Ford Motor Co

In one of the largest corporate stock buyback plans announced since last month's Wall Street crash, Ford Motor Co. said Thursday that it will repurchase up to $2 billion worth of its own shares. When its latest repurchases are completed, Ford will have spent a total of $4.5 billion since 1984 on a massive stock buyback program designed to reduce its outstanding shares by 25%. Ford, which currently has 248.

Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group made financial headway in a sluggish economy in the second quarter, increasing sales and slashing debt. Ford sales rose 13% to $35.5 billion, although profits fell 8% to $2.4 billion as the Dearborn, Mich., automaker spent more money on materials such as steel and on designing and building new vehicles. Sales jumped 30% for Chrysler but losses widened to $370 million as the automaker repaid U.S. and Canadian government loans taken out during the financial crisis.

Ford Motor Co. officially launched the first fully foreign-owned automotive plant in Russia on Tuesday, a precedent that experts hope will pave the way for other global businesses to set up manufacturing here. The new $150-million plant outside St.

James F. Neal, a formidable lawyer who won noteworthy victories on both sides of the courtroom ? as a prosecutor he sent Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa and top Watergate figures to prison, and as a defense attorney he saved film director John Landis and Ford Motor Co. from serious criminal charges ? died Thursday at a Nashville hospital. He was 81. The cause was esophageal cancer, said his longtime law partner, Aubrey B. Harwell. Neal's reputation for tenacity and brilliance in the courtroom began with the 1964 prosecution of Hoffa, who had successfully fended off two dozen indictments until Neal, a stocky, cigar-chomping ex-Marine with a Tennessee drawl, was assigned to his case.

Ford Motor Co. said it is recalling 23,100 of its Mark VIII luxury coupes to fix two problems caused by water leaks.

* Ford Motor Co., trying to end a decade-long slide in U.S. market share, posted the first in a series of short Internet films as part of a new advertising campaign.

Ford Announces Huge Vehicle Recall: Ford Motor Co. recalled more than 1 million cars and trucks for a variety of defects, including excessive emissions and faulty power-seat wiring that can cause fires.

* Ford Motor Co., the world's second-largest auto maker, has hired another outsider for a top job at its struggling European unit. Andrew Eggleston, 43, was named vice president of marketing for Ford Europe. He had most recently been a principal in the automotive practice of consultant A.T. Kearney.

Jerald terHorst He quit post over pardon of Nixon Jerald terHorst, 87, a press secretary to President Ford who resigned over the pardon of Nixon, died of congestive heart failure Wednesday at a retirement community in Asheville, N.C. A longtime Detroit News journalist, terHorst served for about a month as Ford's spokesman in 1974 before resigning to protest the president's decision to pardon Nixon. Ford pardoned Nixon after the Watergate scandal as a way to heal the nation.

Ford Motor Co. agreed to sell its Volvo Cars unit to a Chinese automaker group Sunday, marking the most significant push by a car company in China to tap overseas markets. China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group will pay the U.S. auto giant $1.8 billion for the Swedish car brand, which will give the company cachet in the domestic market and a foothold in Europe. China surpassed the United States last year as the top auto market, but its domestic car manufacturers faced an uphill battle acquiring brand awareness and technology overseas.

The Ford Crown Victoria police car, which for nearly three decades has been the star of high-speed chases and an unwelcome sight in rearview mirrors, is being phased out. Ford unveiled its new patrol car, the Police Interceptor, at an event Friday at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway attended by fleet buyers and law enforcement officials. The new car was designed to be faster, safer and stronger, and will come packed with advanced technology. But for some at the unveiling, it was a nostalgic occasion.

Ford Motor Co.'s first all-electric vehicle made its Los Angeles debut this week at the Petersen Automotive Museum, a fitting locale for a manufacturer to take a successful product from its present lineup and push it into the future. The electric version of a light-duty cargo van that has been available globally since 2003 and has sold more than 600,000 units, the Transit Connect Electric is the first of four electrified vehicles the Detroit manufacturer plans to bring to market by 2012.

We live in a media universe where "American Idol" judges slurp from giant tumblers of Coca-Cola, "The Biggest Loser" contestants gush about their Subway sandwich feasts and local television news operations sell off "sponsorships" to the highest bidder. Weather, traffic, sports, ski reports and more now come along with broadcast or Web-based advertising. "Lakers coverage on KCBS and KCAL -- sponsored by Honda." The thicket of corporate billboards dotting the airwaves can get a little mind-numbing.

Ford Motor Co. posted a profit of $2.7 billion for 2009, a dramatic turnaround for the company, which weathered one of the worst years in the history of the automotive industry in comparatively good health. Separately, Ford confirmed it had stopped making a limited-production commercial van in China because the vehicle contained gas pedals that were similar in design to the component involved in Toyota Motor Corp.'s massive recall. Under some conditions, the pedal can cause unintended acceleration in a vehicle, according to Toyota.

Ford Motor Co. unveiled what it boasted was a "world-beating" next-generation Ford Focus at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit on Monday and announced its intentions to sell an all-electric version of the vehicle starting next year. The company said the electric version of the Focus would be built at a factory in Michigan that previously manufactured sport utility vehicles, which Ford President of the Americas Mark Fields observed was an example of how quickly the auto industry and consumer tastes were shifting.

Need a billion-dollar corporate turnaround? There's an app for that. Hitching a ride with the fast-paced Internet and consumer electronics industry, Ford Motor Co. on Thursday unveiled new features for its Sync in-car technology designed to turbocharge the company's financial turnaround and create Ford's image as the Apple Inc. of the car industry. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Ford Chief Executive Alan Mulally showed off how consumers could soon catch up on Twitter, listen to Internet radio, check movie times and get free maps with turn-by-turn directions, using Sync's voice commands or 8-inch color touch-screen in the dashboard, in Ford's spring lineup of cars.