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Moody's boosts Ford's credit rating

Moody's Investors Service upgraded Ford Motor Co.'s debt to investment grade, culminating the automaker's six-year struggle to win back the Blue Oval and other assets mortgaged in 2006. Moody's is the second agency to upgrade Ford's debt from junk status, paving the way for the company to recover assets it mortgaged in 2006 to stave off bankruptcy. The company raised $23.5 billion in a move that allowed it to avoid government bailouts or bankruptcy when the industry collapsed in 2008.

Lincoln MKR concept

By Tim Pollard Motor Shows 02 January 2007 11:49 Lincoln MKR Concept: the lowdown Lincoln will slide the wraps off its answer to the Mercedes CLS at the Detroit Motor Show next week: this luxurious and wedgy MKR concept. It’s the work of ex-Volvo British designer Peter Horbury, who now heads Ford’s Amercian design division, and hints at how Lincolns will look in the years ahead: the Viking-hat grille is straddled by pencil-thin LED headlights, while the flanks of the car are notably uncluttered. Don’t expect to see the 21-inch wheels and ‘Lincoln star’ patterns in the tyre treads on production cars any time soon, though.

Michelin Challenge Design 2007: The not so ugly truth about rising vehicle safety standards

Can cars be safe and beautiful at the same time? That may not have been the case a few decades ago when automakers were forced to hang those big, ugly so-called federal bumpers off the ends of their vehicles.  With vehicle safety standards on the rise around the globe are designers today feeling a little '70s deja vu when it comes to meeting the challenges of making cars safe as well as more fuel efficient? "(Back then) we said it was the end of automotive styling," says Patrick Le Quement, senior vice president for corporate design at Renault and one of the world's most influential automotive designers.