Founded in 1903, Ford Motor Company skyrocketed from obscurity to dominate the American auto industry in less than 12 years. The new LTD would enjoy a sales resurgence, however, not before Ford and the U.S. Using the "horsepower race" at full gallop, the 239-cid V-8 was ousted for a 272 enlargement, packing 162/182 horsepower as an option for several models. Fairmont, meantime, finished its run in 1983 after few interim changes from '78. J Mays had succeeded Jack Telnack as Ford design chief in 1997, and Mays had helped shape the Passat in his previous job at VW/Audi. These wagons, by the way, were Ford's first all-steel models (the Squire switching from real wood to wood-look decals). But there were still those who wanted a Taurus with performance and mechanical specifications as sophisticated as its styling. This is also an uptown Fairmont, restyled with a sloped nose, airier "six-light" greenhouse, and lipped trunklid modestly. Engineering was no less artful, especially the all-independent suspension that drew rave reviews for delivering both a smooth class-leading and ride handling. Despite sharing the same classic lines, the GT was better than the GT40 in lots of ways, thanks to 40 years of technical progress. Millions flocked to see it on its March 1932 unveiling. Topping the line was a fresh SHO with 235 bhp from a 3.4-liter V-8, another Ford-Yamaha collaboration. A direct reply to Chevrolet's Vega, that year also new, it was smaller, less technically daring, less accommodating, and its own fuel and performance economy were nothing special in comparison to that of many imports. Also over the menu were a mandatory new six-speed manual gearbox, firm suspension with 17-inch wheels, weight loss programs and larger four-wheel disc brakes. The value-oriented GL sedan and wagon got an updated Vulcan pushrod V-6, as the nicer LXs were treated to some 3.0-liter version of the twincam Duratec V-6 with 200 bhp, considered by many buyers to become well worth its $500 premium. Calendar-year sales were to the high 70 down,000s by '02, when Ford tried adding just a little youth tonic having an LX Sport model. More popular was the blissful luxury Decor Option (LDO), a 1973 package designed for either body style through the finish of the line. The 1957 Fords were all-new, offering a vast selection of V-8s from a 190-bhp 272 up to a 245-bhp 312. The 223-cid six was standard for several but one model. Exactly the same was true of trucks -- important given the boom in light-truck demand that began in the mid-'80s and continued in to the '90s and beyond. By 2002, the ZX2 (minus Escort badging) was down to some 52,000 calendar-year orders, slid below 25 then,500, an unhealthy showing for that low- to midteens pricing. Closed rumble-seat types were also within their last year. Ford used this to elevate seating some four inches above that in most other cars. Though the 1949 Ford was near as radical because the 1950-51 Studebaker nowhere, it sold in numbers Ford hadn't seen since 1930: over 1.year 1 million for the extra-long model. Ford Division remained "USA-1," owning five from the country's top-10 sellers, including the big F-Series pickup and midsize Explorer SUV. The 500 fared better at more than 122,000 sales for exactly the same period, but that didn't help Ford's important thing very much. Escort, Contour was very close to its transatlantic cousin, having the same smooth, tightly drawn styling, plus an ultra-stiff structure and a complicated all-independent suspension that contributed to crisp, taut handling. But Henry approved it in one of those strange turnabouts that he was infamous. The similarity was easy to explain. Working in his kitchen with clay modelers Joe John and Thompson Lutz, Caleal shaped his design.T. However when the fuel crunch boosted small-car sales, Ford decided to retain Maverick and launch its erstwhile successor being a more-luxurious compact half of a step up in cost. So were ride and handling, thanks to a fresh all-coil suspension with more-precise four-bar-link location at the live rear axle. Available for other Focus models in those five areas, the PZEV four was about as clean being a gasoline engine could be with existing technology -- not far behind the gasoline/electric powertrains earning headlines, goodwill, and profits for Toyota and Honda. Though wheelbase and engines were unchanged in the 1946-48 models, the '49 was three inches lower, fractionally shorter, and usefully lighter. The smallest was Falcon, which bowed for 1960 among the new Big Three compacts (along with Corvair and Chrysler's Valiant). Fusion's CD3 platform was the starting place for Ford's first mid-size crossover SUV, the 2007 Edge. Ford also began selling "Lifeguard Design" safety features, equipping all models with dished tyre, breakaway rearview mirror, and crashproof door locks; padded dash and sunvisors cost $16 extra, factory-installed seatbelts $9. Serving "active safety" were standard antilock four-wheel disc brakes and traction control. Ford held on some standard features to create those numbers back, charging extra for traction control, curtain and torso airbags, and antilock brakes, but at least the charges were reasonable. Styling was boxier and less pretentious, and visibility and fuel economy were better. Standards carried a '39 DeLuxe-style vertical-bar grille. Among them was significantly less than John Dillinger no, who wrote Henry to praise the merchandise -- an unsolicited testimonial from Public Enemy Number One. This explains why the Granada appeared on the four-door Maverick's 109.9-inch wheelbase. Still, the Crown Vic had fair thirst (about 17 mpg city, 25 highway, as rated by environmentally friendly Protection Agency) and was thus a drain on Ford's domestic fleet-average economy. To others, though, Falcon was the Model A reborn: cheap but cheerful, simple but not spartan unacceptably. Overdrive was optional across the board at $97. For individuals who missed Escort's spunky GT hatchback, Ford offered the new 1998 Escort ZX2, a sporty coupe with a separate trunk and Taurus-like styling. This as well as a lighter look and feel made the '37 Ford one of the prettiest cars of the decade. Despite prosaic mechanicals and tough compact competition increasingly, Tempo proved another fast-selling Ford. A hatchback four-door joined the mix for 2002 for broader market coverage even. The bottom engine was treated to throttle-body injection and moved around 90 horsepower. Sure enough, the Focus originated "over there" and brought to North America with reduced change for local production. The initial member of Dearborn's new "modular" engine family, it delivered 190 standard bhp or 210 with dual exhausts, a gain of 40-50 horses over the old pushrod 302. The uprated engine was contained in a Handling and Performance package that has been standard for that Touring Sedan and optional on other models. The convertible sedan made your final bow, again in the DeLuxe line. Wagons eschewed rear struts for twin control arms, something better able to cope with the wider range of load weights wagons carry. Buying Volvo and Land Rover was costly enough, but Nasser also splurged on wispy e-commerce ventures, a chain of auto repair shops in Britain, Norwegian-built electric cars, junkyards even.