SHARE TOOLS PRINT COMMENT SUBSCRIBE RSS RELATED ARTICLES 1. Who Buys Car Wax? 2. Cars.com Launches Mobile Shopping Application 3. Acura Gets Design-Conscious For ZDX 4. Kia's Marketing VP Dishes On Bowl Strategy 5. How To Capitalize On Competitors' Failures In Search TAGS:  Automotive MOST READ 1. ANA: Social Media, Web Spend Up, TV Down 2. Study: Half Of Top Web Retailers Have No Meaningful Facebook Presence 3. The Good, Bad and Really Bad Ads from Super Bowl XLIV 4. Private-Label Growth Outpacing Brands 5. TV Ad Market: Less In 2013 Than 2006 6. Social Media Platform Aims To Separate Signals From The Noise 7. Armchair CDs Speak Out On Super Bowl Spots 8. Facebook Dumps Microsoft Display, But Bing Is In 9. Logging In: The False Darwinism Of Competition 10. Webisoaps Keep the World Turning

Ford instantly earned the admiration and appreciation of consumers by declining to take any of the $17.4 billion the government is giving Detroit. The Twitterverse -- first time I've seen that -- "was abuzz with people expressing their gratitude for Ford and their delight in being Ford owners," writes Michael Bush.

The automaker says it needs a $9 billion line of credit that it will only touch if the economy were to get dramatically worse. In addition, "Ford has been really smart about supporting the bailout package for their rivals," says Doug Spong, president of Carmichael Lynch Spong. But now Ford's challenge is to turn this groundswell of consumer goodwill into sales.

Over at Chrysler, meanwhile, The New York Times' Bill Vlasic writes that Cerberus appears willing to give up its 80.1% stake "to the United Automobile Workers and anyone else the troubled automaker owes money to." Chrysler's U.S. sales have dropped 27.9% through November - the worst performance of any automaker in a market that is down 16.3% overall.

 

Read the whole story at Ad Age, New York Times .

1 person recommends this article.