Ford (F) stared into the abyss that was 2009 and came away from the edge unscathed. Of the three major U.S. auto manufacturers, it stayed out of bankruptcy, never borrowed money from the government, and now it's gaining market share while others continue to lose it. So is the stock a buy?

Maybe. The famous and famously wealthy investor George Soros took a large position in the stock on November 17, about 7.3 million shares. Let's say he paid the high of the day that day of $9 a share. Now the stock sells a little over $11 as this is written. Mr. Soros made 22.22% on his investment so far. Not bad for less than two months. So he's made money. The stock has not traded above $11 since 2005 and is up 327% in the past year. So is there any room left on the upside?

The auto industry probably doesn't want to look back on 2009. Ignore the rearview mirror; put it in drive and move forward. At least the dismal year ended on a high note. Despite a total sales decline of 21.2%, to 10.4 million units, the industry gets to celebrate a 15.1% increase in sales for the month of December, according to Autodata.

For the Detroit crowd, Ford (F) led the pack, with December sales up almost a third. General Motors (GRM) ticked 5.7% higher, with Chrysler up 3.7% for the month.

What a week it was and it is starting off with more of the same! The day before Halloween the market gets spooked. The Dow drops 200 one day, rises 200 the next, and falls 250 to close the week. Yes, financial pundits could point to meaningful stories about the dollars rise, consumer spending sagging, the recession ending and so forth to explain market reactions but there is more to it than that.

Even among the 15 positions discussed in Where should granny put $50,000? only the Vanguard Total Bond Market exchange-traded fund (NYSE: BND) and the Kellogg Co (NYSE: K) were up last Friday. Good thing I advised "granny" to put half her funds in the ETF.

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) continues to sell a ton of the Fusion mid-size sedans, as the passenger car set a sales record for itself for the fifth consecutive month in August. In addition, the average selling prices have been increasing. In the playing field with the Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) Camry and Honda Motor Co. (NYSE: HMC) Accord, it's impressive to see the Fusion doing so well.

The Fusion is all-new for the 2010 model year, so it could continue selling well into the latter half of 2009 when the new model arrives on dealer floors. Anything Ford can do to continue breaking into one of the largest segments of the U.S. auto market, though, would be a huge plus for the automaker.

Quarterly earnings could be up year-over-year by the fourth quarter. A low threshold for improvement, as a result of last year's Q3 financial meltdown, could set the stage for the appearance of a recovery, but the ride from here to there will be a difficult one.

Data from Bloomberg and S&P suggests that profits for stocks comprising the S&P 500 Index may be down 21% next quarter. It's still a double-digit blow, but a better result than Q2's estimated 34% -- and far ahead of Q1's 60% year-over-year fall in profits. The driver of a recovery, however concealed by low expectations, is likely to be a combination of unemployment and consumer spending. Last month, we saw unemployment reach a 26-year high, putting obvious constraints on purchasing.

Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) now stands alone as the sole American automotive company out of the "big three" that has not filed for bankruptcy. Ford CEO Alan Mulally made moves starting years ago to ensure Ford would dig itself out of many legacy problems, and it paid off. I even chided the man's salary when he was hired. Was he worth it? Sure.

Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F), while suffering through the largest auto industry malaise in generations, won't be closing legions of dealerships like General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM) or Chrysler. In fact, Ford indicated that it will benefit from the closure of 2,000 auto showrooms from its domestic competitors -- one that has already filed for bankruptcy and another that is expected to shortly.

New technologies are starting to set the auto world on fire, says Ford Motor Corp. (NYSE: F) executive chairman and former Ford CEO Bill Ford. Although auto sales have dropped sharply in the last eight months, Mr. Ford sure believes that products like electric vehicles and biofuels will enable the reinvention of the automobile.

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) is stepping into the consumer-created advertising content kingdom. It announced today that it will run a national ad featuring a short film that recently won an online competition.

This is the secret that many companies are just now learning: your customers are your best advertising asset. When it comes to something as passionate about talking about the 2010 Ford Mustang, you definitely want to get out of your customer's way, right?

This reminds me of Tide's "Talking Stain" ad during the last Super Bowl. The ad was more than a pitch for the product; it also sent viewers to Tide's website where they could send in their own "Talking Stain" video entries. Prizes were available and everything. The commercial was fairly low-budget, but the message and the strategy were brilliant. Perhaps Ford is trying to latch onto some of that effort. It's about time.

The advertising industry's "same old, same old" tack on strategic consumer messaging is tired, no matter how innovative the ad glitz is. Engaging consumers by encouraging a two-way line of communication is where it's at for a whole new crop of consumers.

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) won't be rolling out hybrid vehicles at the pace of the competition, the company said recently. Instead, the troubled automaker is taking a "deliberate pace" introducing hybrids to ensure there is enough mass-market appeal for the vehicles. Ford wants to avoid spending hundreds of millions on hybrid technology that exceeds what the population wants.

The competition is chomping at the bit to get hybrids of all shapes and sizes into the hands of consumers -- but do consumers really want to switch to more fuel efficient hybrids so quickly? Smaller cars like the Ford Focus are selling like hotcakes, which indicates that consumers are interested in fuel efficiency -- but not necessarily hybrids, which tend to have less space and cost thousands more. Think consumers interested in hybrids are doing it to be green? I would disagree -- they're looking for lower gas bills, plain and simple.

Ford hybrid marketing manager David Finnegan said, "We don't believe in making cars for hundreds of people or thousands of people . . . they have to be affordable to our customers and capable of sustaining millions (of vehicles) in sales volume." Well said. Until there is more actual demand, Ford's decision to develop hybrid vehicles in a delayed and deliberate fashion is a sound choice.

This post is one in a series on prominent company nicknames. See all 25, and share your thoughts and memories about Ford below in the comments.

I didn't grow up in one of those families that placed a high premium on American-made goods. If the Japanese can make it better, we'll buy it from them! was the general consensus. And those foreign autos served the Harrows well. My parents bought their 1984 Toyota Tercel when it was new, and that unattractive but reliable compact was part of the family through the beginning of my college career -- even surviving my first, hilarious attempts to operate a manual transmission. So, it wasn't until I moved in with my friend Debbie, as an adult, that I learned the details behind a particularly unflattering nickname for the Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F).

There are those who would joke that the letters in "FORD" stand for "Fix Or Repair Daily." I know from experience that if you make that particular wisecrack within Debbie's earshot, she probably won't crack a smile. Instead, you can almost see her wheels churning, as though she's trying to calculate the thousands she's already poured into her Ford Focus -- or maybe she's just trying to predict which part will break down next.

During the time we shared a mailbox, it was a not-out-of-the-ordinary occurrence for Debbie to receive recall notices bearing the familiar Ford logo. These repair-o-grams arrived with such frequency that the exact number now escapes my memory; when I questioned her via text message, she replied, "I have had six. Stupid car."

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) will be handing out employee buyout offers next week at plants in Michigan and Ohio. Just as the automaker continues grappling with a declining market share and lower sales, it needs to trim its workforce to match.

The automaker has already given employees at plants in Ohio and Kentucky the option of leaving the company with a payoff, so this is nothing new. Offers will be made to employees at 14 sites throughout Ohio and Michigan, with possibly more buyout offers coming to more facilities in August.

As expected, the buyout offers are for five assembly plants in addition to supporting facilities that make engines and transmissions. It's a pretty good guess that all those plants and parts come from the large truck and SUV world, as Ford said it is slowly trending away from building so many of these vehicles. What's amazing is that the automaker warned of slowing truck and SUV sales way back at the end of 2005. It's just now seeing the fruits of it not paying much attention pay off.

Ford's Way Forward plan to return to profitability won't come in 2009 as expected, and will probably show progress in 2010. If gas prices stay near current levels into 2009 and Ford still hasn't rearranged its product portfolio to be as flexible as the U.S. customer needs it to be, it may be beyond 2010 for Ford to see a consistent profit.

When Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) reports its fourth quarter earnings this Thursday, the U.S. automaker is widely expected to post yet another huge loss. Although Ford may have been called a leading manufacturing expert in the past, the slow pace of its turnaround will continue hurting it for at least all of 2008. CEO Alan Mulally's Way Forward plan is making progress, but people are buying less cars due to a slowing economy -- and Ford has just as much competition now as it ever had.

Ford investors are well aware of this as shares in the automaker are already sitting at 16-year lows. This week's earnings results won't change it for the better, as analysts expect a loss of $0.20 per share on sales of $38.3 billion. It's not just Ford that will suffer soon. Analyst David Silver said, "November and December were just horrible months for auto sales in the U.S." Encouraging words? Well, maybe not.

Although Asia and Central America sales may be a sweet spot for Ford this Thursday, its domestic sales may continue the slide they saw in the Q3 period, when Ford lost a billion greenbacks in the U.S. market. It was 2007 and Ford still considered trucks and SUVs to be the heart of its product lineup. Trouble is, consumers are running away screaming from those product lines due to shabby fuel economy figures. A bright spot continues to be the Ford Edge, an SUV crossover (or, CUV) that is selling very well for Ford. It has car-like handling, SUV-like storage and car-like gas mileage. Go figure -- customers are swallowing them up. It still can't rescue Ford from many more quarters of lackluster performance.

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) continues to sit in the pit of lagging sales and mountains of losses, even as some of its vehicles continue racking up awards and industry praise. In the 2007 Strategic Vision report on "most delightful" vehicles, the Detroit automaker won or tied for first in six categories -- the most of any automaker. So, why aren't Ford's sales reflecting all this jubilation? Hard to tell, but you may want to ask Toyota Motor Co. (NYSE: TM) about it.

Here are Ford's results from the six categories it won or tied for first in: Ford's Mazda3 (small car); Ford's Volvo V50 Wagon (medium multifunction); Ford 's Expedition EL (large SUV); Ford's Lincoln MKX (tied for near-luxury SUV); Ford's Land Rover Range Rover Sport (luxury SUV); and finally, the Ford F-250/350 (heavy-duty pickup).

So, it really was not all Ford's nameplate, but a bevy of its brands that helped it achieve record success here. Although rival automaker General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) garnered a decent awards showing as well, Ford took top honors across the board. But then again, 2008 automobile sales in the U.S. are expected to slow down to lead to a flat year of sales growth, so Ford won't be the only one seeing middling success this year in the U.S. new car market. At least it will have some awards to plaster on those showroom marketing plaques.

Although Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) has not really been lighting up the sales board in recent quarters, CEO Alan Mulally seems to be on track to get the automotive giant profitable sometime in 2009. He may not have to worry about one specialized area within the Detroit auto giant, however. Can you guess which division that may be?

Try recreational vehicles. Ford's market share has increased in the motor home segment this year while its automotive market share has shrunk in several popular consumer vehicle segments. Although Ford doesn't brand motor homes under its own name, it makes more motor home chassis than any other U.S. company. Using chassis designed and built here in the U.S., Ford's no slouch when it comes to this niche automotive market. Ford makes the base chassis, which RV manufacturers then customize with a plethora of options (and weight) to market to customers.

Therein lies Ford's continuing market opportunity in this arena. The baby boomer generation is beginning to retire at rates that won't see slowdowns for over a decade. Are these folks going to buy RVs and tour the U.S. (and Mexico and Canada) at rates similar to the previous generation? The law of averages says that market will increase (hence the term "boomers) simply due to the large number of Americans (60+ million) in this age classification. Could Ford's savior partially be . . . motor homes? That's a stretch, but the company needs home runs any way it can get them. This is one of them.