At the beginning of the season, few people expected that Chevrolet teams will completely dominate team running Ford, Dodge and Toyota cars. But the early goings of the season saw Chevrolet almost sweeping the top ten in every race. In fact, from the first points race of the season until the Pocono 500, the fourteenth race of the season, only one non-Chevy team has won a race.

That win came at the Auto Club 500, the second points race of the season which was held at the California Speedway. Matt Kenseth driving his Number 17 Ford Fusion won the race for Roush Fenway Racing. After that win though, it was all Chevrolet and it seems that Ford as well as Dodge and Toyota are being totally dominated by Chevrolet teams.

During the past four races though it seems that Ford’s luck is changing as they have won two out of the four races. Dodge has one win and Chevrolet has one. Jamie McMurray recorded Ford’s third win of the season at the Pepsi 400. Aside from winning the race, five Ford drivers made it to the top twelve which means that Ford is slowly gaining on Chevrolet teams.

All three Ford wins are from teams owned by Roush Fenway Racing. Team owner Jack Roush says that the team has underperformed at the start of the season since they have misjudged the amount of time that their competitors are going to spend on testing their vehicles. NASCAR is currently studying whether their testing policies are still being observed and ensures fairness among teams.

The next race of the season will be the USG Sheetrock 400 which will be held at the Chicagoland Speedway. Going into the nineteenth race of the season slated for Sunday, Ford is finally looking as a tough competitor to the Chevrolets fielded by competing teams. Although sharing the same body structure to ensure fairness, the performance of Ford and Chevrolet NASCAR cars vary due to their setup and whatnot. The revitalized Ford teams are now fielding cars which can outrun a Ford hubcap-equipped road bound Ford Fusion.

“The big thing that has helped us with the Car of Tomorrow is we now have a test team,” said Roush explaining their recent resurgence. “We are doing the things I thought we weren’t going to be allowed to do when NASCAR told us we couldn’t take tires from the racetrack because they didn’t want us to test. I thought they would put teeth in that, but they didn’t.”

“We got behind. But five weeks ago I hired six people and dedicated a tractor-trailer (for testing). We’ve been to Iowa, Milwaukee four times in the last month, and Road Atlanta and VIR (Virginia International Raceway).”

The three wins posted by Roush Fenway Racing came at races where the current template for cars is used. But in order for them to be a real threat to Chevrolet teams, they have to perform well at Car of Tomorrow (CoT) races. The CoT template will be the only template that will be used for the next season and Ford is still working on improving their CoT.

“We’re not caught up yet,” said Roush pertaining to the CoT. “But we’re certainly on the path, and we’ll be heard from more before the year is over.”

Dearborn-based carmaker Ford Motor Company recently announced that Gerald L. Shaheen has been elected to the company’s board of directors. The appointment, according to the automaker, is effective immediately. Shaheen is a group president at the Caterpillar Inc. in Peoria, Illinois.

“Gerry is a respected business leader with more than 40 years of service in a variety of management positions with Caterpillar,” said Ford’s Executive Chairman Bill Ford. “He brings a manufacturing and dealer perspective to Ford’s Board of Directors. We look forward to the significant contributions he will make in helping Ford to deliver its plan for automotive leadership and for creating profitable growth for all going forward.”

Ford is currently in the process of implementing its turnaround plan. After a disastrous year in 2006 when Ford lost $12.7 billion, the company formulated the Way Forward – the company’s turnaround plan. Shaheen’s presence in the company’s Board of Directors will be welcomed as the newly-elected director has had experience and expertise that Ford could benefit from.

As for Shaheen, he has this to say after elected to the Board of Directors: “I’m both thrilled and honored to be in a leadership position as a Board member with the Ford Motor Company, one of the truly great American companies. I look forward to working with Ford’s Board of Directors and the leadership team to make this great company even stronger.”

Aside from being a Board member for the Dearborn automaker, Shaheen is also a Board member of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers or AEM. He is also a Board member and immediate past chairman of the United States Chamber of Commerce. Shaheen is also a Board member of the National Chamber Foundation and the Mineral Information Institute Inc.

Part of his impressive resume is the fact that he also serves on the Board of Directors for National City Corporation. At the said firm, Shaheen is the chairman of the Nominating and Board of Directors Governance Committee, as well as the AGCO Corporation where he is also a chairman for the Compensation Committee though.

In Peoria, Illinois, Shaheen also serves on the Board of Trustees of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Greater Illinois Chapter and the Peoria NEXT. The leadership skills that have served Shaheen in all his other positions would be appreciated by the company especially that the company is facing its toughest problem in its lengthy history.

The newest member of Ford’s Board of Directors received his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Bradley University in 1966. He received his Master of Business Administration degree from the same university in 1968. Shaheen also served the university including his tenure as the president of the university’s Alumni Association. He is also currently a member of the university’s Board of Trustees.

Ford, which manufactures automobiles with the distinctive Ford grille, is the part of the Ford Motor Company along with other marques. The Ford Motor Company has the Lincoln division which produces luxury vehicles; Mercury which markets near-luxury models; Ford brand which is known for its large vehicles especially the F-Series. FoMoCo is also the parent company of the luxury brand Jaguar as well as the Land Rover brand. Volvo Cars is also part of FoMoCo.

The Ford Motor Company, despite having had to go through financial trouble, is still trying to bring the auto world vehicles that may not be production vehicles but could still be one of the most amazing and even interesting ones there are. Just like any other auto maker, Ford also does create its own share of concept vehicles. And perhaps with just the right design, the company may have been able to create a concept vehicle that is a combination of Ford Ranger performance parts and car parts Ford Taurus.

For this year, the Ford Motor Company now comes with a new concept car which Ford followers, car aficionados, and simple consumers can gawk at, make a spectacle of, and eventually be a fan of. This new concept car that has joined the ranks of Ford concept cars like the Ford Aurora, Bronco Wildflower, Cougar, Econoline Apartment, Explorer Drifter, Fiera, FX-Atmos, Ghia, Indigo, Muroc, and Nucleon is actually named the 2007 Ford Mustang Giugiaro concept.

The 2007 Ford Mustang Giugiaro concept has been created with an interior made up of horse hide. It comes with a huge glass roof that would really get your attention. It has got fenders made using carbon fiber. The doors are even quite amazing. Imagine having a vehicle that are electrically operator and crisscross themselves just like scissors would do. Mustang may be the name attributed to this Ford concept car but it sure is not like an ordinary Mustang.

A combination of American power and Italian design and style. That is what the 2007 Ford Mustang Giugiaro concept car really is. After all, this one has got the design straight right out of the brilliant minds of people from Giugaro design works as well as Giogetto Giugaro and Fabrizio Giugaro themselves. According to Giugaro, they made sure that the body panels were as tight as possible so that the vehicle was given a new kind of look. However, despite such, the vehicle also had to go through a widening of the front and back.

Design was not the only thing this vehicle had to go through. The 2007 Mustang Giugiaro concept vehicle also comes with a new 4.6 liter V8 engine that has got an intercooled and twin-screw supercharger.

Struggling automaker, the Ford Motor Company is currently pushing the implementation of its turnaround plan. After losing billions last year, the most that the company has lost in its lengthy history, Ford is now looking to increase sale and stabilize its market share. For the past decade or so, Ford has seen the decline of their market share. Ford is hoping to stop the slide by their vehicles for the 2008 model year lineup.

The company though is facing an uphill battle since many American auto buyers are still caught in the perception that Ford vehicles lag behind their Asian counterparts in terms of reliability. This is because of the fact that Japanese carmakers such as Toyota, Honda and Nissan have proven years ago that they produce durable vehicles. Today, Ford and other American car manufacturers are battling this perception.

Mark Fields, Ford president of the Americas. said that they are already making a good start in the implementation of their turnaround plan. According to Fields, Ford is already on its way to stabilizing its market share between 14 to 15 percent. Stopping the shrinking of their market share is the first move that the company needs to take in order for that market share to increase in the future.

To catch the attention of American auto buyers, Ford has been aggressively advertising their new vehicles. The Ford Fusion is being pitted against its established competitors, the Toyota Camry and the Honda Accord, in the Fusion Challenge. The ad campaign is based on actual drive tests where real life consumers rated the Fusion higher than the Camry and the Accord in certain areas.

The result of this aggressive ad campaign is positive for the company as increased sales for the new Ford Fusion shows. Aside from the Ford Fusion, the Mercury Milan also showed increased sale as a result of the aggressive marketing campaign of the Dearborn-based car manufacturer. According to Fields, the Ford Edge, the automaker’s entry to the midsize crossover SUV segment is doing well. In fact, according to Fields, the Edge is outselling the Toyota Highlander.

Aside from these nameplates showing increased sale, Ford’s luxury brand Lincoln is also showing signs of growth. In the past, the Lincoln brand is one of the more popular luxury brands in the country but its popularity has been declining in the past years. Recently though, the brand is being touted as one of the fastest growing luxury brands in the market.

Other nameplates which are doing well in the market aside from the best selling Ford F 150 and its Ford truck accessories are the Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner. These crossovers have given Ford a foothold in the growing crossover market. The segment in the past has been dominated by Asian carmakers but now, Ford is making a niche in the said market with the Escape and the Mariner.

But while these nameplates and the Lincoln brand are showing promises of resurgence for the company, they are still facing problems. For one, they are still in the process of repaying their $23 billion loan last year. “Time is not our friend,” said Fields. In order to bring the company back to profitability, Ford needs car buyers to not only say that their vehicles are competitive but buy them.

President of Ford Motor Corporation’s Americas group, Mark Fields recently told employees that he will no longer use the company’s jet for his weekly commute to Florida. It should be noted that Fields has been criticized in recent months when he called out to all Ford employees to sacrifice and added that they will be eliminating more than 40,000 jobs and reduce employee benefits to reduce costs.

He was recently surprised by a local television news reporter outside his home in Delray Beach, Florida, who was asking him to explain how he could reconcile his costly travel expenses with his calls for sacrifice from Ford employees.

Ford spokesman Tom Hoyt has confirmed Field’s decision. He said that according to Fields the whole controversy about him is just a scheme to divert attention away from more important issues like Ford’s efforts to turnaround its North American automobile business.

According to Hoyt, “He doesn’t want this or any other issue to distract the team. This was Mark’s decision. The company supported his commitment to his family.” Hoyt further stressed that the decision was entirely Fields’.

The use of Ford corporate jet for his private travel was not just a personal whim on the part of Fields’ but rather included in the compensation agreement when he was promoted to head of Ford’s Americas group in 2005. In order to fulfill his role at Ford, Fields and his family have had to relocate several times to allow him to give Ford his undivided attention during the week while avoiding disruptions for his wife and children.

In place of the company jet, Fields will be using a commercial carrier to continue his weekly commute from south Florida where his family lives.

About Mark Fields

Mark Fields is President of Ford Motor Corporation’s Americas group and an executive of the FoMoCo manufacturer of quality Ford parts. As head of the Americas division, Fields was tasked to develop Ford’s “The Way Forward” plan a program developed to repair the ailing automaker. He directly reports to Allan Mulally, Ford’s CEO for all matters that concern the company.

Mark Fields was born in Brooklyn, New York but grew up in Paramus, New Jersey. He holds an economic degree from Rutgers University and worked for IBM prior to attaining an MBA at Harvard Graduate School of Business. He was recruited by Ford in 1989 and moved up the ranks becoming the youngest person ever to run a major Japanese company when placed him in charge of Mazda Motor Corporation in 1998.

In the year 2002 Mark Fields became chairman of the Premier Automotive Group, Ford’s luxury units which include Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo Cars. By 2005 he returned to the United States to head the Americas division of Ford.

When Mark Field was 45 years old he was named business unit chief of Ford Motor’s operations in Americas. It was in December 14, 2006 when Ford CEO Mulally announced the promotion of Mark Fields as President of Ford Motor Corporation’s Americas group.

The results of the new studies conducted on Dearborn automakers comprising of Ford, Toyota, Nissan, and Honda—shows that the initial vehicle quality of Ford Motor Co. is in only in par with Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp and Nissan Motor Corp. The three automakers were ranked second place. On the other hand, Honda Motor Co. was chosen as the quality leader.

The RDA Group is a market research firm based in Bloomfield Hills that conducts a survey for Ford manufacturer of top-of-the-line Mercury mufflers. The research group in ask 31,000 new vehicle owners of 2007 model cars and trucks from all full-line manufacturers regarding problems that they encountered during the first 90 days of ownership.

The Detroit News in turn evaluates the findings with sources familiar with the report. And according to these sources four Ford vehicles namely the Mercury Milan, Ford Expedition EL, Lincoln Navigator, and Ford Shelby GT-500 — led their segments in initial quality. The main objective of Ford for hiring a research group is to improve further its quality as it tries to hold on to the remaining US market share after years of continuously losing to foreign competitors.

The results of the RDA study show that Ford cars and trucks had 1,458 problems per 1000 vehicles which is 32 problems short of the industry average of 1,490 and 128 lower than what Ford customers has reported last year.

For Ford’s North American brands the results were even better showing Ford, Mercury, and Lincoln with only 1,456 problems per 1,000 vehicles. According to some sources the overall number was slightly affected by the automaker’s European brands. The Mercury Milan with its quality Mercury muffler was one of Ford’s problem-free vehicles obtaining only 910 problems per 1000 vehicles.

Ford spokeswoman Anne Marie Gattari has confirmed the existence of the report but refused to give any details of the said findings. However she said that the company will release the details as soon as possible but they prefer to tell the employees first. She also added that the company’s main concern for now is improving quality which is the very core of the company’s Way Forward turnaround plan.

According to Gattari, “We are pleased with the direction of our quality, but we’re not satisfied. This is something we have to continue to be diligent with. Quality, along with safety, innovation and design, are our top priorities in delivering more vehicles that customers want.”

Attracting consumers…

Although the RDA study has shown that Ford is catching up with its Japanese rivals but it is still behind its Asian competitors when it comes to customer satisfaction which is vital since it determines whether or not customers would endorse the brand to other buyers.

RDA has been conducting an annual survey for Ford way back late 1990s. The research group is also doing the same studies for other automakers. Its findings are as reliable as the closely-watched initial quality survey conducted independently by J.D. Power and Associates of Westlake Village, California. And same with the RDA findings, the J.D. Power study has also shown that Ford’s brands only comes second to Toyota.

Other independent analysts are also conducting their own studies such as the notably Consumer Reports magazine which has taken note of the quality improvement in Ford and recently announced the Milan and its Blue Oval sibling, the Ford Fusion as the most impressive new vehicles for the 2007 model year.

David Champion, senior director for automotive testing at Consumer Reports said, “We see Ford as the top domestic in many ways. They’ve realized they’re going to be eaten for lunch if they don’t produce reliable vehicles.”

Champion also added that the new products of Ford shows some remarkable improvement compared to the previous products that the automaker was offering a few years back. He said that it’s good that Ford is finally learning from its past mistakes as well as from its Japanese affiliate, Mazda Motor Corp. which shares similar production practices with Toyota. However he also said that it would take more than strong initial quality reports to convince car buyer to patronize the brand.