The program is expected to generate about 2 million hours behind the wheel of Ford vehicles for college-age drivers, many of whom would never have considered buying a Ford before.
Learning to dance in the chain of the 500 or so studios of Kathryn and Arthur Murray seemed as properly American as drinking Coca-Cola or buying a Ford car.
Jim Farley -- Ford's new group vice president for marketing and former Toyota up-and-comer brings a stellar reputation to one of the toughest jobs in America: convincing consumers to consider buying a Ford again.
Another potential benefit to the 90-year-old self-made billionaire for buying up more Ford stock, Healy entertained, would be getting Gerald York on the Dearborn, Mich.
While Daewoo has given Ford exclusive negotiating rights, GM has said as recently as Sept. 11 that they "would still be interested" in buying Daewoo if the Ford negotiations don't produce a deal.
Eighty years ago Henry Ford pioneered 20th-century manufacturing, buying iron mines and ships to float the ore to Detroit.
Now, though, the public panels have concluded that it makes more financial sense to use a second-hand hatch-back (1.6l petrol Ford Focus to be precise) - buying one that's five years old and selling at 10.
That's exactly what Ford Motor concluded by the 1950s, when it reversed course and started buying more components, including steel, from outside suppliers.
At the big press conference in San Francisco, Ford president and chief executive Jac Nasser waxed lyrical about the impact of Ford taking a minority stake in CarPoint, Microsoft's car-buying site.
Simply put, Ford would get into the iron-mining business if it were cheaper than buying steel on the open market.
Ford's other main rival, DaimlerChrysler, may be taking a risk buying 34% of Mitsubishi Motors, just as the Japanese firm has revealed that it has covered up product defects for 20 years, but at least it has used Mitsubishi's problems to force down the asking price and to install its own man as chief operating officer.
For example, wouldn't Ford be better off fixing its Focus small car instead of spending billions of dollars buying luxury brands?
Its strong balance sheet allowed Ford to go on a spending spree, paying top dollar for those European car companies and even buying up peripheral businesses like repair shops, Hertz car rental and a junkyard.
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