DEARBORN, Mich. – Ford Motor Co. says its turnaround is paying big dividends for its dealers, who it says saw their profits skyrocket in 2009, reported The Detroit News.

According to the automaker, profits for Ford dealers were 15 times higher last year than they were in 2008. Profits at Lincoln-Mercury franchises increased tenfold during the same period.

Now, Ford is launching new initiatives to help its dealers go green, and become even more profitable while doing it.

Ford announced the formation of a new dealer committee to help the company figure out ways to improve dealer profitability and the customer car-buying experience.

In addition, Ford is scheduled to unveil a new, voluntary program aimed at helping its dealers reduce their impact on the environment. For a nominal fee, Ford will send a team of green-building experts to a dealership. They will conduct a comprehensive survey of the site and present the owner with an array of options ranging from simple energy-saving improvements to a complete program for going carbon neutral.

Ford says all of these options will save dealers money in the long run while boosting the company’s green credentials with consumers. It comes as the automaker readies the launch of a new generation of battery-powered electric vehicles, hybrids and plug-in hybrids.

DEARBORN, Mich. – Higher sales for every brand and in every product category propelled Ford to a 24 percent sales increase in January versus a year ago.

Ford cars were up 43 percent, crossovers were up 20 percent, sport utilities were up 8 percent, and trucks and vans were up 14 percent. Among brands, Ford sales were up 26 percent, Lincoln sales were up 16 percent and Mercury sales were up 6 percent.

“Ford’s focus on building products consumers want to buy and love to drive will continue,” said Ken Czubay, Ford vice president, U.S. marketing sales and service. “In 2010, we will give Ford customers even more reasons to Drive One.”

Ford estimates its January U.S. total market share was approximately 16 percent – about 2 percentage points higher than in January 2009. Last year, Ford posted its first full-year U.S. market share increase since 1995.

Plus, every consumer metric about the Ford brand – including favorable opinion, consideration, shopping and intention to buy – ended the year at record levels. Last year, favorable opinion improved 27 percent and intention to buy Ford increased 30 percent.

“People increasingly are discovering that the Ford difference is the strength of our products, particularly our leadership in quality, fuel efficiency, safety, smart technologies and value,” Czubay said.

Among full-line manufacturers, Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles recorded the largest gain in resale values from the 2009 to 2010 model year, with projected resale value of Ford vehicles increasing by more than $1,300 per vehicle.

“Resale value is a key indicator of brand health and an important contributor to the total value equation,” said Czubay. “Fleet managers monitor vehicle operating costs very carefully. They are giving Ford more consideration because of our improving resale values.”

DEARBORN — Ford, the only U.S. automaker to avoid bankruptcy court, clawed its way to a $2.7 billion profit in 2009 and expects to stay in the black in 2010, reported The Associated Press. This is the automaker’s first annual profit in four years.

Ford’s full-year revenue of $118.3 billion fell nearly 20 percent from 2008, but the Dearborn-based automaker benefited from cost-cutting, a $696 million profit in its credit arm and popular cars and trucks like the Ford Fusion midsize sedan and Ford Escape small SUV. It gained market share in North and South America and Europe, despite the worst U.S. sales climate in 30 years.

“While we still face significant business environment challenges ahead, 2009 was a pivotal year for Ford,” Ford CEO Alan Mulally said in a statement.

Ford shares rose 32 cents, or nearly 3 percent, to $11.87 in premarket trading.

Ford’s 2009 net income of 86 cents per share showed a significant improvement from the year before, when it lost a record $14.6 billion. Before severance payments and retiree health care charges, Ford made 43 cents per share.

The profit surprised Wall Street, where analysts expected an annual loss of 31 cents.

Ford made money in three of the four quarters last year. In the fourth quarter, it earned $868 million, or 25 cents per share, compared with a loss of $5.9 billion a year earlier. Ford’s quarterly revenue of $35.4 billion was up 22 percent from a year earlier.

Ford Motor Co. is adding a second shift at its Chicago assembly plant, creating 1,200 jobs and enabling the company for the first time to hire some new union workers at significantly reduced wages, reported The Wall Street Journal.

The contracts that Ford, General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC signed in 2007 allow the auto makers to fill jobs vacated by older workers who leave or retire with new hires earning a little more than $14 an hour on average—about half what current workers received when they started. Newer workers also get reduced benefits.

The new “second tier” wage was a big concession for the United Auto Workers union, whose workers have enjoyed some of the highest manufacturing wages in the world. It agreed to accept reduced pay for newly hired workers in an effort to help make the Detroit Three more competitive with foreign car makers that use nonunion labor in their U.S. plants.

GM and Chrysler hired some workers at the reduced wage but laid off all or most of them when the companies slashed jobs as the recession and downturn in auto sales deepened. Ford never hired lower-wage union workers.

But with sales now showing signs of recovery, both the Big Three and foreign car makers are increasing production and adding factory jobs.

Hiring a second shift of workers at Ford’s Chicago plant should trigger the hiring of entry-level workers, said Jim Tetreault, Ford’s vice president for North America manufacturing, though he declined to estimate how many.

Ford Motor Co.’s decision not to take loans from the federal government means the company has less cash to burn and more liabilities than it’s Detroit competitors, according to CEO Alan Mullally. But he said the benefit “far outweighs the disadvantages,” reported the Detroit Free Press and MLive.com.

General Motors and Chrysler received nearly $80 million in aid from the federal government and in bankruptcy court were able to get out from under billions in outstanding liabilities.

Ford, meanwhile, remains about $27 million in debt.

Mulally on Tuesday also praised the Japanese government’s decision last week to open up its version of the cash for clunkers program to U.S. automakers, according to the Detroit News.

“That’s a positive step,” he said at the auto show, but conceded Ford would sell “a relatively small number of additional cars” as a result.

The Ford Focus was the most popular car purchased under the U.S. cash for clunkers program, but Toyota and Honda combined to take the next four spots.

According to CNNMoney.com, 52 percent of the cars purchased under the U.S. clunkers program were manufactured in the United States, compared to 63 percent normally.

Ford Motor Co. will add 1,200 jobs at its Chicago assembly plant later this year to build the new Explorer sport utility vehicle, a person briefed on the matter told The Associated Press.

The company and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn are scheduled to make the announcement on Tuesday at the factory, but Quinn told reporters in Chicago on Monday that 1,200 new jobs were coming to Illinois.

“Tomorrow, in one day, we’re going to get 1,200 new jobs for Illinois,” Quinn said at a breakfast event that was unrelated to the Ford announcement.

The person briefed on the announcement said some of the workers will be from Ford’s pool of employees laid off at other factories. The person did not want to be identified because the announcement has not been made.