In doing so, the workers also rejected the counsel of their own union, which had endorsed the new contract. Ford will have to operate at a disadvantage for the next two years in terms of compensation as a result:

DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co.'s rank-and-file union members rejected a concessions agreement, leaving the auto maker at risk to higher costs compared with competitors Chrysler Group LLC and General Motors Co. Although some locals are still voting through Sunday, the United Auto Workers national leadership has accepted the defeat, said three union sources who asked not to be identified since they don't officially speak for the UAW. The leadership is now reviewing other options, these people said. UAW President Ron Gettelfinger told Dow Jones Newswires on Friday he will not continue bargaining or conduct a re-vote. Ford will now have...

Doubts are growing about whether the Ford pact with the United Auto Workers will be approved after the rank and file at two more plants overwhelmingly rejected it. Workers at a parts-making plant in Saline, Mich., voted 75 percent against the deal. Research and engineering employees in Dearborn, Mich., were even more negative, with roughly 90 percent voting against the deal. Ford’s biggest assembly plant, at Claycomo, has already voted 92 percent against the concessions, which Ford says it needs to stay competitive. Chrysler and General Motors got the conessions from the UAW, but they were going through bankruptcy, which...

Bob Dewar, author of the new book A Savage Factory, was general foreman at the Ford Sharonville transmission plant in Ohio in the 1970s, and says he saw upfront the industry’s ethic of waste and meet-the-quota at all costs, quality be damned. Car and Driver said A Savage Factory details “the savage but darkly funny war waged between the hourly line workers, the factory foreman, management, the UAW, and the ‘Detroit Mafia’—a/k/a the ‘suits from Dearborn.’ If One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest had taken place in a plant in the 1970s, it would be A Savage Factory.” So far...

China to launch case against U.S. Big Three automakers Doug Palmer Thu, Oct 29 08:37 AM China has told the United States it is launching a trade investigation that could lead to new import duties on autos and sports utility vehicles made by Chrysler, Ford and General Motors, a U.S. industry official said on Wednesday. The action comes as U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack are in China for high-level talks aimed at resolving trade irritants between the two countries. President Barack Obama, who will visit China in mid-November, angered Beijing last...

U.S. auto sales tumbled by 23 percent in September as showrooms emptied after the government-funded boom from the "cash for clunkers" program, with General Motors Co and Chrysler hardest-hit. Sales for General Motors Co and Chrysler -- the two U.S. automakers struggling to regain momentum after emerging from bankruptcy -- dropped by 45 percent and 42 percent, respectively. Ford -- the only U.S. automaker to have avoided bankruptcy -- managed to hold its sales decline to 5 percent from a year earlier despite low inventories and reduced incentives for car shoppers. Automakers had braced for a sharp pullback in September...

Some significant items worth sharing in the automotive field today: Roger Penske has backed out of a deal to buy Saturn from GM at the last moment. Penske was unable to finalize a deal with Renault to sell vehicles produced at Renault factories in the coming years (GM had agreed to keep producing Saturns for Penske for the first few years). GM had said the Penske deal would save 13000 jobs. There is no indication of a backup plan now for Saturn, it sounds like it will be dead in about a year. In other news, the head of the...

America, are you ready for Rush Limbaugh in an electric car? The conservative talk show host has agreed to take Jay Leno's "Green Car Challenge." In the segment airing next Thursday on NBC's "Jay Leno Show," Limbaugh will race an electric Ford Focus around a custom-built track beside Leno's studio, the show's representative confirmed. The "Green Car Challenge" segment makes its debut on the primetime show tomorrow night. Celebrities who participate drive two times around the twisty track, which takes a little less than a minute to complete. By the time Rush gets behind the wheel of the zero-emission vehicle,...

Police say that DNA material found at hotel after killing matches that of Cesar Gomez,34. A man arrested and charged with murdering a prostitute at a Garden Grove hotel is a gang member who has been deported to Mexico three times in the last decade, Garden Grove police said at a press conference this morning. Cesar Gomez, 34,of El Monte,is scheduled to be arraigned on a murder charge Monday at West Justice Center. He is accused of strangling Ashley Lilly, 24, of Inglewood, to death at the Crowne Plaza Anaheim Resort on Harbor Boulevard some time late Aug. 20 or...

C/D TEST RESULTS: Zero to 60 mph: 5.1 sec Zero to 100 mph: 12.5 sec Zero to 120 mph: 18.2 sec Street start, 5–60 mph: 5.6 sec Standing ¼-mile: 13.7 sec @ 104 mph Top speed (governor limited, mfr’s claim): 149 mph Braking, 70–0 mph: 164 ft Roadholding, 200-ft-dia skidpad: 0.92 g

Ride along for a hot lap at Laguna Seca in Ford’s venomous Shelby GT500 Mustang

When Ford refreshed the 2010 Mustang, they ignored mostly the engine bay. However, that will change with the new 2011 Ford Mustang. The base Mustang will be powered by Ford’s 3.7L V6 for the 2011 model year. Although that engine yields 273 horses in Lincoln cars, power will be ramped up to 315 horsepower for the Mustang. That represents a significant increase of 105 horsepower over the current V6-powered Mustang. Furthermore, a 400 horsepower 5.0L V8 motor will also join the Mustang lineup for 2011. Dubbed ‘Coyote,’ it will be used in the Mustang GT model with a six-speed manual...

Link only

This is a list of 20 quotes from people that dare to challenge that assumption that the Cash for Clunkers program is a success — by pointing out he obvious flaws few talk about. View the list of top 20 quotes: http://www.cardealerreviews.org/?p=116708

The woman who tried to assassinate President Gerald Ford is expected to be released from prison on August 16 after serving her sentence. Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, a one-time follower of mass murderer Charles Manson, has been serving a life sentence . Fromme has been incarcerated at a prison in Fort Worth, Texas. Fromme had told her defense attorney she staged the attack because she "wanted to get some attention for a new trial" for Manson and members of his gang.

Futures look up a bit less than one percent as markets respond Euopean stocks. In Europe, stocks reached a one year high and the euphoria appears to be spreading to the states. Early movers includ 3M which is responding to an upgrade from Goldman Sachs. Meanwhile, Coors and Tyson lead a smaller calendar of earnings reporters this week.

Lawyers emerge as the winner in Ford settlement SAN FRANCISCO – The lawyers were paid millions of dollars. Ford Motor Co. put behind it a costly lawsuit connected to the Explorer rollover scandal of the 1990s. And the judge closed out a complex case that clogged the Sacramento County Superior Court's overburdened calendar for more than seven years. Everyone seemingly got some tangible benefit — except for nearly all of the 1 million consumers covered by the class action lawsuit filed in their name. None of the consumers got money, only discount coupons toward new Ford purchases. Few used them....

Ford Motor Co will report its U.S. sales for July rose from a year ago on a late-month surge under the federal government's "Cash for Clunkers" incentive program, senior U.S. executives said on Sunday. The July increase marks Ford's first year-over-year monthly rise since November 2007, just before the U.S. economic downturn began, and the first increase for any of the largest automakers since the start of the financial crisis a year ago. The result is "important to Ford, but it is also a very good indication for the economy," Ford U.S. sales chief Ken Czubay said in a telephone...

It's the first day of the week, so we have some weekend carry-overs on today's digg list. http://diggsandburies.blogspot.com/

Even beleaguered Ford Motors has found it easy to "make" money once again. It reported a $2.3 billion second-quarter profit...

The death of Pol Pot, 23 years to the day after he and the Khmer Rouge seized control of Cambodia, occasioned long backward glances at one of the 20th century's most horrific genocides. It was noted everywhere that the communist reign of terror in Cambodia lasted nearly four years and that at least 1 million human beings -- by some estimates as many as 2 1/2 million -- were murdered in an orgy of executions, torture, and starvation. "In the name of a radical utopia," The New York Times recalled in its long obituary, "the Khmer Rouge regime had turned...

DETROIT -- Ford Motor narrowed its operating losses in the second quarter, as it reaped the benefits of cost savings and market share gains at the expense of its domestic rivals.

Simply a must see Ford commercial. Ford, the only car company NOT getting a bailout.

This was inevitable. When the Obama administration effectively took over General Motors, Obama-friendly media hacks were going to tout the company's products . . . And so it was that on his MSNBC show this evening, Ed Schultz offered up an unpaid infomercial for GM's new Camaro. Most grotesque was Schultz's boast that the Camaro was outselling the Ford Mustang. Take that, private-sector company that declined to take Obama's dime! View video here.

Robert McNamara died Monday at the age of 93. Not a lot will be written about him because he is reviled by the left for his role in the Viet Nam war, and reviled by others for his mismanagement and failures. I am one of the latter. McNamara throughout his career held himself in higher regard than those around him did. He felt his intelligence trumped all, even when he was barking up the wrong tree. Prior to being tapped by Jack Kennedy for Defense Secretary, he was President of Ford. He came to Ford as one of a dozen...

There is a groundswell of disdain for the federal bailouts of General Motors and Chrysler, even as polls show that a growing "Buy American" sentiment is boosting sales for the only Detroit automaker that avoided bankruptcy and federal rescue - Ford. GM and Chrysler say some buyers are coming back to support them, even trading in their Mercedes for Chevrolets. But it is bailout opponents who are the most visible - and audible. Conservatives thunder that the country has taken a socialist route with President Obama at the wheel. "I won't buy a socialist car," columnist and radio talk-show host...

In a recent op-ed piece published in The Wall Street Journal, Alan Reynolds of the Cato Institute starts by making a few decent points about fuel taxation and fuel economy rules. Unfortunately, he undermines himself with some blatant errors and misinformation. In discussing how Detroit automakers will deal with new fuel efficiency requirements, he makes the all-too-common mistake of referring to Ford's hybrid system as licensed from Toyota ("Similarly, Ford has the Toyota-licensed hybrid Fusion and will soon produce the European Ford Fiesta in Mexico"). The reality is that Ford independently developed its own hybrid system at the same time...

So, it's the Fourth of July, and you're feeling a little more patriotic than usual. Sounds like a great time to buy a domestic car, right? Well, first you need to answer the question: "what is a domestic car?" Is a Chevy built in South Korea domestic, or how about a Hyundai assembled in Alabama? Since that debate is not likely to be settled anytime soon, we've decided to keep it simple and list the top 10 domestic cars based strictly on content, as compiled by the National Highway and Transportation Administration. Of course NHTSA's definition of "domestic" includes Canadian-sourced...

Two of the biggest car makers in America, Ford Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Co., called a bottom to the long decline in U.S. auto sales as the industry reported its smallest monthly sales drop this year. New-vehicle sales in June fell 28% from a year earlier to 860,000 cars and light trucks, according to the market-research firm Autodata Corp. That would be the smallest decline in any month this year.

As Ford looks to reinvent itself with smaller, energy efficient vehicles they are faced with the stark reality that as of late May their Ford F-150 series continues to outsell the Toyota Camry. Let that sink in for a moment. The best-selling truck in the U.S. still outsells the best-selling car, according to a report by the American Institute for Economic Research. New car sales have generally declined through the 1990's to the present, while truck sales rose precipitously from the 70s until just a few years ago. Annual car and truck sales are now virtually even. President Obama last...