Area Development
An executive at Ford Motor Co. said the nation's automobile industry is beginning to stabilize, after months of freefalling sales, according to the Associated Press. Jim Farley, Ford's global marketing chief, told AP yesterday that seasonally adjusted retail sales demand has held steady for the past four months, and that the country's used car market has come "roaring back" since January. "That shows me that credit's available," Farley said, following a Ford presentation at the Chicago Auto Show. "When we're seeing the kind of growth in the used car market that we've seen in the last six weeks, that is a really important milestone for the bottoming out of the industry." Farley's comments came as the Dearborn, Mich.-based automaker introduced its latest in a series of new products, including a Harley-Davidson F-150 truck, Transit Connect, a small commercial van that has had success in Europe, and a newly revamped 2010 Taurus.