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plus 4, Ford sweeps North American Car and Truck of the Year awards - Autoweek.com

plus 4, Ford sweeps North American Car and Truck of the Year awards - Autoweek.com

Ford sweeps North American Car and Truck of the Year awards - Autoweek.com

Posted: 11 Jan 2010 05:43 AM PST

Ford swept the North American Car and Truck of the Year awards on Monday to kick off the Detroit auto show.

The Fusion hybrid earned 241 votes to beat out the Volkswagen Golf (146) and the Buick LaCrosse (103) in the car category.

The Transit Connect tabulated 213 votes to defeat the Chevrolet Equinox (183) and the Subaru Outback (94) in the truck section.

It's just the third time that one automaker has won both categories in the 17-year history of the awards. The finalists were announced in December.

"This is a reaffirmation that we're focusing on product, we're focusing on customers," said Mark Fields, Ford's president of the Americas.

In 2009, the Hyundai Genesis won North American car of the year--a historic first victory for a Korean automaker--and the Ford F-150 took top honors in the truck category.

Vehicles must be new or substantially changed to be considered. More than 50 vehicles were considered this year, and 16 cars and 10 trucks were culled from that field for the ballot. The awards are voted on by 49 automotive journalists in the United States and Canada.

For more Detroit Auto Show News, click here.

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Lutz: GM should be profitable down road - WAVY News 10

Posted: 11 Jan 2010 03:55 AM PST

DETROIT (AP) - A top executive for General Motors Co. says the automaker should be "solidly profitable" when demand for new cars and trucks rebounds to normal levels.

GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz told the Society of Automotive Analysts on Sunday that the company has made strides only months after it restructured through more than $50 billion in federal aid and a government-led bankruptcy.

His prediction follows statements last week by chairman and interim CEO Ed Whitacre Jr. Whitacre said GM could be profitable this year.

Lutz also says GM is at least two years from production of the Cadillac Converj, a luxury version of the Chevrolet Volt hybrid.

The Volt is to be released later this year.

Lutz spoke on the eve of the Detroit auto show.

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Ford sweeps awards at Detroit Auto Show - YAHOO!

Posted: 11 Jan 2010 08:27 AM PST

DETROIT (Reuters) – Ford Motor Co (F.N) swept the 2010 North American Car and Truck Awards at the Detroit auto show on Monday, marking only the third time in the 17-year history of the award that a single automaker has claimed both titles.

A panel of about 50 U.S. and Canadian automotive journalists named the Ford Fusion Hybrid the car of the year and the Ford Transit Connect, a European-style delivery van, the truck of the year.

The Fusion beat out the Buick LaCrosse and the Volkswagen Golf/GTI for the car title, while the Transit Connect, a truck that is actually shorter than the Fusion, edged out the Chevrolet Equinox and Subaru Outback for the truck title.

The automakers typically use the awards, presented at the start of the North American International Auto Show, to market their vehicles. Last year's winners -- the Hyundai Genesis and the Ford F-150 pickup -- were both standout sellers in an otherwise dismal year for the industry.

"A couple of years ago -- a number of years ago -- we said we wanted to get back into the car business and we wanted to do it with vehicles that had great quality, great fuel efficiency, technology and safety," said Mark Fields, president of the Americas for Ford.

Ford is the only one of the three Detroit automakers that did not file for bankruptcy last year or receive any of the $120 billion the U.S. government spent to prop up the industry.

And unlike General Motors (GM.UL) and Chrysler (CCMLPD.UL), its top leadership has been steady since 2006, when Ford brought in an outsider -- former Boeing executive Alan Mulally -- to take the reins.

"I think there's been a big advantage in the steady management over the last three years," said John Casesa, managing partner at Casesa Shapiro Group.

"It's kept the strategy very consistent ... I think they have done a great job of taking advantage of the disarray of their domestic opponents."

Ford stock has gained 55 percent since November and more than quadrupled over the past year as the No. 2 U.S. automaker steered clear of the government bailouts that wiped out equity in its domestic rivals and prompted a massive restructuring of the industry.

While Ford was the only U.S. automaker to avoid bankruptcy, its relative success has complicated its efforts to win concessions from the United Auto Workers, its major union.

The two Ford vehicles that won on Monday actually are both assembled outside the United States -- the Fusion in Mexico and the Transit Connect in Turkey, though some alterations are made to the Transit Connect in North America.

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger reacted to news of Ford's sweep on Monday, telling Reuters, "I'll be damned. That's good."

(Reporting by James B. Kelleher, editing by Dave Zimmerman)

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Ford sweeps car and truck of the year awards at Detroit Auto Show 10 ... - Dallas Morning News

Posted: 11 Jan 2010 08:27 AM PST

GM, Ford look to build on success at show - MSNBC

Posted: 11 Jan 2010 07:51 AM PST

The Big Three U.S. carmakers have been in firefighting mode for so long that it is easy to imagine they are doomed to eternal crisis management, like Sisyphus rolling his boulder up the hill, only for it to roll down again.

But even as they emerge from one of the industry's worst years ever, the companies have gotten more of their boulders to stay on top of their hills. That creates an opportunity for Ford and General Motors to go on the offensive in the U.S. market. (More about Chrysler in a moment.)

For example, at this week's North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Chevrolet is showing the concept version of the replacement for its Malibu family sedan, a car that was named North American Car of the Year at the Detroit show just two years ago. The new model's aggressively muscular appearance should help Chevy grow Malibu's sales to legitimately challenge perennial midsize sedan sales leaders Toyota Camry and Honda Accord.

Ford is revealing the overdue replacement for the Focus, the company's compact car that was a sales hero during last summer's "Cash for Clunkers" government subsidy program.

Meanwhile, Ford's current Fusion Hybrid grabbed the coveted Car of the Year award Monday while its Transit Connect took the honors as Truck of the Year. The Chevrolet Equinox was a finalist for the truck award.

That should be a nice morale boost for industry executives after a year that saw a humiliating government bailout of the industry and a trip through bankruptcy court for GM and Chrysler.

For years, maybe decades, domestic carmakers have introduced new models with the promise that this time, really, they have fixed the uninspiring driving characteristics, artless styling, indifferent quality control or any of the other plagues of problems domestic manufacturers have inflicted upon themselves.

This situation reached a nadir with the introduction of the Dodge Caliber by comedian David Spade at the 2006 Detroit show. Promised by a Chrysler executive that the new Caliber represented real improvement over the outgoing Neon, Spade sniped, "Dude, its gotta be. It's a Neon."

But for the 2010 show, Ford and GM are in the unfamiliar position of introducing improved replacements for already popular and respected models. For the first time in recent history, these new products will not be contending with the shoddy reputation of their predecessors, but will instead be able to build upon the success of current models.

"GM and Ford have been working for years on improving their product lineup," said Rebecca Lindland, director of industry research in the Americas for Global Insight. "Even if perception hasn't changed yet, it does build momentum for them."

Chrysler's role in the show is to unveil insignificant new option packages for existing models while the company's new Fiat-installed overseers scramble to restart the company's suspended new product development apparatus. The Fiat guys thoughtfully rounded up a Ferrari and a Lamborghini from other companies under the Fiat umbrella to add some spice to an otherwise unremarkable exhibit.

The shift by American consumers from trucks back into the cars they fled a decade ago represents an opportunity for domestic manufacturers to reclaim share in the car market, Lindland added. That's because consumers who enjoyed their domestic SUVs are going to be easier to lure into a new Malibu than someone who already drives a Camry, she said.


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