The Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) is an American multinational corporation and the world's fifth largest automaker based on worldwide vehicle sales, following Toyota, General Motors, Volkswagen and Hyundai-Kia. Based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, the automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury brands, Ford also owns Volvo Cars of Sweden, and a small stake in Mazda of Japan and Aston Martin of England.
Ford's former UK subsidiaries Jaguar and Land Rover were sold to Tata Motors of India in March 2008. Ford introduced methods for large-scale manufacturing of cars and large-scale management of an industrial workforce using elaborately engineered manufacturing sequences typified by moving assembly lines. Henry Ford's methods came to be known around the world as Fordism by 1914.
Ford is currently the fifth largest automaker in the world, directly behind Hyundai-Kia. In 2007, Ford fell from second to third-ranked automaker in US sales for the first time in 56 years, behind only General Motors and Toyota. However, Ford occasionally outsells Toyota on monthly periods (most recently, during the summer months of 2009).
As of 2008, Ford has become the second largest automaker in Europe (only behind Volkswagen), with sales that occasionally exceed those in the United States and large markets in Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Ford is the seventh-ranked overall American-based company in the 2008 Fortune 500 list, based on global revenues in 2008 of $146.3 billion. In 2008, Ford produced 5.532 million automobiles and employed about 213,000 employees at around 90 plants and facilities worldwide.
Starting in 2007, Ford received more initial quality survey awards from J. D. Power and Associates than any other automaker. Five of Ford's vehicles ranked at the top of their categories and fourteen vehicles ranked in the top three.
I love my Ford it saved my life, was t-boned right in the drivers door, last thing I saw was the other cars headlight sliding past my face, it killed my car, but I'm still here to talk about it, so I... more
I love my Ford it saved my life, was t-boned right in the drivers door, last thing I saw was the other cars headlight sliding past my face, it killed my car, but I'm still here to talk about it, so I bought another one just like it. He ran a stop sign and hit me doing 50 or better, didn't come out uninjured, but I'm still here, thats good enough for me. FORD-found our ride delivered.......Thanks