Strong Ford Earnings

Ford, one of the major car manufacturing companies in the US, reported a higher than expected third quarterly profit of $1.7bn.

"Growing product strength'

"This was another strong quarter and we continue to gain momentum with our One Ford [transformation] plan," said Mr Mulally, Ford's president and chief executive.

"Delivering world class products and aggressively restructuring our business has enabled us to profitably grow even at low industry volumes in key regions.

Ford says its new Explorer is more fuel efficient

"The key drivers for improvement in 2011 will be our growing product strength, a gradually strengthening economy and an unrelenting focus on improving the competitiveness of all our operations," he added.

Ford was the only big US carmaker that was not subject to a US government bail-out during the financial crisis.

The firm has now announced new plans to reduce what it owes, saying by the end of the year it hopes to have as much cash as debt."

Maybe not taking the bailout wasn't that bad after all.