Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Ford Motor Co.

DETROIT - Last year, Ford Motor Co. said it would revamp its entire lineup of Ford, Mercury and Lincoln vehicles by 2010 in an effort to win over consumers and become profitable again.

But Ford still placed last among major automakers in its projected product replacement rate through 2011, according to the annual ``Car Wars'' report for 2008-11 from Merrill Lynch.

The brokerage firm said Ford would replace 57 percent of its product between 2008 and 2011 with entirely new models or next generations of existing models.

Merrill Lynch's annual analysis suggests there is a strong correlation between the percentage of new models and how much market share an automaker gains or loses, with the freshest lineups doing the best.