A good week for Ford Motor Co., and Cummins

We hope the people associated with the Ford Motor Co. could sit down, put their feet up and enjoy the Fourth of July holiday. They had a good week last week.

Among the things to celebrate:

-- Auto sales figures for June suggest the worst is behind for the automaker.

-- Ford plans to increase third-quarter production by 15,000 cars and 10,000 trucks.

-- The automaker placed No. 1 in a vehicle quality survey.

And let's not forget the good news of Cummins Inc. last week announcing it would recall 400 workers to its Walesboro engine plant to produce engines for Dodge Ram pickups. That's great news close to home.

But back to Ford. It sold 154,873 cars and light trucks in June, ending a 10-month string of sales drops of more than 20 percent compared with the same month the previous year. The monthly decline of 10.7 percent in June was Ford's smallest loss since July of last year, a sign that U.S. auto sales may be recovering from the worst slump in 27 years.

"One of the most important takeaways to me is that it's not going backward," George Pipas, the top sales analyst for Ford, told the Detroit Free Press. He further stated improved consumer confidence and a reduced rate of jobless claims provide evidence the economy is improving. He expects the rest of the year to improve.

Ford plans to produce 485,000 vehicles in the third quarter, or 16 percent more vehicles than it produced last year during the same period.

"In the second half (of 2009), we could see economic growth," Pipas said. "And we could see higher levels of auto sales."

In the quality survey by San Diego-based Strategic Vision Inc., the Ford Focus sedan won the small car division. The rankings were based on surveys from 20,101 people who bought cars in 2008 and 2009. Questions centered around reliability, vehicle characteristics, dealership experience, styling, interior and exterior design and their overall perception of initial quality. The idea is that by looking at a variety of factors such as driving enjoyment and buying experience, the survey can produce a more complete picture of a customer's overall commitment to a particular vehicle than it would have if it just counted the number of vehicle problems.

It's good to hear some optimism coming from the auto industry. This type of news has been a longtime coming, and we hope it bodes well for auto parts suppliers here in Jackson County and elsewhere. We're also hopeful it's the beginning of better times ahead for all sectors of the economy.