Ford actually has a reputation for building extremely safe vehicles. I read somewhere (and it wasn't a Ford advertisement) that the 2006 fleet of Fords ranks at or near the top of the safety rankings in almost every vehicle class.
Actually, going back to the mid-late 90s, Ford had more 5-star crash ratings than all other manufacturers combined.
I know someone who split a highway guardrail at an estimated 85 mph in their Taurus and ended up in a field(the car was totalled, of course). All three (him, his wife, and their infant) were unscratched. They bought another Taurus the next day.
There is a motorpool where I work. A little while back a Ford Windstar came back in after an accident. The driver hit a telephone pole so hard the pole wound up between the front of the driver's and passenger's seats. I have no idea what happened to the engine!
But both doors still worked, the rear door still worked, and the airbags deployed. The unbelted driver walked away with a bump on the head. It was really impressive.
You look at the violence that was necessary to put that telephone pole into the middle of this vehicle, and nobody got hurt. Amazing!