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Ford follows Hyundai with payment protection plan

Ford Motor Co., taking a cue from Asian rival Hyundai Motor, is offering to make car payments for buyers who lose their jobs. The program, called the Ford Advantage Plan, will cover payments for up to 12 months. The move is aimed at boosting sales, which have fallen 45.9 percent this year through February at Ford Motor and 39.4 percent industrywide as the U.S.

Endurance-drivers seminar highlights Amelia Island concours

If there were a Hall of Fame for endurance drivers, the nine gentlemen assembled on Saturday at the 17th-annual Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance would certainly be members. Event founder and chairman Bill Warner needed 25 minutes just to read off a portion of their lifetime racing accomplishments as he introduced them individually to a packed ballroom at the Ritz-Carlton Amelia Island, home of the event. Hurley Haywood, Vic Elford, Sam Posey, Joe Buzzetta, Gerard Larousse, Brian Redman, Jim Hall, David Hobbs and Derek Bell regaled the audience with tales of their amazing careers.

Volkswagen aims for lofty Beetle sales

The attractive new 2012 Volkswagen Beetle is expected to sell as many as 50,000 to 60,000 units a year in the United States. The car launches this fall. That level will be a big improvement over the latter years of the outgoing model, in which sales dwindled to just 15,000 a year, but it remains lower than the record figure of 83,000 achieved 18 months after the launch of the revised model.