Free Republic

I was initially delighted to learn that President Obama cited Henry Ford in a speech, because Ford's industrial methods were directly responsible for making the United States the wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth. If Obama is, in fact, channeling Ford, there is hope for the remainder of his term. If, on the other hand, he is not, I am the last person on earth to whom he should try to make this argument. ...The need for a square deal for everybody in a supply chain, including employees, customers, and suppliers as well as investors, is indeed one of...

(CNN) -- The White House has secured commitments from some of the nation's largest companies for a plan to boost hiring of the long-term unemployed. "What we have done is to gather together 300 companies, just to start with, including, some of the top 50 companies in the country, companies like Walmart, and Apple, Ford and others, to say let's establish best practices," President Barack Obama told CNN Chief Washington Correspondent Jake Tapper in an exclusive interview. "Because they've been unemployed ... so long, folks are looking at that gap in the resume and they're weeding them out before these...

**SNIP** But a lot of people are having fun trying to decipher if there was something meaningful to be discerned here. Visiting the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Biden said to Ford Motor Company Chairman William Clay Ford Jr., “Thanks for saving our #.” What? Now you might think it would be an auto executive saying to Biden, “Thanks for saving our #,” although Ford didn’t take the bailout money GM and Chrysler took (although Ford has accepted plenty of federal support in other forms, such as loans for green technology development).

At the 2015 Ford F-150 reveal Bill Ford trotted out what he hopes to be a "tougher and smarter" look for their iconic pickup. With tidy proportions, an imposing face and a glorious panoramic sunroof, that look is good.

Ford's Global VP/Marketing and Sales, Jim Farley, said something both sinister and obvious during a panel discussion about data privacy today at CES, the big electronics trade show in Las Vegas. Because of the GPS units installed in Ford vehicles, Ford knows when its drivers are speeding, and where they are while they're doing it. Farley was trying to describe how much data Ford has on its customers, and illustrate the fact that the company uses very little of it in order to avoid raising privacy concerns: "We know everyone who breaks the law, we know when you're doing it....

In the latest bid to use the sun to drive our cars, Ford will show off the vehicle above later this month at the annual Consumer Electronics Show. Labeled the Ford C-Max Solar Energi Concept, Ford says it shows how sunlight could replace the plug for electric vehicles — but only with a carport-sized magnifying glass.Ford and its partners, solar-cell builder SunPower and the Georgia Institute of Technology, say they've come up with a way around such issues for the C-Max Solar Energi. In its sun-chasing form, the C-Max can get a full recharge of its 8 kWh battery with...

Video At: http://media.ford.com/content/dam/fordmedia/North%20America/US/2014/01/CMAX-solar.mov/jcr:content/renditions/cq5dam.video.firefoxhq.ogg

Youre in it @ 70 mph with no seat backs, no seat belts and no brakes! Can it get any better?? State of the art cotton cord tire technology. Just go for a ride back in history with NASCARS Carl Edwards.. http://www.youtube.com/embed/Ru_hC9oGVbo?feature=player_detailpage

One day, millions of car parts could be printed as quickly as newspapers and as easily as pushing a button on the office copy machine, saving months of development time and millions of dollars. 3D printing technology is making that day come sooner at Ford Motor Company. The development of the engine cover for the all-new Ford Mustang is the most recent example of the use of this technology. Ford uses 3D printing to quickly produce prototype parts, shaving months off the development time for individual components used in all of its vehicles, such as cylinder heads, intake manifolds and...

General Motors Co. said Wednesday it will stop making cars and engines in Australia by the end of 2017, with nearly 2,900 jobs to be lost, because of high production costs and competition. The decision could spell the end of car manufacturing in Australia as the industry will be too small for supporting businesses such as parts makers to remain economic. Toyota Motor Corp. announced it is reassessing its future in Australia. A union said 50,000 jobs in the auto industry are in jeopardy. GM’s Australian subsidiary Holden once dominated Australian auto sales, but lost market share to imported cars....

On that fateful day 50 years ago in Dallas, the future of the United States was thought to be at stake. Heightened security measures surrounded a newly sworn-in president, who was whisked from Texas aboard Air Force One, shadowed by Secret Service agents and the widow of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. In the ensuing weeks, the Warren Commission was established and a sullied Secret Service pondered how to better protect the 36th president of the United States while still allowing him the mobility to leave the White House. Transporting the president would never be the same. According to experts in presidential...

WASILLA — Would you pay the Kelley Blue Book value of $2,318 for a 1999 Ford Expedition in excellent condition? If it had fewer than 75,000 miles, would you pay more? How much would that sport utility vehicle be worth if you knew it had been driven by former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin? The city of Wasilla hopes the answer to that last question is at least $10,000. That’s the minimum bid the city has set in an eBay.com ad for the city vehicle Palin drove while she was Wasilla mayor. The 5.4-liter Expedition XLT model, gold in color,...

Ford Motor Co. is coming a little late to the race to design an ultra-low cost car for first-time car buyers in developing markets, but company executives have learned a lesson from rivals that moved first. Affordable, yes; cheap, no. Ford is unveiling in Brazil on Wednesday a prototype for a new tiny subcompact car called the Ka that aims to tackle the entry-level buyer in countries where being middle class means you can just afford a car that costs about $10,000, or a third the average price of a vehicle sold in the U.S. With a car like the...

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is doubling down against calls for his resignation amid reports that police have a video showing him smoking crack. In a whirlwind radio show on Sunday, the embattled mayor apologized for getting drunk in public and said he would try and make sure it didn't happen again. "I shouldn't have got hammered down at the Danforth [festival]," Ford said on his weekly radio show Sunday, according to Toronto's Globe and Mail newspaper. "If you are going to have a couple drinks, you stay at home. You don't make a public spectacle of yourself." But Ford did...

The two-week partial shutdown of the U.S. government, affecting 800,000 federal employees, has experts uncertain about how automotive sales will be affected. Ford, GM and Ram all seem to be expecting strong sales numbers for October, especially in the booming pickup truck segment, but none seem certain how the shutdown could impact consumers' future big-ticket spending decisions. That's because the shutdown increased consumer anxiety about the overall U.S. economy, according to a story by Consumer Affairs Editor Kelsey Mays at Cars.com, and consumer confidence has not increased much since the shutdown ceased. Apparently there's no shortage of opinions about how...

In a nation obsessed with the right now, few things have held up over the past 50 years as well as the Ford ­Mustang. The first pony car debuted at the 1964 New York World’s Fair and instantly became a tent pole of Americana. Before the model officially turns 50 on April 17, 2014, Ford will celebrate its lasting ­contribution to the postwar-boom culture with a brand-new, much anticipated Mustang. But the times, they are a changin’ (yep, a song also released in 1964). Ford’s American icon continues to gain offshore admirers. The Blue Oval plans to sell the next...

A name makes all the difference in the fight between Ford and Toyota over who has the top-selling car in the world. Ford on Wednesday claimed that crown for its Focus compact during the first half of the year, based on registration data gathered by the R.L. Polk & Co. research firm. … But Toyota disputes Ford’s leadership. The Japanese automaker has said it sold a Corolla hatchback under the Matrix name, and it sells cars that are nearly identical to the Corolla under different names in countries outside the U.S. …

More than half of Texans said that the nearly $50 billion taxpayer bailout of General Motors may deter them from buying from the company, according to a survey released Tuesday. The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), a nonprofit ethics watchdog, surveyed more than 500 Texas residents and found that 40 percent said the bailout would “absolutely” affect their decision about buying one of GM’s new pick-up trucks. More than 22 percent said it would “likely” or “very likely” affect their decision, while just 24 percent answered “not too likely.” About 150 of those surveyed said that they were in...

Chevy Silverado: "Strong" Commercial | Chevrolet 1:03 minute One of the most disappointing aspects of last week's sales results from General Motors was the underperformance of the much-hyped new truck offerings from the company. While the industry-leading Ford F-Series saw sales increase about 10 percent to around 60,500 vehicles for the month, GM's combined sales for its competing Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra fell approximately 8 percent to about 46,000 units. GM's Obama-appointed management's performance in trying to explain the declining sales was as lame as the sales results. Amongst the excuses for disappointing truck sales, GM did not include...

I was looking at all these newfangled pieces of equipment here --- some of the things that allowed the efficiencies of this plant originated in laboratories and scientists doing work on the government’s dime," he said. "That's how we always maintain our cutting edge." So what is behind the greatness of the American economy? Obama carefully gives credit to the private sector, but he argues that government is essential to this process.