Every year brings new uncertainties to the car business, and 2012 will be no different. The devil will be in the details. With the U.S. economy expanding, pent-up demand growing, and the Detroit Three earning, the survival of the industry is not in question so much as is its composition. Will buyers be looking for big trucks or small cars, import brands or domestics, gasoline-power or electricity?
While the rest of the automotive world was wrestling this week with the question of who would succeed Alan Mulally as Ford CEO, Fiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne slipped into New York City to accept an award from a group promoting international business -- and made some news of his own.
The guessing game about who will succeed Alan Mulally as Ford CEO moved into the late innings this week with a front-page article in Automotive News. In a story headlined "4 top CEO candidates emerge inside Ford," it speculated on whether Mulally's successor would be an outsider like him or someone already working at the company.
FORTUNE -- Disenchantment with American institutions like big business seems to be at an all-time high. So what is a Ford Motor retiree doing spending $15,000 of his own money to praise his former employer and its top management?
Ford Motor continued its turnaround story with its ninth straight quarter of operating profit, but did not announce the return of its dividend that investors had been seeking.
Leadership is a choice. Pure and simple.
The advance buzz around Drive, the movie about a Hollywood stunt driver played by Ryan Gosling, got me to thinking: We have lots of movies featuring cars, from Bullitt to The Fast and Furious, but where are the movies about car companies?
Is it fair to say there is a leadership vacuum in the auto industry?
Ford and Chrysler sold more cars over the last three months, but the bottom line results at both automakers were limited by costs.
Ford Motor Co. will tell investors Tuesday that it will boost sales globally by 50% through increased production of small vehicles and the targeting of emerging markets.
Ford Motor Co. will unveil its plan to investors to boost sales by ramping up production on small vehicles and focusing on emerging markets, CNN has confirmed.
Ford Motor combined strong sales and improved pricing to roar past earnings forecasts and post its best first-quarter profit since 1998.
For CEO Alan Mulally was paid more than $26.5 million dollars in 2010, according to documents filed Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Though it's had a rough year so far, Ford's stock proved that it is built strong and tough.
Ford Motor has rewarded the executives responsible for its turnaround, granting CEO Alan Mulally $33.4 million in stock after taxes, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Ford Motor posted its highest annual income in more than a decade Friday, although fourth-quarter earnings disappointed investors.
Give Alan Mulally lemons and he makes lemonade.
Ford Motor Company CEO Alan Mulally is carefully sidestepping the question of whether Ford intends to design one or more unique vehicle platforms for its Lincoln luxury brand, to distinguish Lincolns from the middle-of-the market Fords.
The readers have made their choice in our Businessperson of the Year competition, and after a month of rabid online voting, they've given the crown to Alan Mulally, CEO of Ford.
When Fortune set out to pick the Businessperson of the Year -- and the 49 runners-up -- we searched for leaders who didn't just crawl from the wreckage of the Great Recession, but sprinted from it. Below is the compete list. Select each name to read more or click here to scroll through the gallery of winners. We also asked readers to tell us who they thought should be at the top of the list. You can find the results of that March Madness-style competition here.
Ford Motor reported record third-quarter net income Tuesday, far exceeding analyst expectations and continuing a surge in momentum for the recovering automaker.
The news that General Motors is paying $3.5 billion for AmeriCredit, an auto finance company, is another signal that change is coming to Detroit -- and quickly.
Ford Motor Co. continued to lead major automakers in recovering from the difficulties of a year ago by reporting a better-than-expected first quarter profit Tuesday.
Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne will be back in the spotlight Wednesday when he is due to unveil a five year business plan for the Italian automaker and its American partner, Chrysler.
Ford Motor CEO Alan Mulally received close to $1 million more last year than in 2008, despite a big cut in base pay and no cash bonus, according to a filing from the automaker.
The honeymoon is officially over.
Ford Motor reported its first full-year profit since 2005 and said it expects to be profitable again in 2010.
This just in from Cobo Hall, Detroit, scene of the 2010 North American International Auto Show:
Ford Motor reported a surprise profit for the third quarter Monday, helped by a bump in sales from the Cash for Clunkers program, a reduced cost structure and problems at its U.S. rivals.
Ford Motor Co. reported a net profit in the second quarter thanks to efforts to reduce its debt. But the company posted another operating loss during the second quarter due to a continued slump in sales.
With General Motors' Chapter 11 filing, Ford Motor stands alone among Detroit's Big Three in dodging a shareholder-crushing government bailout. If the car market continues to slide, that may be a short-lived accolade. If not, it's a testament to the carmaker's hard work, smart financial planning and competent management.
Alan Mulally is in my face - again. In fact, he has barely left it for the past two hours. He has taken me through the thick loose-leaf binder he assembled for my interview and shown me another five binders filled with interviews he did upon taking the CEO job at Ford, along with research material and personal notes.
Ford Motor said Wednesday it will spend $550 million to convert a plant, which previously produced trucks and SUVs, into a "green" manufacturing complex and build small, fuel-efficient and electric cars.
Ford Motor reported a narrower-than-expected loss for the first quarter Friday, and its CEO said he is confident the company will not need the same kind of federal bailout that is keeping its U.S. rivals alive.
Ford Motor reported that its ongoing losses soared in the fourth quarter, but the company reiterated it still does not need the federal bailout already received by its two U.S. rivals.
The chief executives of Ford and GM joined their Chrysler counterpart Tuesday in agreeing to accept salaries of $1 a year if Congress comes through with a bailout for the automakers.
Ford Motor reported a $3 billion quarterly operating loss on Friday and said it would reduce staff and capital spending in order to preserve its dwindling cash.
The case for a bailout of U.S. automakers came under sharp scrutiny on Tuesday at a congressional hearing that portrayed the Big Three as both short-sighted in their business strategies and central to the economy.
updated: Tue Nov 18 2008 11:44:00
Ford CEO Alan Mulally talks with CNN's John Roberts about the future of U.S. automakers.
Ford Motor Company chief executive Alan Mulally defended his company Tuesday against charges that Ford caused its own problems and said bailing out Detroit was essential to the U.S. economic recovery.
Ford Motor Co. announced plans to transform its vehicle lineup on Thursday and reported the largest quarterly loss in its 105-year history.
Bets are running high that next week's report on June sales for the Big Three automakers will be horrible - down as much as 25%. Shares in General Motors and Ford have fallen sharply as the companies whack tens of thousands of pickups and SUVs out of their production schedules to keep inventories under control.
It appears that the prospect of $4 gas finally has Americans getting serious about fuel economy.
Ford Motor Co. executives say they believe that $4 gas is here to stay, resulting in a fundamental consumer shift away from gas-guzzling SUVs and pickups and causing continued losses at its core North American auto unit.
Ford Motor Co. no longer expects to return to profitability by 2009 and is cutting North American production of pickups and SUVs for the rest of this year
Black ink is always better than red ink, and Alan Mulally and his team at Ford Motor should pat themselves on the back for their first-quarter performance. They can thank strong results overseas combined with aggressive cost cuts at home that were sufficient to overcome a turbulent global economy and especially poor auto sales in the United States.
Ford Motor Co. surprised Wall Street on Thursday with a $100 million profit in the first quarter as strong results from Europe and South America helped offset the impact of a slumping U.S. economy that cut car and truck sales in its main market
What makes a Ford a Ford? The question is simple, and a 105-year-old company should know how it wants its cars to look, feel, and drive: the resistance in the steering wheel, the spring in the seats, the rumble from the exhaust. But Ford is still struggling to find an answer. So on a blustery spring morning, CEO Alan Mulally and 25 top executives from the United States and Europe meet at a test track near company headquarters in Dearborn, Mich., to tease that question out, one component at a time.
In recent months, life seemed to have returned to near-normal at Ford Motor. New CEO Alan Mulally had settled in after 18 months in the job, and the company was well along executing his major objective: integrating the company's global operations.
As most economic indicators continue to flash yellow - and occasionally red - a vigorous debate is unfolding about how far auto sales will fall this year.
With one full year under his belt, Ford CEO Alan Mulally can point to a lot of progress in pulling the automaker back from the brink. But a look at Ford's financial results, as well as some comments that Mulally himself has made in the past few days, shows he still has lots of unfinished business to take care of.
Ford CEO Alan Mulally met with a group of reporters in Detroit earlier this week and, based on reports in the local papers, he was not very encouraging.
Embattled automaker Ford Motor trimmed losses in the third quarter to post near-break even operating results, despite a sharp drop in U.S. sales in the period.
Ford Motor may seek deeper cost cuts from the United Auto Workers union than those that the union granted to General Motors, according to a published report.
Ford CEO Alan Mulally became the latest high-profile business executive to suggest that the Federal Reserve needs to cut interest rates, according to a report published Friday.
Ford Motor Co. Chief Executive Alan Mulally said the No. 2 U.S. automaker was on track to return to profitability in 2009 despite a forecast for weaker industry sales in 2007.
Ford Motor drove well past forecasts Thursday as it reported an unexpected second-quarter profit, helped by gain in its overseas auto operations.
Ford Motor Co said Monday it would test a fleet of rechargeable hybrids with utility Southern California Edison in a partnership that environmental advocates said underscores the growing interest in vehicles capable of running with little gasoline.
On a fact-finding mission to learn more about the auto business, Alan Mulally, the new CEO of Ford Motor, traveled to an old drag strip in East Haddam, Conn., to see how Consumer Reports tests cars...
There is internal dissent within the Ford family about the future of its stake in Ford Motor, as some members recently pushed to hire top Wall Street dealmakers to advise them on their holdings in the troubled automaker, according to a published report.
Struggling Ford Motor Co., which posted a record $12.7 billion net loss in 2006, gave its new CEO Alan Mulally $28 million for four months on the job, according to the company's proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday.
Embattled Ford Motor Co. will give bonuses to most of its workers despite posting a record $12.7 billion loss last year as it tries to improve morale in the middle of a downsizing.
Alan Mulally, former Boeing executive who became Ford Motor CEO in September, is about get a new perspective on his company's sales problems: a dealers' showroom.
Ford Motor Co. reported the largest annual loss in company history Thursday. The embattled automaker also posted a fourth-quarter loss that was worse than analysts' expectations and warned of worse showings ahead.
Ford CEO Alan Mulally said the company needs painful concessions from the United Auto Workers union, but not an alliance with rival Toyota Motor, to complete its turnaround efforts, according to published reports.
U.S. stocks looked poised to follow overseas markets sharply higher at the start of trading Wednesday as the end-of-the year rally shows no sign of ending early.
Stocks looked poised Friday to build on a record-high close for the Dow after a key inflation report showed no rise from the previous month.
When automakers fall on hard times, a string of ugly events commences that leads the company into a downward spiral. Slowing sales lead to loss of morale and faith in the company, which cause dealers to defect and talented people to leave, which in turn produces delays in new product programs that, of course, drive sales further south.
2006 was a year of surprises in the auto industry - most of them bad.By Alex Taylor III, Fortune senior editor
Top executives from General Motors, Ford and Chrysler got their meeting with President Bush Tuesday, and while they left saying they were pleased by the talks, they also left without any firm pledges of help from the administration.
Right after his company's staggering $5.8 billion third-quarter loss, new Ford Motor CEO Alan Mulally came to New York to present himself to automotive analysts and business journalists for the fir...
The auto business is a product business, but you are an airplane guy, not a car guy. How can you help out in the new model development that is so vital to Ford's health.
Okay, this is getting a little ridiculous, right? Gettin' a little giddy. Ten new highs on the Dow in the last 15 sessions? And now I see some forecasters saying: "Oh, the market's not too high, it's going up more." That to me says TOP!
Coming into the auto industry after years of making airplanes, new Ford chief Alan Mulally has a lot to learn about cars and not much time to do it. Business really stinks at Ford, which recently a...
Alan Mulally is already shaking up management practices at Ford, according to a report published Friday.
Bill Ford finally joined the club just before Labor Day weekend. That's when he became the latest chief executive of a giant corporation to cop publicly to the most fundamental and alarming of busi...
By coming into the auto industry after years of making airplanes, new Ford chief Alan Mulally has a lot to learn about cars and not much time to do it. Business really stinks at Ford, which recently announced that it's offering buyouts to all its 75,000 UAW members and cutting its North American salaried workforce by one third.
Two months ago, excitement swirled in the auto industry and on Wall Street about prospects for General Motors joining an alliance with Nissan and Renault.
Years from now, Ford will probably look back on 2006 just as fondly as it does on its failed Edsel.
Ford Motor Co. could announce a new round of salaried job cuts as soon as Friday, according to a published report.
Stocks slumped Wednesday morning after a jump in a key measure of inflation in the morning's second-quarter productivity report revived worries about the economy.
Stocks slipped Wednesday morning after a key measure of inflation in the morning's reading on second-quarter productivity revived concerns about the economy.
The news that Bill Ford is stepping down as CEO of the company his great-grandfather founded is not surprising. Ford has been searching for someone to run the world's third largest automaker for more than a year and has publicly confessed that at times he felt overwhelmed by the job.
Ford Motor Co. Tuesday surprised the auto industry by tapping senior Boeing executive Alan Mulally as its new chief executive officer, succeeding current CEO Bill Ford, who will stay on as chairman.
Forget big metal birds of steel, the aircraft of the future will be constructed out of non-metal materials.
When Boeing publicly unveiled an artist's rendering of the Sonic Cruiser 21 months ago, the company bragged that its new plane "will change the way the world flies." Capable of transporting 225 pas...
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