Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the mission of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford, it was funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death of the two founders, the foundation owned 90% of the non-voting shares of the Ford Motor Company. Between 1955 and 1974, the foundation sold its Ford Motor Company holdings and now plays no role in the automobile company. Ahead of the foundation selling its Ford Motor Company holdings, in 1949 Henry Ford II created the Ford Motor Company Fund, a separate corporate foundation which to this day serves as the philanthropic arm of the Ford Motor Company and is not associated with the foundation. For years it was the largest, one of the most influential foundations in the world, with global reach and special interests in economic empowerment, human rights, the creative arts, Third World development; the foundation makes grants through ten international field offices. For fiscal year 2014, it approved US$507.9 million in grants.
After its establishment in 1936, Ford Foundation shifted its focus from Michigan philanthropic support to four areas of action. In the 1950 Report of the Study of the Ford Foundation on Policy and Program, the trustees set forth five "areas of action," according to Richard Magat: economic improvements, education and democracy, human behaviour, world peace. Since the middle of the 20th century, many of the Ford Foundation's programs have focused on increased under-represented or "minority" group representation in education and policy-making. For over eight decades their mission decisively advocates and supports the reduction of poverty and injustice among other values including the maintenance of democratic values, promoting engagement with other nations, sustaining human progress and achievement at home and abroad; the Ford Foundation is one of the primary foundations offering grants that support and maintain diversity in higher education with fellowships for pre-doctoral and post-doctoral scholarship to increase diverse representation among Native Americans, African Americans, Latinos/Latinas and other under-represented Asian and Latino sub-groups throughout the U.
S. academic labor market. The outcomes of scholarship by its grantees from the late 20th century through the 21st century have contributed to substantial data and scholarship including national surveys such as the Nelson Diversity Surveys in STEM; the foundation was established January 15, 1936, in Michigan by Edsel Ford and two other executives "to receive and administer funds for scientific and charitable purposes, all for the public welfare." During its early years, the foundation operated in Michigan under the leadership of Ford family members and their associates and supported the Henry Ford Hospital and the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, among other organizations. After the deaths of Edsel Ford in 1943 and Henry Ford in 1947, the presidency of the foundation fell to Edsel's eldest son, Henry Ford II, it became clear that the foundation would become the largest philanthropic organisation in the world. The board of trustees commissioned the Gaither Study Committee to chart the foundation's future.
The committee, headed by California attorney H. Rowan Gaither, recommended that the foundation become an international philanthropic organisation dedicated to the advancement of human welfare and "urged the foundation to focus on solving humankind's most pressing problems, whatever they might be, rather than work in any particular field...." The board embraced the recommendations in 1949. The board of directors decided to diversify the foundation's portfolio and divested itself of its substantial Ford Motor Company stock between 1955 and 1974; this divestiture allowed Ford Motor to become a public company. Henry Ford II resigned from his trustee's role in a surprise move in December 1976. In his resignation letter, he cited his dissatisfaction with the foundation holding on to their old programs, large staff and what he saw as anti-capitalist undertones in the foundation's work. In February 2019, Henry Ford III was elected to the Foundation's Board of Trustees, becoming the first Ford family member to serve on the board since his grandfather resigned in 1976.
In 2012, stating that it is not a research library, the foundation transferred its archives from New York City to the Rockefeller Archive Center in Sleepy Hollow, New York. Based on recommendations made by the Gaither Study Committee and embraced by the foundation's board of trustees in 1949, the foundation expanded its grant making to include support for higher education, the arts, economic development, civil rights, the environment, among other areas. In 1951, the foundation made its first grant to support the development of the public broadcasting system known as National Educational Television, which went on the air in 1952; these grants continued, in 1969 the foundation gave US$1 million to the Children's Television Workshop to help create and launch Sesame Street. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting replaced NET with the Public Broadcasting Service on October 5, 1970; the foundation underwrote the Fund for the Republic in the 1950s. The foundation's first international field office opened in 1952 in India.
Throughout the 1950s, the foundation provided arts and humanities fellowships that supported the work of figures like Josef Albers, James Baldwin, Saul Bellow, Herbert Blau, E. E. Cummings, Flannery O'Connor, Jacob Lawrence, Maurice Valency, Robert Lowell, Margaret Mead. In 1961, Kofi Annan received an educati
Ford Mustang
The Ford Mustang is an American car manufactured by Ford. It was based on the platform of the second generation North American Ford Falcon, a compact car; the original 1962 Ford Mustang I two-seater concept car had evolved into the 1963 Mustang II four-seater concept car which Ford used to pretest how the public would take interest in the first production Mustang. The 1963 Mustang II concept car was designed with a variation of the production model's front and rear ends with a roof, 2.7 inches shorter. Introduced early on April 17, 1964, thus dubbed as a "1964½" by Mustang fans, the 1965 Mustang was the automaker's most successful launch since the Model A; the Mustang has undergone several transformations to its current sixth generation. The Mustang created the "pony car" class of American muscle cars, affordable sporty coupes with long hoods and short rear decks, gave rise to competitors such as the Chevrolet Camaro, Pontiac Firebird, AMC Javelin, Chrysler's revamped Plymouth Barracuda, the second generation Dodge Challenger.
The Mustang is credited for inspiring the designs of coupés such as the Toyota Celica and Ford Capri, which were imported to the United States. As of August 2018, over 10 million Mustangs have been produced in the U. S; the Ford Mustang began production five months before the normal start of the 1965 production year. The early production versions are referred to as "1964½ models" but all Mustangs were advertised, VIN coded and titled by Ford as 1965 models, though minor design updates in August 1964 at the "formal" start of the 1965 production year contribute to tracking 1964½ production data separately from 1965 data. With production beginning in Dearborn, Michigan, on March 9, 1964. Executive stylist John Najjar, a fan of the World War II P-51 Mustang fighter plane, is credited by Ford to have suggested the name. Najjar co-designed the first prototype of the Ford Mustang known as Ford Mustang I in 1961, working jointly with fellow Ford stylist Philip T. Clark; the Mustang I made its formal debut at the United States Grand Prix in Watkins Glen, New York, on October 7, 1962, where test driver and contemporary Formula One race driver Dan Gurney lapped the track in a demonstration using the second "race" prototype.
His lap times were only off the pace of the F1 race cars. An alternative view was that Robert J. Eggert, Ford Division market research manager, first suggested the Mustang name. Eggert, a breeder of quarterhorses, received a birthday present from his wife of the book, The Mustangs by J. Frank Dobie in 1960; the book's title gave him the idea of adding the "Mustang" name for Ford's new concept car. The designer preferred Cougar or Torino, while Henry Ford II wanted T-bird II; as the person responsible for Ford's research on potential names, Eggert added "Mustang" to the list to be tested by focus groups. The name could not be used in Germany, because it was owned by Krupp, which had manufactured trucks between 1951 and 1964 with the name Mustang. Ford refused to buy the name for about US$10,000 from Krupp at the time. Kreidler, a manufacturer of mopeds used the name, so Mustang was sold in Germany as the "T-5" until December 1978. Mustangs grew larger and heavier with each model year until, in response to the 1971–1973 models, Ford returned the car to its original size and concept for 1974.
It designs. Although some other pony cars have seen a revival, the Mustang is the only original model to remain in uninterrupted production over five decades of development and revision. Lee Iacocca's assistant general manager and chief engineer, Donald N. Frey was the head engineer for the T-5 project—supervising the overall development of the car in a record 18 months—while Iacocca himself championed the project as Ford Division general manager; the T-5 prototype was a mid-mounted engine roadster. This vehicle employed the German Ford Taunus V4 engine, it was claimed that the decision to abandon the two-seat design was in part due to the increase in sales the Thunderbird had seen when enlarged from a two-seater to a 2+2 in 1958. Thus, a four-seat car with full space for the front bucket seats, as planned, a rear bench seat with less space than was common at the time, were standard. A "Fastback 2+2", first manufactured on August 17, 1964, enclosed the trunk space under a sweeping exterior line similar to the second series Corvette Sting Ray and European sports cars such as the Jaguar E-Type coupe.
Favorable publicity articles appeared in 2,600 newspapers the next morning, the day the car was "officially" revealed. To achieve an advertised list price of US$2,368, the Mustang was based on familiar yet simple components, many of which were in production for other Ford models. Many of the interior, chassis and drivetrain components were derived from those used on Ford's Falcon and Fairlane; this use of common components shortened the learning curve for assembly and repair workers, while at the same time allowing dealers to pick up the Mustang without having to invest in additional spare parts inventory to support the new car line. Original sales forecasts projected less than 100,000 units for the first year; this mark was surpassed in three months from rollout. Another 318,000 would be sold during the model year, in its first eighteen months, more than one million
Grosse Pointe
Grosse Pointe refers to an affluent coastal area adjacent to Detroit, United States, that comprises five adjacent individual cities. From southwest to northeast, they are: Grosse Pointe Park, city Grosse Pointe, city Grosse Pointe Farms, city Grosse Pointe Shores, city Grosse Pointe Woods, cityThe terms "Grosse Pointe" or "the Pointes" are ordinarily used to refer to the entire area, referencing all five individual communities, with a total population of about 46,000; the Grosse Pointes altogether are 10.4 square miles, bordered by Detroit on the south and west, Lake St. Clair on the east and south, Harper Woods on the west of some portions, St. Clair Shores on the north; the cities are in eastern Wayne County, except for a small section in Macomb County. The Pointes begin six miles northeast of downtown Detroit and extend several miles northeastward, in a narrow swath of land, to the edge of Wayne County; the name "Grosse Pointe" derives from the size of the area, its projection into Lake St. Clair.
Located on the coast of Lake St. Clair, Grosse Pointe is a suburban area in Metro Detroit, sharing a border with northeast Detroit's historic neighborhoods. Grosse Pointe has many famous historic estates along with newer construction. Downtown Grosse Pointe, along Kercheval Avenue from Neff to Cadieux, nicknamed "The Village," serves as a central business district for all five of the Grosse Pointes, although each of them has several blocks of retail. Downtown Detroit is just over seven miles west of this downtown area, accessed by Jefferson Avenue, or several other cross-streets; the north-south area along Lake St. Clair coincides with the boundaries of the two high schools; the southern areas feature retail districts. Grosse Pointe, recognized for its historic reputation for scenery and landscape, has grown from a colonial outpost and a fertile area for small orchard owners and farmers to a coastal community with prime real estate chosen for grand estates; the Grosse Pointes were first settled by French farmers in the 1750s after the establishment of the French Fort Pontchartrain.
Members of the British empire began arriving around the time of the Revolutionary War. In the 19th century Grosse Pointe continued to be the site of lakefront ribbon farms. Beginning in the 1850s, wealthy residents of Detroit began building second homes in the Grosse Pointe area, soon afterward, hunting and golf clubs appeared; some grand estates arose in the late 19th century, with the dawn of the automobile after 1900, Grosse Pointe became a preferred suburb for business executives in addition to a retreat for wealthy Detroiters. By the 1930s, most of the southern and western areas of Grosse Pointe contained established neighborhoods, with remaining gaps and the northern sections such as Grosse Pointe Woods developing after the 1930s. In 1960, it was revealed that realtors in suburban Grosse Pointe ranked prospective home buyers by using a point system with categories such as race, occupation, “degree of swarthiness.” Southern Europeans and Poles required higher rankings than people of northwestern European descent in order to move into the community, while Asians and Blacks were excluded from living in Grosse Pointe altogether.
The revelation of this practice in Grosse Pointe led to private detectives investigating potential residents’ backgrounds and the state corporation and securities commissioner issuing a regulation to prevent real estate brokers who discriminated on the basis of race, religion, or national origin from obtaining a license. These public hearings brought the national attention to the real estate discrimination situation in Detroit, which resulted in the expansion of open housing activity in the city. A passenger rail line that connected Detroit to Mt. Clemens along the shore was operational by the late 1890s, making Grosse Pointe more accessible; as the automobile became the primary method of transportation and the rail line decommissioned, the vista of what became Lake Shore Drive improved. Lakeside estates are accessed from Lake Shore Jefferson Avenue. Over the course of the 20th and 21st centuries, Grosse Pointe has gained a reputation as a notable American suburb; the Russell Alger Jr. House, at 32 Lake Shore Dr. serves as the Grosse Pointe War Memorial community center.
Grosse Pointe contains fifteen recognized Michigan historical markers. "The Village", concentrated along Kercheval Avenue in Grosse Pointe serves as a central business district for the five Pointes with traditional street-side shopping. The Village has its own Sanders Candy and Dessert Shop, founded by Frederick Sanders Schmidt, who opened a store Detroit in 1875; the Village has become a vibrant district with the emergence of mixed-use developments. Grosse Pointe Farms is home to "The Hill" district, located on a small bluff, which includes offices, stores and the main branch of the public library. Near its "Cabbage Patch" district, Grosse Pointe Park has retail and restaurants on multiple cross-streets, as well as a farmer's market held weekly during the warm months. Grosse Pointe Woods' main business district lies along one of Mack Avenue; the recreational lifestyle associated w
Chairman
The chairman is the highest officer of an organized group such as a board, a committee, or a deliberative assembly. The person holding the office is elected or appointed by the members of the group, the chairman presides over meetings of the assembled group and conducts its business in an orderly fashion. In some organizations, the chairman position is called president, in others, where a board appoints a president, the two different terms are used for distinctly different positions. Other terms sometimes used for the office and its holder include chair, chairwoman, presiding officer, moderator and convenor; the chairman of a parliamentary chamber is called the speaker. The term chair is sometimes used in lieu of chairman, in response to criticisms that using chairman is sexist, it is used today, has been used as a substitute for chairman since the middle of the 17th century, with its earliest citation in the Oxford English Dictionary dated 1658–1659, only four years after the first citation for chairman.
Major dictionaries state that the word derives from a person. A 1994 Canadian study found the Toronto Star newspaper referring to most presiding men as "chairman", to most presiding women as "chairperson" or as "chairwoman"; the Chronicle of Higher Education uses "chairman" for men and "chairperson" for women. An analysis of the British National Corpus found chairman used 1,142 times, chairperson 130 times and chairwoman 68 times; the National Association of Parliamentarians adopted a resolution in 1975 discouraging the use of “chairperson” and rescinded it in 2017. The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and United Press International all use "chairwoman" or "chairman" when referring to women, forbid use of "chair" or of "chairperson" except in direct quotations. In World Schools Style debating, male chairs are called "Mr. Chairman" and female chairs are called "Madame Chair"; the FranklinCovey Style Guide for Business and Technical Communication, as well as the American Psychological Association style guide, advocate using "chair" or "chairperson", rather than "chairman".
The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style suggests that the gender-neutral forms are gaining ground. It advocates using "chair" to refer both to women; the Telegraph style guide bans the use of both "Chair" and "Chairperson" on the basis that "Chairman" is correct English. The word chair can refer to the place from which the holder of the office presides, whether on a chair, at a lectern, or elsewhere. During meetings, the person presiding is said to be "in the chair" and is referred to as "the chair". Parliamentary procedure requires that members address the "chair" as "Mr. Chairman" rather than using a name – one of many customs intended to maintain the presiding officer's impartiality and to ensure an objective and impersonal approach. In the United States, the presiding officer of the lower house of a legislative body, such as the House of Representatives, is titled the Speaker, while the upper house, such as the Senate, is chaired by a President. In his 1992 State of the Union address, then-U.
S. President George H. W. Bush used "chairman" for men and "chair" for women. In the British music hall tradition, the Chairman was the master of ceremonies who announced the performances and was responsible for controlling any rowdy elements in the audience; the role was popularised on British TV in the 1960s and 1970s by Leonard Sachs, the Chairman on the variety show The Good Old Days."Chairman" as a quasi-title gained particular resonance when socialist states from 1917 onward shunned more traditional leadership labels and stressed the collective control of soviets by beginning to refer to executive figureheads as "Chairman of the X Committee". Vladimir Lenin, for example functioned as the head of Soviet Russia not as tsar or as president but in roles such as "Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian SFSR". Note in particular the popular standard method for referring to Mao Zedong: "Chairman Mao". In addition to the administrative or executive duties in organizations, the chairman has the duties of presiding over meetings.
Such duties at meetings include: Calling the meeting to order Determining if a quorum is present Announcing the items on the order of business or agenda as they come up Recognition of members to have the floor Enforcing the rules of the group Putting questions to a vote Adjourning the meetingWhile presiding, the chairman should remain impartial and not interrupt a speaker if the speaker has the floor and is following the rules of the group. In committees or small boards, the chairman votes along with the other members. However, in assemblies or larger boards, the chairman should vote only when it can affect the result. At a meeting, the chairman only has one vote; the powers of the chairman vary across organizations. In some organizations the chairman has the authority to hire staff and make financial decisions, while in others the chairman only makes recommendations to a board of directors, still others the chairman has no executive powers and is a spokesman for the organization; the amount of power given to the chairman depends on the type of organization, its structure, the rules it has created for itself.
If the chairman exceeds the given authority, engages in misconduct, or fails to perform t
Public company
A public company, publicly traded company, publicly held company, publicly listed company, or public limited company is a corporation whose ownership is dispersed among the general public in many shares of stock which are traded on a stock exchange or in over the counter markets. In some jurisdictions, public companies over a certain size must be listed on an exchange. A public company can be unlisted. Public companies are formed within the legal systems of particular nations, therefore have national associations and formal designations which are distinct and separate. For example one of the main public company forms in the United States is called a limited liability company, in France is called a "society of limited responsibility", in Britain a public limited company, in Germany a company with limited liability. While the general idea of a public company may be similar, differences are meaningful, are at the core of international law disputes with regard to industry and trade. In the early modern period, the Dutch developed several financial instruments and helped lay the foundations of modern financial system.
The Dutch East India Company became the first company in history to issue bonds and shares of stock to the general public. In other words, the VOC was the first publicly traded company, because it was the first company to be actually listed on an official stock exchange. While the Italian city-states produced the first transferable government bonds, they did not develop the other ingredient necessary to produce a fledged capital market: corporate shareholders; as Edward Stringham notes, "companies with transferable shares date back to classical Rome, but these were not enduring endeavors and no considerable secondary market existed." The securities of a publicly traded company are owned by many investors while the shares of a held company are owned by few shareholders. A company with many shareholders is not a publicly traded company. In the United States, in some instances, companies with over 500 shareholders may be required to report under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Public companies possess some advantages over held businesses.
Publicly traded companies are able to raise funds and capital through the sale of shares of stock. This is the reason publicly traded corporations are important; the profit on stock is gained in form of capital gain to the holders. The financial media and the public are able to access additional information about the business, since the business is legally bound, motivated, to publicly disseminate information regarding the financial status and future of the company to its many shareholders and the government; because many people have a vested interest in the company's success, the company may be more popular or recognizable than a private company. The initial shareholders of the company are able to share risk by selling shares to the public. If one were to hold a 100% share of the company, he or she would have to pay all of the business's debt; this increases asset liquidity and the company does not need to depend on funding from a bank. For example, in 2013 Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg owned 29.3% of the company's class A shares, which gave him enough voting power to control the business, while allowing Facebook to raise capital from, distribute risk to, the remaining shareholders.
Facebook was a held company prior to its initial public offering in 2012. If some shares are given to managers or other employees, potential conflicts of interest between employees and shareholders will be remitted; as an example, in many tech companies, entry-level software engineers are given stock in the company upon being hired. Therefore, the engineers have a vested interest in the company succeeding financially, are incentivized to work harder and more diligently to ensure that success. Many stock exchanges require that publicly traded companies have their accounts audited by outside auditors, publish the accounts to their shareholders. Besides the cost, this may make useful information available to competitors. Various other annual and quarterly reports are required by law. In the United States, the Sarbanes–Oxley Act imposes additional requirements; the requirement for audited books is not imposed by the exchange known as OTC Pink. The shares may be maliciously held by outside shareholders and the original founders or owners may lose benefits and control.
The principal-agent problem, or the agency problem is a key weakness of public companies. The separation of a company's ownership and control is prevalent in such countries as U. K and U. S. In the United States, the Securities and Exchange Commission requires that firms whose stock is traded publicly report their major shareholders each year; the reports identify all institutional shareholders, all company officials who own shares in their firm, any individual or institution owning more than 5% of the firm's stock. For many years, newly created companies were held but held initial
Trade union
A trade union called a labour union or labor union, is an association of workers in a particular trade, industry, or company created for the purpose of securing improvement in pay, working conditions or social and political status through collective bargaining and working conditions through the increased bargaining power wielded by creation of a monopoly of the workers. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with employers; the most common purpose of these associations or unions is "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment". This may include the negotiation of wages, work rules, complaint procedures, rules governing hiring and promotion of workers, workplace safety and policies. Unions may organize a particular section of skilled workers, a cross-section of workers from various trades, or attempt to organize all workers within a particular industry; the agreements negotiated by a union are binding on the rank and file members and the employer and in some cases on other non-member workers.
Trade unions traditionally have a constitution which details the governance of their bargaining unit and have governance at various levels of government depending on the industry that binds them to their negotiations and functioning. Originating in Great Britain, trade unions became popular in many countries during the Industrial Revolution. Trade unions may be composed of individual workers, past workers, apprentices or the unemployed. Trade union density, or the percentage of workers belonging to a trade union, is highest in the Nordic countries. Since the publication of the History of Trade Unionism by Sidney and Beatrice Webb, the predominant historical view is that a trade union "is a continuous association on wage earners for the purpose of maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment." Karl Marx described trade unions thus: "The value of labour-power constitutes the conscious and explicit foundation of the trade unions, whose importance for the working class can scarcely be overestimated.
The trade unions aim at nothing less than to prevent the reduction of wages below the level, traditionally maintained in the various branches of industry. That is to say, they wish to prevent the price of labour-power from falling below its value". A modern definition by the Australian Bureau of Statistics states that a trade union is "an organization consisting predominantly of employees, the principal activities of which include the negotiation of rates of pay and conditions of employment for its members."Yet historian R. A. Leeson, in United we Stand, said: Two conflicting views of the trade-union movement strove for ascendancy in the nineteenth century: one the defensive-restrictive guild-craft tradition passed down through journeymen's clubs and friendly societies... the other the aggressive-expansionist drive to unite all'labouring men and women' for a'different order of things'. Recent historical research by Bob James in Craft, Trade or Mystery puts forward the view that trade unions are part of a broader movement of benefit societies, which includes medieval guilds, Oddfellows, friendly societies, other fraternal organizations.
The 18th century economist Adam Smith noted the imbalance in the rights of workers in regards to owners. In The Wealth of Nations, Book I, chapter 8, Smith wrote: We hear, it has been said, of the combination of masters, though of those of workmen, but whoever imagines, upon this account, that masters combine, is as ignorant of the world as of the subject. Masters are always and everywhere in a sort of tacit, but constant and uniform combination, not to raise the wages of labor above their actual rate When workers combine, masters... never cease to call aloud for the assistance of the civil magistrate, the rigorous execution of those laws which have been enacted with so much severity against the combination of servants and journeymen. As Smith noted, unions were illegal for many years in most countries, although Smith argued that it should remain illegal to fix wages or prices by employees or employers. There were severe penalties for including execution. Despite this, unions were formed and began to acquire political power resulting in a body of labour law that not only legalized organizing efforts, but codified the relationship between employers and those employees organized into unions.
The origins of trade unions can be traced back to 18th century Britain, where the rapid expansion of industrial society taking place drew women, rural workers and immigrants into the work force in large numbers and in new roles. They encountered a large hostility in their early existence from employers and government groups; this pool of unskilled and semi-skilled labour spontaneously organized in fits and starts throughout its beginnings, would be an important arena for the development of trade unions. Trade unions have sometimes been seen as successors to the guilds of medieval Europe, though the relationship between the two is disputed, as the masters of the guilds employed workers who were not allowed to organize. Trade unions and collective bargaining were outlawed from no than the middle of the 14th century when the Ordinance of Labourers was enacted in the Kingdom of England but their way of thinking was the one that endured dur
1949 Ford
The 1949 Ford was an American automobile produced by Ford. It was the first all-new automobile design introduced by the Big Three after World War II, civilian production having been suspended during the war, the 1946-1948 models from Ford, GM, Chrysler being updates of their pre-war models. Popularly called the "Shoebox Ford" for its slab-sided, "ponton" design, the 1949 Ford is credited both with saving Ford and ushering in modern streamlined car design with changes such as integrated fenders and more; this design would continue through the 1951 model year, with an updated design offered in 1952. After sticking with its well-received previous model through model year 1948, Ford redesigned its namesake car for the year 1949. Save for its drive-train, this was an all-new car in every way, with a modern ladder frame now supporting a coil spring independent suspension in front and longitudinal semi-elliptical springs in back; the engine was moved forward to make more room in the passenger compartment and the antiquated "torque tube" was replaced by a modern drive shaft.
Ford's popular 226 CID L-head straight-6 and 239 CID Flathead V8 remained, now rated at 90 hp and 100 hp, respectively. The 1949 models debuted at a gala at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City in June 1948, with a carousel of the new Fords complemented by a revolving demonstration of the new chassis; the new integrated steel structure was advertised as a "lifeguard body", the woody wagon was steel at heart. The convertible frame had an "X member" for structural rigidity. From a customer's perspective, the old Custom, De Luxe, Super De Luxe lines were replaced by new Standard and Custom trims and the cars gained a modern look with integrated rear fenders and just a hint of a fender in front; the new styling approach was evident in the 1949 Mercury Eight and the all-new Lincoln Cosmopolitan. The styling was influential on many European manufacturers, such as Mercedes Benz, Austin and many others; the all new 1949 Ford was said at the time to be the car. Competition from GMH was surpassing the Old Ford designs.
In some ways the vehicle was rushed into production the door mechanism design. It was said. In the 1950 model there were some 10 changes in the door latching mechanism alone. 1950 saw a new Crestliner "sports sedan"—a 2-door sedan with 2-tone paint intended to battle Chevrolet's popular hardtop coupe of 1950. Another new name was Country Squire. All wagons received flat-folding middle seats at mid-year, an innovation that would reappear in the minivans of the 1990s; the 1949 and 1950 styling was similar, with a single central "bullet" in the frowning chrome grille. In the center there was a red space that had either a 6 or 8 depending if the car had the six-cylinder engine or the V8; the trim lines were renamed as well, with "Standard" becoming "Deluxe" and "Custom" renamed "Custom Deluxe". The new Fords got the now-famous "Ford Crest" which appeared on the division's vehicles for many decades in one form or another. A Deluxe Business Coupe was marketed; the 1951 Fords featured an optional Ford-O-Matic automatic transmission for the first time.
Ford answered the Chevrolet Bel Air and Plymouth Belvedere charge with the Victoria hardtop in 1951, borrowing the term from the victoria carriage. The car was an instant hit, outselling the Chevrolet by nearly 10%; the Crestliner continued for one more year, however. All 1951 Fords sported heavy chrome bumpers; this year Ford added a new "turn-key" ignition. Front suspension is independent coil springs. Head room was 36.1 inches. The 1949,'50 and'51 V8 models were produced in Australia, offered in 4-door sedan and as a 2-door coupe utility body styles; the coupe utility was a uniquely Australian variant, developed by Ford Australia. Australian content on the locally produced models had reached 80% by 1950. Ford Zephyr Mark I Ford Taunus P1 Standard 10 Ford Forty-Nine David L. Lewis. 100 Years of Ford. Publications International. Pp. 135–151. ISBN 0-7853-7988-6. "Generations: Ford Model T to Crown Victoria". Edmunds.com. Archived from the original on 5 September 2006. Retrieved August 21, 2006
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