Finance Unit Drives Ford Into TheBlack

DEARBORN, Mich. - (01/25/05) -- Ford Motor Corp. said it last weekbroke into the black for the fourth quarter to the tune of $104million, because of the continued profitability of its auto financeunit, Ford Motor Credit. The world's second biggest automanufacturer said it core car-making business continues to losemoney--a pretax loss of $470 million for the fourth quarter--butthat was offset by the $543 million net reported by the company'sauto finance arm. For the full year, Ford reported net income of$3.49 billion, $2.9 billion, of 82% of which, was derived from carfinancing.