Colegiul National Silvania, Zalau

Atestat lingvistic

Autor:

Profesor coordonator:

Matei Vladut-Ionut

Seisanu Gilda

Clasa a XII-a A
Matematica-Informatica Bilingv

Zalau, Mai 2015

Tabel of contents
Argument............................................................................................................ 2
I. Ford in United States: The birth of a giant..................................................3
1. Early developments
2. Lincoln Motor Company
3. The Great Depression and Model A
4. World War II and Post-World War II developments
5. Ford introduces the F-Series line of trucks, 1949 Ford and Thunderbird
6. Ford begins crash testing its vehicles
7. The Ford Mustang goes on sale
8. Trucks
9. Buses
10. Recapitalization, restructuring

II. Ford in Europe: The First Hundred Years................................................10

1. Manufacturing Operations are soon Established
2. Model T drives European Expansion
3. Life after the Model T
4. Ford Europe makes its debut
5. 19671973: Cortina and Escort
6. 19741980: MK 2 Escort and New Fiesta
7. 19811989: Breaking new ground
8. 19901997: Driven by you
9. 19982003: New Edge design
10. 2004present: Kinetic Design
11. Trucks
12. Tractors

Conclusion.........................................................................................................18
Bibliography......................................................................................................19

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Argument
Have you ever thought why man invented the car? Yes because he was a little lazy,
but also as a way much easier to travel and to transport heavy materials. These are the reasons
why Henry Ford decided initially to build a Quadricycle then a car and giving birth to the
Ford company. Henry's legacy is still alive even after 100 years since its founding and is one
of the largest companies in the world
Ford Motor Company is an American automaker and the world's fifth largest
automaker based on worldwide vehicle sales. Based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of
Detroit, the automaker was founded by Henry Ford, on June 16, 1903. Ford Motor Company
would go on to become one of the largest and most profitable companies in the world, as well
as being one of the few to survive the Great Depression. The largest family-controlled
company in the world, the Ford Motor Company has been in continuous family control for
over 110 years. Moreover, Ford introduced methods for large-scale manufacturing of cars and
large-scale management of an industrial workforce using elaborately engineered
manufacturing sequences typified by moving assembly lines; by 1914 these methods were
known around the world as Fordism.

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Ford in United States: The birth of a giant

Henry Ford builds the Quadricycle which is
Henry Fords first vehicle rode on four bicycle wheels
and was powered by a four-horsepower engine. Instead
of steering wheel, the Quadricycle had a tiller. The
gearbox had only two forward gears with no reverse.
Henry Ford's initial foray into automobile
manufacturing was the Detroit Automobile Company,
founded in 1899. The company foundered, and in 1901
was reorganized as the Henry Ford Company. In March
1902, after falling out with his financial backers, Ford
left the company with the rights to his name and 900 dollars.
Henry Ford turned to an acquaintance, coal dealer Alexander Y. Malcomson, to help
finance another automobile company. Malcomson put up the money to start the partnership
"Ford and Malcomson" and the pair designed a car and began ordering parts. However, by
February 1903, Ford and Malcomson had gone through more money than expected, and the
manufacturing firm of John and Horace Dodge, who had made parts for Ford and
Malcomson, was demanding payment. Malcomson, constrained by his coal business
demands, turned to his uncle John S. Gray, the president of the German-American Savings
Bank and a good friend. Malcomson proposed incorporating Ford and Malcomson to bring in
new investors, and wanted Gray to join the company, thinking that Gray's name would attract
other investors. Gray was not interested at first, but Malcomson promised he could withdraw
his share at any time, so Gray reluctantly agreed. On the strength of Gray's name, Malcomson
recruited other business acquaintances to invest, including local merchants Albert Strelow
and Vernon Fry, lawyers John Anderson and Horace Rackham, Charles T. Bennett of the
Daisy Air Rifle Company, and his own clerk James Couzens. Malcomson also convinced the
Dodges to accept stock in lieu of payment.

Early developments
Ford Motor Company would go on and label their models chronologically in
alfabetical order, starting with the Model A to the Model K and Model S, which was Ford's
last right-hand steering vehicle. Then, in 1908 Ford introduced the Model T, which was
designed by Childe Harold Wills and two Hungarian immigrants, Joseph A. Galamb and
Eugene Farkas. This model proved to be of quintessential Ford vehicle, placing the company
among the most influential automotive brands in history.
The Ford Model T was reliable, practical and affordable, which made it a big hit in the
US, where it was advertised as the middle-class man's vehicle. The car's success compelled
Ford to expand his business and layout the basics of mass production principles in 1913 with
the introduction of the world's first vehicle assembly line. By 1912, production figures for the
Model T alone reached nearly 200,000 units.

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This organizational innovation brought in the vehicle construction field allowed Ford to
reduce chassis assembly time by as much as 10 hours, dropping from 12 h to 2h 40 min.
In 1915, Henry Ford went on a peace mission to Europe aboard a ship, joining other
pacifists in efforts to stop World War I. This led to an increase in his personal popularity.
Ford would subsequently go on to support the war effort with the Model T becoming the
underpinnings for Allied military vehicles, like the Ford 3-Ton M1918 tank, and the 1916
ambulance.

Lincoln Motor Company

On February 4, 1922 Ford expanded its reach into the luxury auto market through its
acquisition of theLincoln from Henry Leland, his former business associate from the Detroit
Automobile Company. Since then, Lincoln has produced many luxury cars of historical and
aesthetic note, including the 1931-1939 K-Series, 1936 Zephyr, Edsel Fords original
Continental, the ensuing first-generation Lincoln Continental and the classic 1956-1957
Continental Mk. II

The Great Depression and Model A

While the Model T dominated the auto industry
from 1908 to the early 1920s, by the middle of the decade
there was fierce competition from other automakers. After
the 15 millionth Model T drove off the assembly line on
May 26, 1927, Ford closed plants all over the world to
spend six months retooling factories and perfecting the
design of a new car. Ford called the new car the Model A,
commemorating Ford Motor Companys first car, the 1903
Model A. The car was the first vehicle to sport the iconic Blue Oval logo, and it included
innovative features like a Safety Glass windshield. By 1931 Ford had sold over five million
Model As despite the difficulties of the Great Depression.
During the great depression, Ford in common with other manufacturers, responded to
the collapse in motor sales by reducing the scale of their operations and laying off workers.
By 1932, the unemployment rate in Detroit had risen to 30%with thousands of families facing
real hardship. Although Ford did assist a small number of distressed families with loans and
parcels of land to work, the majority of the thousands of unskilled workers who were laid off
were left to cope on their own. However, Henry Ford angered many by making public
statements that the unemployed should do more to find work for themselves.
This led to Detroit's Unemployed Council organizing the Ford Hunger March. On March 7,
1932 some 3,000 - 5,000 unemployed workers assembled in West Detroit to march on Ford's
River Rouge plant to deliver a petition demanding more support.

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World War II and Post-World War II developments

With the arrival of WWII Ford increased its influence on the global stage becoming
an active player in the war effort, a thing underlined by US President Franklin Roosevelt
referring to Detroit as the "Arsenal of Democracy." When the US War Department handed
production of B-24 Liberator airplanes to Ford, the output rose to 20 airplanes per day instead
of only one per day managed by the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation. The company
enthusiatically supported the war effort after Pearl Harbor, making it a major component of
the "Arsenal of Democracy" that President Roosevelt had promised would mobilize industrial
resources to win the war. Henry, aged 76 and early senile, played a minor role even though he
had 55% ownership of the company stock. His son Edsell Ford, the company president and
owner of 42% of the stock, had never been a pacifist like his father and now made all the
decisions. The company produced 390,000 tanks and trucks, 27,000 engines, 270,000 Jeeps,
over 8000 B-24 Liberators, and hundreds of thousands of parts, gun mounts, and machine
tools for the war effort. It ranked third among corporations in the value of wartime production
contracts.
After WWII Ford continued its passenger vehicle operations and in 1955 introduced
the iconic Thunderbird model. Then it introduced the Edsel brand in 1958, which proved to
be a failure and was dissolved in 1960. Part Edsel's failure as an automotive brand resided in
the onset of the 1957 recession in the States and the vehicle's high price tag.
Ford Motor Co. managed to get back up from its Edsel failure with the introduction of the
Falcon model in 1960 and the Mustang in 1964. The company's next major step was
represented by the formation of Ford Europe division in 1967.

Ford introduces the F-Series line of trucks, 1949 Ford and Thunderbird
With its first postwar truck design, Ford ceased building trucks on car platforms and
used a purpose-built truck platform instead. The truck was available in eight sizes and weight
ratings, from the ton capacity F-1 to the three-ton capacity F-8. In 1953, Ford replaced the
F-1 with the ton F-100, along with the F-250
ton trucks and the F-350 one-ton trucks. In 1984,
the F-100 was replaced by the F-150 line of
trucks. Since 1982, F-series has been the bestselling vehicle in the U.S.
The 1949 Ford was the first all-new
American car design to come out of Detroit after
WWII. With its wind tunnel-tested aerodynamic
shape, integrated pontoon fenders, airplaneinspired spinner grille and an updated V8, the new
car was as radical a change as the 1928 Model A.
The T-Bird emphasized comfort and convenience over sportiness. With its
performance, design and distinctive porthole windows, the car would become a classic.

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Ford begins crash testing its vehicles

The creation of a scientific
laboratory in Dearborn, Michigan in 1951,
doing unfettered basic research, lead to
Ford's unlikely involvement in
superconductivity research. In 1964 Ford
Research Labs made a key breakthrough
with the invention of a superconducting
quantum interference device or SQUID.
Ford offered the Lifeguard safety
package from 1956, which included such
innovations as a standard deep-dish steering wheel, optional front, and, for the first time in a
car, rear seatbelts, and an optional padded dash. Ford introduced child-proof door locks into
its products in 1957, and in the same year offered the first retractable hardtop on a massproduced six-seater car. The Ford Mustang was introduced in 1964. In 1965 Ford introduced
the seat belt reminder light.
In the 60 years since then, Ford has performed more than 31,000 crash tests around
the world. In recent years Ford has also used virtual crash testing to maximize the quantity
and availability of crash data. In tandem with physical testing, the crash simulations help
Ford gather more data than ever before.

The Ford Mustang goes on sale

The Mustang came to define the pony car class with its combination of a long hood,
short deck, affordable price and customization options. The Mustang was a huge success, and
today it remains one of the fastest-selling vehicles in history. With its role in movies like
Bullitt and songs like "Mustang Sally," the car quickly became a cultural icon as well.
It was originally based on the platform of the second generation North American Ford
Falcon, a compact car. The original Ford Mustang I four-seater concept car had evolved into
the 1963 Mustang II two-seater prototype, which Ford used to pretest how the public would
take interest in the first production Mustang which was released as the 1964 1/2, with a slight
variation on the frontend and a top that was 2.7 inches shorter than the 1963 Mustang II.
Introduced early on April 17, 1964, and thus dubbed as a "1964" model by Mustang fans,
the 1965 Mustang was the automaker's most successful launch since the Model A. The
Mustang has undergone several transformations to its current sixth generation.
The Mustang created the
"pony car" class of American
automobilessports-car like
coupes with long hoods and short
rear decks and gave rise to
competitors such as the Chevrolet
Camaro, Pontiac Firebird, AMC
Javelin, Chrysler's revamped
Page | 6

Plymouth Barracuda and the first generation Dodge Challenger. The Mustang is also credited
for inspiring the designs of coups such as the Toyota Celica and Ford Capri, which were
imported to the United States.
The Mustang made its first public appearance on a racetrack little more than a month
after its April 17 introduction, as pace car for the 1964 Indianapolis 500. The same year,
Mustangs achieved the first of many notable competition successes, winning first and second
in class in the Tour de France international rally. The car's American competition debut, also
in 1964, was in drag racing, where private individuals and dealer-sponsored teams
campaigned Mustangs powered by 427 cu. in. V8s.
`In late 1964, Ford contracted Holman & Moody to prepare ten 427-powered
Mustangs to contest the National Hot Rod Association's (NHRA) A/Factory Experimental
class in the 1965 drag racing season. Five of these special Mustangs made their competition
debut at the 1965 NHRA Winternationals, where they qualified in the Factory Stock
Eliminator class. The car driven by Bill Lawton won the class.
Early Mustangs also proved successful in road racing. The GT 350 R, the race version
of the Shelby GT 350, won five of the Sports Car Club of America's (SCCA) six divisions in
1965. Drivers were Jerry Titus, Bob Johnson and Mark Donohue, and Titus won the (SCCA)
B-Production national championship. GT 350s won the B-Production title again in 1966 and
1967. They also won the 1966 manufacturers championship in the inaugural SCCA TransAm series, and repeated the win the following year.
In 1969, modified versions of the 428 Mach 1, Boss 429 and Boss 302 took 295
United States Auto Club-certified records at Bonneville Salt Flats. The outing included a 24hour run on a 10-mile (16 km) course at an average speed of 157 mph (253 km/h). Drivers
were Mickey Thompson, Danny Ongais, Ray Brock, and Bob Ottum.

Trucks
Ford has produced trucks since 1908, beginning with the Ford Model TT, followed by
the Model AA, and the Model BB. Countries where Ford commercial vehicles are or were
formerly produced include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada (also badged as Mercury),
France, Germany, India, Netherlands, Philippines, Spain (badged Ebro too), Turkey, UK
(badged also Fordson and Thames) and USA.
From the 1940s to late 1970s Ford's
Ford F-Series were used as the base for light
trucks for the North American market.
Most of these ventures are now
extinct. The European one that lasted longest
was the lorries arm of Ford of Britain, which
became part of the Iveco group in 1986. Ford
had a minority share in the new company and
Iveco took over sales and production of the
Ford Cargo range. Ford's last significant European truck models were the Transcontinental
and the Cargo.
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Line of heavy trucks made by Ford for the North American market:
Ford F-650 joint venture model from 2000 to present
Ford L9000 last model year 1999
Ford LNT9000 short nose tandem axle from 1970s to 1997
Ford LT9000 tandem axle with last model year 1997
Ford FT900 until 1998
Ford LT8000 last model year 1998
Ford L7000 last model year 1996
Ford continues to manufacture medium duty trucks under the F-650 and F-750
badges. In 2001, the company entered into a joint venture with Navistar International to
produce medium and heavy duty commercial trucks. The first new model from the new
corporation, known as Blue Diamond Truck Company LLC, was the 2006 model year LCF,
the first Ford branded cab-over-engine design in the United States since Freightliner's
acquisition of the Cargo in the mid-1990s. The LCF was discontinued in 2009 and Ford's
2011 medium and heavy-duty commercial offerings are limited to the two F-Series.
In 1999 the end of the F800 indicated Ford was no longer producing in any F-series
heavy truck chassis.

Buses
Ford manufactured complete buses in the
company's early history, but today the role of the
company has changed to that of a second stage
manufacturer. In North America, the E-Series is still
used as a chassis for small school buses and the F650 is used in commercial bus markets. In the 1980s
and 1990s, the medium-duty B700 was a popular
chassis used by school bus body manufacturers
including Thomas Built, Ward and Blue Bird, but
Ford lost its market share due to industry contraction
and agreements between body manufacturers.
Prior to 1936, Ford buses were based on truck bodies:
Model B 1930s
Model T 1920s
F-105 school bus
In 1936, Ford introduced the Ford Transit Bus, a series of small transit buses with
bodies built by a second party. Originally a front-engine design, it was modified to a rearengine design in 1939. About 1,000 to 1,200 of the original design were built, and around
12,500 of the rear-engine design, which was in production until 1947 (rebranded as the
Universal Bus in 1946).

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Recapitalization, restructuring
Ford plunged into a state of brand-fatigue that would bring the company to the point
of near bankruptcy. Following major sales losses in the 2000's, Ford was pinned against the
wall by debts and the imminence of closing down. In April 2000 the Ford Motor Company
announced its recapitalization plan distributing about half of its $24 billion cash hoard, and
paying a $10 billion special dividend, and the issuance of additional stock to the Ford family,
to provide more flexibility for the Ford family in terms of estate planning. In 2000 Ford's
cash hoard was the largest of any company in the world.
In December 2006, Ford announced it would mortgage all assets, including factories
and equipment, office property, intellectual property (patents and blue oval trademarks), and
its stakes in subsidiaries, to raise $23.4 billion in cash. Preferring to make it back on its own,
Ford mortgaged all of its assets in 2006. As of then, the company has releases a variety of
new models both under the Ford brand name and the rest of the sub-brands it owns such as
fresher and edgier Mercuries and flashier Lincolns, Ford's luxury division. Business in
Europe has also been good for Ford, especially after the introduction of the Focus model in
1997 and although it hasn't fully recovered, it's definitely on the way to regaining popularity.
At the end of 2012 Ford Motor Company's cash balance was $22.9 billion and was listed as
ten on the list of U.S. non-financial corporation sector's top ten cash kings by Moody's
Investors Service in their March 2013 annual report on Global Credit Research.

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Ford in Europe: The First Hundred Years

While Ford Motor Company was founded in the US and is known throughout the
world as an American brand icon, the company's history in Europe closely parallels its
American heritage; from the arrival of the first Ford cars in Britain in 1903 to the present day
European organization that serves 42 countries across the European continent.
Ford has been a world organisation right from the beginning. Within months of the
foundation of Ford Motor Company in Detroit on 16 June 1903, the first two Ford cars to
reach Europe were being uncrated in London, where they went on show at the March 1904
Cordingley Automobile Show in the Agricultural Hall, Islington.
They caught the eye of a young man named Aubrey Blakiston, who set up a sales
agency, ordered a dozen Model A Fords and took a lease on a showroom in Long Acre, a
London centre of the coachbuilding and motor trade.
Sales were slow it took a year to sell those twelve cars but the agency took on a young
motor expert named Percival Perry, who was to play a key role in the establishment of Ford
in Europe.
In those early days France home of Europes biggest motor industry seemed the
best place from which to coordinate European business, and in fact one of the earliest sales of
a Ford automobile was made there early in 1904. So in 1908 a Paris Branch Company was set
up to supervise European sales, under an American named H.Baker White. The importance of
his appointment was reflected in the size of his salary, a then-colossal $24,000, equivalent to
around $1.5 million in modern terms.

Manufacturing Operations are soon Established

But the powerhouse of Fords early European operations turned out to be Britain,
where Percival Perry had taken over the sales agency and sales were booming following the
launch of the competitively-priced four-cylinder Model N in 1906. In 1909 a British branch
company was set up under Perrys management, and the strength of the market led to the
opening late in October 1911 of Fords first factory outside North America, at Trafford Park,
Manchester.
A couple of years later, assembly started in premises in Bordeaux, initially run by the
leading French agent, but soon taken over by Ford Motor Company.
During the First World War Perry, who had been appointed Assistant Controller of
the UK government's Agricultural Machinery Department, persuaded Henry Ford to build a
tractor plant (the first purpose-built Ford factory in the Old World) not far from his fathers
birthplace at Cork, Ireland. The first Fordson tractor left the assembly line on 3 July 1919.
Uniquely, Ford Ireland was a private venture of the Ford family until 1920.

Model T drives European Expansion

Henry Fords vision of the Model T as the Universal Car gave his company an
immense advantage. The Model T was the first automobile to be conceived as a true 'World'
car, and a string of European plants and national sales companies controlled from Detroit
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were established in the early 1920s to support its runaway success. Apart from minor
differences of paint and trim to meet national preferences, the end product was identical in
every market.
The first European assembly plant of this postwar expansion was in Copenhagen,
where Ford Denmark was founded on 25 June 1919. Henry Fords most trusted production
associates, William Knudsen and Charles Sorensen, were both Danes, and it was Knudsen
who shaped the expansion of Ford across Europe in the early 1920s while Sorensen turned
down a proposal for a joint venture in France from the ambitious Andr Citron.
Anxious to open a plant to serve southern Europe, Ford proposed building a new factory at
Bordeaux, but the French authorities proved uncooperative and so an assembly plant was
opened in a former wine bodega in the free zone at Cadiz, Spain
One of the most remarkable Ford factories was established in a former warehouse in
Trieste, Northern Italy in 1922. During the 1920s, it had a 75 per cent share of a market
covering 36 countries on three continents, including Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia,
Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Georgia and Azerbaijan.
Surprisingly Germany, where the first practical motor car had been invented in the
1880s, came late in Fords European scheme of things, and the first German Ford company
was not established until 1925, starting assembly in a rented canalside warehouse in Berlin in
1926. The Berlin operation was set up by Ford Denmark staff from Copenhagen, and while
the chief clerk, who effectively ran the business, could read German, he was initially unable
to speak the language!

Life after the Model T

Until late 1927 the European operation was based on the Model T which, while cheap
to buy, was taxed heavily on engine capacity in European markets, and from being the
worlds best-selling car, Model Ts' sales faltered as other mass-producers offered smaller,
lighter, faster cars which were more attractive to the general public. The launch of the all-new
and thoroughly modern Model A for 1928 was accompanied by a complete rethink of how
Ford did business in Europe.
Henry Ford had split his European interests after the war into twelve separate
companies, but, as the 1920s developed, he recognized the need to coordinate these
companies to make the European business more effective a move that showed great
foresight, when set against the way modern pan European companies are run.
The basis of the strategy was the centralization of Fords European activities in England and
the formation of a new company, Ford Motor Company Limited to serve this purpose. At the
heart of the 1928 Plan was a new factory - the Detroit of Europe - to be built on
reclaimed marshland at Dagenham in the UK, as the hub of Fords European activities. Built
at the then immense cost of 5 million, the new Dagenham plant built its first vehicle, a
Model AA truck, on 1 October 1931.
But since the inauguration of the plant site in May 1929 the world had been plunged
into depression. Demand for the Model A car, which though cheap to buy was relatively
expensive to tax and run, plummeted. In its first three months of operation, Dagenham sold

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just five Model A cars and the new Ford of Britain company was faced with ruin, kept going
only by sales of commercial vehicles.
Europes flagging fortunes were boosted by the introduction of the first Ford specifically
designed for Europe, the 933cc Model Y. Designed inside five months, the Model Y was
shown in prototype form at special Ford motor shows across Europe, starting with Ford
Britains one-make exhibition at the Albert Hall, London, in February 1932. By August it
was in production.
Ten months from drawing board to full production was a remarkable achievement, but the
situation was desperate.

Ford Europe makes its debut

Ford of Europe was founded in 1967 on the merger of the British and German
divisions of the Ford Motor Company. The front-engined Ford Transit range of panel vans
launched in 1965, was the first formal co-operation between the two entities, simultaneously
developed to replace the German Ford Taunus Transit and the British Ford Thames 400E.
Prior to this, the two companies avoided marketing their vehicles in one another's domestic
markets, and in much of the rest of western Europe were direct competitors, with totally
separate product lines, despite being owned by the same American parent, in a similar
manner to General Motors Opel and Vauxhall subsidiaries at the same time - indeed GM
followed Ford's precedent in the 1970s by merging the operations of Opel and Vauxhall into
General Motors Europe.

19671973: Cortina and Escort

The first new model launched after the creation of Ford of Europe was the Escort built
in England from October 1967, and launched to market later that year. The Escort was a rearwheel drive small family saloon that took
the place of the British Anglia range and
was built in both Britain and, from 1970,
Germany.
It was first available as a two-door
saloon and later in estate, van and fourdoor saloon bodystyles. Power came from
950 cc, 1100 cc and 1300 cc petrol
engines. Later there was also a 2000 cc
unit which came in the RS2000
performance version and was capable of
110 mph (180 km/h). It quickly became popular with buyers, outselling in the UK key
competitors from BMC (later British Leyland), Vauxhall (Opel in Germany) and the Rootes
Group. The Escort would never achieve such dominance in Europe's largest auto market, but
nevertheless took significant market share from the Opel and Volkswagen competitors of the
time.
Ford Europe's second new car launch was the Capri sporting coup in 1969. Loosely
based on Ford UK's rear-wheel drive Mk II Cortina platform, it came with engines ranging
Page | 12

from 1300 cc to 3000 cc and was made in Britain and Germany (with a different range of
German V4 and V6 engines), and quickly became popular with buyers who wanted
something different from BMC's MGB GT and the Rootes Group's Sunbeam Alpine.
August 1970 saw the launch of the British Ford Cortina Mk III and its German cousin, a the
Taunus (replacing the Taunus 12M & 15M). The British and German models were based on
the same platform, but had different sheet metal and used engines from their home countries,
though both models could be had with the new German-built 2000cc OHC petrol engine. By
1972 the Cortina was the best-selling car in Britain.

19741980: MK 2 Escort and New Fiesta

A revised Capri II arrived in early 1974, which saw a hatchback replacing the
traditional "boot".
Ford launched a Ford Escort (Europe) at the start of 1975, with a heavily restyled
exterior and a less cramped interior, but an almost identical mechanical design. The entrylevel 950 cc engine, which was rare in any country, was discontinued.
In 1975, Ford overtook British Leyland (the combine which included Austin, Morris
and Rover) as the most popular make of car in the United Kingdom.
1976 saw Ford Europe enter the mini-car market with its first ever-front model to
have a hatchback and front-wheel drive. The Fiesta MK1 was built at the company's new
Valencia plant in Spain, and came with 950 cc, 1100 cc and 1300 cc petrol engines. It was
later available with a 1600 cc unit for the sporty XR2 version.
Britain and most of the rest of
Europe took to it straight away and it was
quickly among the best-selling cars in
most of the continent, fighting off
competition from the Volkswagen Polo,
Citron Visa, Vauxhall Chevette and
Peugeot 104.
1976 also saw the launch of the Cortina
MK4 and Taunus, that continued to top
the sales charts in Britain and fight off
competition from a growing number of
equally competent rivals, namely the
Vauxhall Cavalier/Opel Ascona and
Chrysler Alpine.
Ford launched the Mk II Granada range in September 1977. In 1976, all Granada
production had been concentrated to Cologne, Germany. The Consul badge was abandoned in
1975. The Mk III Capri sporting coup arrived in 1978. By now Capri production was also
concentrated at Cologne.

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19811989: Breaking new ground

The 1980s saw a radical change in most of the European Fords, which had begun in
1980 when the Escort switched to front-wheel drive and a hatchback from the traditional rearwheel drive saloon.20 years of Cortina production came to an end in October 1982 with the
launch of the new Sierra. The new car retained the traditional rear-wheel drive chassis,
perhaps surprisingly at the time when front-wheel drive was becoming almost exclusive in
this sector of car. But in place of its
predecessor's conventional, square
styling was the Sierra's ultramodern
aerodynamic styling that was way ahead
of its time compared to the competition.
Ford launched another groundbreaking new car in May 1985 with the
Granada-replacing Scorpio although
the Granada name was retained in the
United Kingdom and Ireland "Scorpio"
being used as a sub-brand for the highest
specification models. It was based on a
stretched version of the Sierra's rearwheel drive chassis, and was far more modern looking than any other cars in its sector at this
time, being similar in appearance to the smaller Sierra. It was also the world's first volume
production car to feature anti-lock brakes as standard. High equipment levels, a comfortable
interior and solid build quality ensured that the German-built Scorpio was a success all over
Europe, and was voted European Car of the Year for 1986.
An updated Escort and Orion appeared in February 1986 often erroneously called
the "Mark 4", it featured Scorpio-influenced front end styling, revised engine options and an
all-new interior.
Production of the sporty Capri coup ended in December 1986 after 17 years and
there was no replacement, as sporting coups were less popular at this time following the rise
in popularity of fast hatchbacks such as the Ford Escort XR3i, Vauxhall Astra GTE, Peugeot
309 GTI and Volkswagen Golf GTI. Ford had proved successful in this sector with faster
versions of the Fiesta, Escort and Sierra.
For much of the 1980s, the Ford Escort was the most popular model of car in the
world, and from 1982 to 1989 it was the best selling new car in the UK every year. Despite a
facelift in March 1986, it was started to look a little dated by the end of the decade in the face
of newer rivals like the Rover 200, Peugeot 309, Fiat Tipo and Renault 19.

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19901997: Driven by you

The fifth generation Escort was launched in September 1990, along with the Orion
saloon, but the motoring public and press gave it mixed views. The car's styling lacked the
flair of some rivals, and its driving experience was hardly the last word in excitement. The
standard Escort models were later joined by the RS2000 and RS Cosworth performance
versions that attracted a much more positive reaction.
Ford responded to criticism of the Escort's shortcomings in September 1992 with a
minor facelift which saw the introduction of impressive new 1.4, 1.6 and 1.8 Zetec 16-valve
units, the latter of which also found its
way into the Fiesta RS1800. The Orion
also received similar improvements, only
for the name to be shelved a year later
and the saloon models absorbed into the
Escort range.
For 1993, Ford introduced a
standard driver's airbag on all production
models, with many cars also coming with
a passenger airbag as either standard or optional equipment.
February 1993 saw Ford launch a ground-breaking new family car in the shape of the
Mondeo replacement for the Sierra made to rival the newer Opel Vectra/Vauxhall Cavalier,
Peugeot 405 and Nissan Primera. Finally making the transition to front-wheel drive, the
Mondeo came with a strong range of 16-valve Zetec petrol engines as well as a 2.5 V6 that
joined the line-up in 1994. Hatchback, saloon and estate versions made up the range which
won European Car of the Year accolade later the year.
1995 saw Ford update its Fiesta and Escort ranges to keep them on the pace with the
ever-growing number of new rivals that were threatening to decimate Ford's market share.
Another new car launch that year was the Galaxy multi-purpose vehicle, which quickly went
straight to the top of the people carrier sales charts.
Ford entered the city car market in 1996 with its oddly-named and oddly-styled Ka,
and was beaten into second place in the 1997 European Car of the Year award by the Renault
Scenic. It made use of the Fiesta's chassis and 1300 cc petrol engine, which gave it strong
handling for such a small car. Around the same time, the Mondeo gained a facelift which saw
the exterior styling brought up to date and the seating re-designed to improve space for rear
seat passengers.

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19982003: New Edge design

In the late 1990s, Ford adopted a distinctive "New Edge" design on its model range.
Some of the cars adopting this eye-catching new look were entirely new, while others were
facelifted versions of earlier and more conservative designs.
The end was in sight for the Escort in 1998 when its distinctively-styled successor, the
Focus, went on sale. Its radical design meant that Ford kept the Escort on sale alongside it for
two years, giving buyers a more conventionally-styled alternative, perhaps in fear of a repeat
of the controversy it had faced some 15 years
earlier when the Sierra was first on sale. But
Ford need not have worried about the public's
reaction to the new Focus, which was
European Car of the Year for 1999 and one of
the best selling cars in the continent. At the
height of its production there was a new Ford
Focus coming off a production line at an
average of one every 12 seconds (Saarlouis,
Germany; Valencia, Spain; Wayne, Michigan
USA; Hermosillo, Mexico). However, the
Focus was never built in Britain.
The aging Fiesta received its second facelift in the autumn of 1999, and continued to
attract huge sales thanks to its excellent ride and handling that disguised its age well. The
interior was, by now, one of the smartest in the supermini sector, though interior space
particularly in the back was far from the best. This shortcoming was solved at the start of
2002 when the all-new Fiesta went on sale. In addition, Ford's Halewood plant was converted
for Jaguar X-Type assembly in 2001. Ford also continued to build vans at its Southampton
plant until relocating production to Turkey in 2013.
The Ford Mondeo was relaunched in an all-new format at the end of 2000, and was
pipped for the European Car of the Year award by the Alfa Romeo 147. The new Mondeo
was more competitively priced than its predecessor, but its real strengths were its excellent
accommodation and driving experience which put it back on top of the large family car
sector. Although demand for cars of this size dipped slightly across Europe during the 2000s
(decade), the Mondeo remained Britain's most popular large family car, until 2007, when it
was outsold by the facelifted Vauxhall Vectra. Ford entered the expanding compact MPV
market in late 2003 with the Ford Focus C-Max, which was unusually the first car on the
platform that would spawn the next generation Focus hatchback a year later.

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2004present: Kinetic Design

The second generation Focus
hatchback, saloon and estate ranges
went on sale in December 2004,
picking up where the old model left off.
Excellent ride and handling, good
equipment levels, solid build quality
and a comfortable interior all won
praise for those who experienced the
new car. The only major criticism of
the Focus was its unoriginal style
which differed little from that of its
predecessor. It remained one of the most popular cars in Europe during a production life
which lasted more than six years.2006 saw Ford launch two new people carriers the SMAX and the Galaxy MK2. The S-MAX then became the first full-size people carrier to be
voted European Car of the Year.
Ford launched a third generation Mondeo in 2007, and new versions of the Fiesta and Ka in
2008.
In 2005, Ford celebrated its 30th anniversary as Britain's most popular car brand. The
Focus was the country's top selling car, while the Fiesta occupied fifth place and the Mondeo
ninth. In spite of this, the gap between Ford and its competitors was about as narrow as it had
ever been, with Vauxhall and Renault just a short margin behind Ford in sales figures.
In 2008, Ford acquired a majority stake in Automobile Craiova, Romania. Ford Transit
Connect is Ford's first model produced in Craiova, and, in 2012, will be followed by a new
small class car, the B-MAX, and a small displacement, advanced petrol engine.
The first major car launch by Ford for the 2010s was the third generation Focus in the
spring of 2011. For Europe, the Focus featured a lesser model range than its predecessors,
with only a five-door hatchback and five-door estate being sold; there were no saloon or
three-door hatchback versions. The larger Mondeo had been facelifted the previous autumn,
but this did little to halt dwindling sales over the next three years.

Trucks
The Commercial vehicles arm of Ford of Britain, was part of the operation until it was sold to
Fiat's Iveco division in 1986. Its last significant models under Ford ownership were the
Transcontinental and the Cargo. Ford has planned to build the European version F-Series
pick-up trucks in Germany for the European market.

Tractors
The Production of tractors in Europe by Ford has ceased following the sale of the division to
Fiat in 1993 and the name changed from Ford New Holland to New Holland. New Holland
Ag is now part of CNH Global. Tractor production had been based at the Antwerp and
Basildon factories.
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Conclusion
Ford is one of the largest automotive manufacturers in the world, along the more than
100 years of existence the company has made numerous improvements this market. Through
its models, but also by the technologies developed Ford managed to capture public attention
not just in the US but also to Europe and in the world.
Throughout its history, the company has faced a wide range of criticisms but in the
end the company has not lost confidence of buyers. Some have accused the early Fordist
model of production of being exploitative, and Ford has been criticized as being willing to
collaborate with dictatorships or hire mobs to intimidate union leaders and increase their
profits through unethical means. Ford was also criticized for tread separation and tire
disintegration of many Firestone tires installed on Ford Explorers, Mercury Mountaineers,
and Mazda Navajos, which caused many crashes during the late 1990s and early 2000s
(decade). It is estimated that over 250 deaths and more than 3,000 serious injuries resulted
from these failures. Although Firestone received most of the blame, some blame fell on Ford,
which advised customers to under-inflate the tires in order to reduce the risk of vehicle
rollovers.
To conclude, I strongly believe that Ford has had a fundamental role in the
development of Global automotive industry. Their legacy and influence throughout the years
proves that this company will be cherished regardless of future changes.

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Bibliography:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Motor_Company#Products_and_services
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ford_Motor_Company#PostWorld_War_I_developments
http://www.autoevolution.com/ford/history/
https://corporate.ford.com/company/history.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-graham-richard/the-split-personalitieso_b_115026.html

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