As GM and Chrysler begged the US government for bailout money, Ford held strong.  When GM and Chrysler filed for bankruptcy, Ford kept their head high.  Now, Ford posts an almost $1 Billion operating profit for the third quarter of 2009.

Ford Motor Co surprised Wall Street with a quarterly profit on Monday and raised its 2011 outlook to "solidly profitable," sending its shares up 5.7 percent in premarket trading.

Ford, the only large U.S. automaker to avoid bankruptcy in 2009, said the third-quarter results were supported by cost cuts, improved credit results and increased market share in North America and other key areas.

Ford burned through $4.7 billion of cash in the first half of 2009 but reported $1.3 billion of positive cash flow in the third quarter. It said it expects positive cash flow in the fourth quarter as well.

Source: www.reuters.com

It is important to keep in mind that this is Ford's first quarterly operating profit in North America since the first quarter of 2005, so Ford has a long way to go in order to achieve its prior market dominance.

"Our third-quarter results clearly show that Ford is making tremendous progress despite the prolonged slump in the global economy," Chief Executive Alan Mulally said in a statement.Source: www.reuters.com

It would be great to see at least one American car company come out of this crisis on top.  With Toyota faltering, Ford may in fact become the global leader once more.  Of course, that is assuming that they will once again pay more attention to the reliability of their vehicles rather than the profit margins of their executives.