Ford Execs Hint Of Good News Coming At Friday Meeting

DETROIT January 5, 2004; Dow Jones is reporting that executives from Ford Motor Co. are walking around the North American International Auto Show with smiles and grins that were almost completely missing from last year's auto show.

They won't say exactly why they're in such a good mood, and have been elusive when it comes to talking about their 2004 outlook. They say they're holding out for Friday, when the company will discuss its views for the year with investors.

But it's clear that 2003 ended better than they expected it would - and they see 2004 also being a good year.

"It's a much different feeling from last year and the year before," said Jim O'Connor, North American marketing, sales and service vice president.

This time last year, the mood was radically different. Ford was coming off the heels of a dismal 2002 - the company lost $130 million in the fourth quarter alone and announced a five-year restructuring plan to help get it back on its feet. While Ford officials were promising things would pick up by the end of the year - even pledging to do cut costs while increasing capital expenditures by $1 billion - few were buying what Ford was selling.

"I think we're all feeling pretty good," Nick Scheele, the company's president and chief operating officer, told reporters Monday.

Scheele said he thinks industrywide auto sales could hit over 17 million cars and trucks in 2004. Ford's sales are starting of "very, very well", Scheele said, with strong sales of the newly redesignd Ford F-150 pickup truck.

More than 2 million cars and trucks sold this year are expected to be from vehicles the company launched within the last 18 months, the executive said. Two new sedan launches - the Ford 500 and the Mercury Montego - should help bolster sales where the Ford Taurus has faltered. And the company is also pinning high hopes that consumer excitement will bust out over the 2005 Mustang and the Ford Freestyle crossover sport utility wagon.

Also helping their outlook is strong consumer confidence figures and a bullish stock market.