Ford wishes GM a happy 100th birthday
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Credit Ford with a classy move yesterday when it strategically left the blinds open in certain offices at its World Headquarters in Dearborn. The effect was a building-sized birthday card congratulating its cross-town competitor, General Motors, on making it 100 years in the automotive business. Ford celebrated its centennial a few years back, so knows how much fun the big 1-0-0 can be. And though they're technically competitors in this grueling business, both Ford and GM often find themselves in the same boat when it comes to battling imports for market share, appealing to the federal government for loans and generally doing their best not to make Detroit an embarrassment. Did you know that GM almost bought Ford back in the day? The man responsible for making GM what it is today, Billy Durant, made Henry Ford an offer of $8 million to buy his six-year-old car company on October 5, 1909... and Ford accepted. Unfortunately, Ford demanded $2 million up front, preferably in gold, and Durant couldn't get the loan approved by New York banks. The two automakers' paths verged from there, but obviously never completely separated.
[Source: Ford]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Seanross 8:12AM (9/16/2008)
$8 Million might not seem like much now, but that was a lot of scratch back then.
Anyway, Nice gesture Ford.
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Randy 4:18PM (9/16/2008)
Very classy! Nice job Ford!
Now if only Cain and Abel could be this nice...........
Randy
Avinash machado 8:12AM (9/16/2008)
Another interesting point is that Cadillac was originally the Henry Ford Company which was bought by Henry Leland. Leland later sold it to Durant and founded Lincoln Motor Company which was later acquired by Ford.
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Pete 8:41AM (9/16/2008)
Stay classy FoMoCo!
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No Welfare for GM 8:41AM (9/16/2008)
I recall reading that on it's 100th B Day GM will show off Volt to everyone (without GM employees in front of it) I believe that should happen tomorrow.
Here's an interesting fact for all of you. Did you know that GM founder's middle name was "Crapo"? How appropriate is that?
And before a get ripped to pieces here's the link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_C._Durant
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compy386 9:10AM (9/16/2008)
Wow... stay classy there.
Joe K. 9:10AM (9/16/2008)
One of my best friends in High School's last name was Crapo. Its not pronounced "Crap-O" its "Cray-po." We still called him Crapper though...
Tim 10:25AM (9/16/2008)
Boy, you are a class act. Didn't your mother raise you better than that? Making fun of someones name is what you do in grade school.
Anyhow, Congrats to GM on past success and a better future. GM is poised to take the world by storm over the next few years and everyone working for GM should be proud of their accomplishments during this long, difficult turnaround.
MKW 10:57AM (9/16/2008)
Im a GM fan but LOL
PiCASSO 1:33PM (9/16/2008)
Prick...
No Welfare for GM 1:49PM (9/16/2008)
I knew someone would get offended.
Hamud 8:44AM (9/16/2008)
That was really nice from Ford.
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MMS 8:47AM (9/16/2008)
I think we're overlooking the possibility this is just a coincidence.
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wayne 1:26PM (9/16/2008)
LMFAO!!
Omegab1 8:57AM (9/16/2008)
Im suprised Ford has enough money to leave the lights on for the night...classy move though
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C.W. 10:42AM (9/16/2008)
ford has more cash in it's bank account than GM and Chrysler combined.
cash isnt the issue... its CASH FLOW... burning through it at a faster rate than it is being generated... of course due to the restructuring. this is the case for all of our Detroit 3. but you already knew this of course.
Kitko 9:00AM (9/16/2008)
Nice gesture, but the idea is not knew.
This is Tetris played with a building's lights.
http://www.englishrussia.com/?p=1136
And this is a volume meter bar using campus lights - actually a hack for monitoring sound level of gigs in Boston.
http://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/by_year/1993/green_bldg_vu_meter/
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C.W. 10:44AM (9/16/2008)
what's your point? of course it's not new.
they're not trying to do something thats never been done here.
They lit up the South side of the huge-@ss building because from the Ren-Center in Detroit (GM's building) you can see it.
it's pretty cool to see.
Kalle 3:09PM (9/16/2008)
Is that the 'Darth Vader' building in the picture?
C.W. 3:36PM (9/16/2008)
no, thats World HeadQuarters. Darth Vader is north, just off of Southfield Fwy and Ford Rd.
not visible in the photo.