Intro: Henry Ford founded one of the oldest car companies in the world, Ford Motor Company in 1903. In fact, he built his first experimental car, the Quadricycle, behind his Detroit home some seven years earlier. Often called ’The Father of Mass Production’, the great man’s major break occurred with the arrival of the Model T. It was Henry’s intention to make America mobile and his first foray into the development of a moving production line is still practised by other car companies around the world right up to the present day. The Model T became the biggest selling car in the world with more than 15 million being built between 1908 and 1927. The VW Beetle only overtook this figure several decades later, to steal the crown. Yet, a clash with the trades unions in North America caused Ford to slip behind General Motors in the sales charts and that is the way that the two major competitors have remained over the years. Ford of Europe has been a major player ever since its inception and European designs have been filtering into the US scene for the past twenty years. Ford of Britain, although still the Number One in sales terms, no longer produces complete motor cars and its famous Dagenham plant is now the company’s ’Centre of Excellence’ for diesel engine manufacturing. Ford is working closely with the PSA Group to develop both small capacity diesels and joint-effort large capacity engines, which will be used in forthcoming Jaguar and Land Rover models. Even its former Merseyside plant, at Halewood, has been turned over to Jaguar Cars (like Land Rover, one of the Ford subsidiary companies) to make the X-type model. Ford Motor Company (Europe) turnover (inc. all Premier Automotive Group brands) for 2000 was $32.1 billion. |
