Ford Completes Tender Offer for Hertz Public Shares

    DEARBORN, Mich., March 5 Ford Motor Company
today announced the successful completion of its tender offer for the publicly
held shares of Class A common stock of The Hertz Corporation for
$35.50 a share.
    The offer expired at midnight EST on March 2.  Based on preliminary
information, 19,375,185 of the approximately 20 million publicly traded shares
of Hertz Class A common stock were tendered by the expiration date.  Ford FSG
Inc., a Ford subsidiary through which the tender offer was made, has accepted
for payment all validly tendered shares and expects to make payment to the
depositary for the accepted shares on March 6.
    The tendered shares, together with the Hertz Class A shares already owned
by Ford, represent more than 90 percent of Hertz's outstanding Class A common
stock.
    Ford and Hertz will now complete the transaction by merging a subsidiary
of Ford FSG with Hertz.  Hertz will then become an indirect wholly owned
subsidiary of Ford Motor Company.  As part of the merger, each of the
remaining Hertz Class A shares, other than shares for which appraisal rights
have been demanded, will be converted into $35.50 in cash, without interest.
Completion of the merger is expected in about a week.