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.

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) is the only U.S. car company left standing that hasn't succumbed to government aid or taken a path through bankruptcy. But, in a way, it has found a little help from the U.S. government recently, as it posted the first monthly sales gain since 2007 on the back of the "Cash for Clunkers" trade-in program that worked so well, the initial billion dollars for the program is already exhausted.

It took about a week for consumers to plow through rebates up to $4,500 from the government and to swipe almost the entire $1 billion from the program. There was so much demand that the program was feverishly being planned to be extended with new government money. Ford alone saw a 2.4% increase over last year. $2 billion more was approved for the program by Congress, so will Ford continue to see gains with the new money? August could end up being larger than July, yes?

Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) is at least positioned better than its U.S. based competition, but that doesn't mean it's doing well. Indeed, the recession is costing the automaker plenty in terms of deep losses and other hurt. Now we can add a production decrease in the second quarter of 2009 to that list.

Ford Motors, Inc. (NYSE: F) continues to stagger around, much like larger American rival General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM). But when it comes to China, the automaker is ramping up big time. Ford has announced that it has opened its 200th dealership in the world's most populous country.

Since the end of 2005, Ford has doubled the number of full service dealerships in China. Its network now spans the entire country.

The news about Ford in the U.S. is all about the plunge in SUV sales. But Ford, like GM, wants to become more integrated with other markets so a downturn in one market -- and one vehicle type -- doesn't affect the entire company.

The good news for the growing middle class in China is now they have some competition for all those Toyota and Honda subcompacts that are taking market share from many of Ford's passenger vehicles. And the good news for Ford is that it is actually growing -- at least in China.

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) has recognized in the last 24 months that it needs to get the kind of vehicles that customers actually want to purchase to market much faster. Foreign competitors have been able to do this for a while now, which is a reason Toyota Motor Co. (NYSE: TM) has moved up the chain to become the global automotive heavyweight to beat these days -- even ahead of General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM).

In that vein, Ford has sold off some of its niche brands, reorganized focus on its core manufacturing and sales finesse and is now taking another step under "fixit" CEO Alan Mulally. The global automaker is reorganizing its design and engineering centers worldwide to speed product development on a global scale. Not only will this help Ford compete more effectively, but let's also hope the company knows -- in advance -- what the majority of customers want to buy in terms of new vehicles. Unless I'm completely wrong, the large SUV won't be at the top of those plans for a long while.

It's been said that the business world of sellers and buyers takes place in a "global village" -- and automakers like Ford are finally realizing that a broader global view makes perfect sense in trying to maintain consistent sales when one market may be down while others are up. It's no secret that U.S. auto sales have been down for a long while -- and the capability of shifting more product mix to non-U.S. markets to deflect slowing sales would seem to have been on Ford's roadmap much sooner than it actually was. Better late than never, though.

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) saw a surprisingly profitable quarter a little over a week ago, as the automaker used cost cutting and other techniques to bolster still-lagging U.S. sales and eke out a profit. Ford still has a long way to go (until 2009, to be exact) to become consistently profitable, but CEO Alan Mulally is wasting no time turning the automaker around.

The company is selling Volvo and Jaguar and is considering selling other pieces of its portfolio that are not up to the task of growth and profitability, and although its smaller crossover Edge vehicle is selling incredibly well in the U.S. (tops in that category), Ford still has many strides to make here.

Ford has over $37 billion on hand to wring every possible problem out of its business, and with Mulally's "Way Fordward" plan well underway, can the automaker hit its target of consistent profitability (and market share growth) in 2009? It looks that way for now. Until then, let's see what U.S. sales results were for July. Use the "Refresh" key on your web browser to update the information below every few minutes. All times below are in EST.

How did Ford perform in the month of April? Outside of the automaker's Q1 results from last week, I'll be covering Ford's results for U.S. sales and production here in a few minutes. Ford's Q1 loss was much smaller than expected, so did that sentiment march on in to April as well?

Have things improved in a month's time? Who knows -- but you are about to find out. Remember to use the "Refresh" key on your keyboard copiously, as updates to this post will happen ever few minutes. All times below are in EDT.

Here we go!

1:00pm -- waiting for Ford's April sales results call to start...

1:02pm -- here we go. Ford's initial statements to start were that Ford's U.S. results were "disappointing" in April, but Ford is making progress in returning to profitability in the U.S. market.