Lincoln might have some surprises for its market in the near future to push the brand back to prominence. There is a loud buzz that the car maker is planning to release a compact which will be deriving its DNA from Ford. There hasn’t been any confirmation though if it will be used as the global platform for the Focus.

The car manufacturer have concept cars exploring the idea of providing smaller cars for consumers but these vehicles still need to go into production. Experts are not sure if Lincoln will roll the dice and take the risk to assemble these vehicles.

There is also a speculation that by 2011, Lincoln will be releasing a small crossover using the Ford platform. This compact crossover may change the image of the brand in the market giving consumers a hint that they can supply smaller cars with better fuel economy and lesser environmental impact.

Some of the current units like the MKZ sedan will have a redesign by 2012 or 2013. The MKS will have a facelift as early as 2011 and a major architectural overhaul is expected 3 or 4 years after.

The future of the Lincoln Navigator remains uncertain at the moment. It is not yet clear if it will get some revamp in design or whether the company will still retain it for its future lineup.

The numbers of Ford looks solid and a lot of experts want to be as optimistic as possible to see a turnaround for the whole of the auto industry.

The 9% increase in retail sales from August 2008 to this year marks the first recovery of the figures since November 2007. Aside from citing the CARS, Ford also looks to the new and more fuel efficient members of their fleet.

What gives perspective to the jump up in sales figures is the projected 10 million units rolling out of dealerships. The volume prediction is about a 40% drop from the 2008 figures. The overall figure is seen to have risen 2% from the November 2007 sales reports.

The fleet leaders which brought about the turnaround is the Ford Fusion up by as much as 66%, Ford Escape (94%), Mercury Mariner improved by 71%, and Mercury Milan (60%). The hybrid vehicle of Ford unsurprisingly brought a 323% performance magic for the gas-electric units. Fuel efficiency and green cars are key words in today’s car market!

Ford was able to leverage the cash for clunkers program with appropriate preparations of their products and dealers. The car manufacturer was able to get the increase in sales even though they cut off some spending for consumer incentives.

The month of July also marked the roll out of the Transit Connect and the Ford Taurus.

The car manufacturer finished 2008 with a $13.4 billion cash reserves. Ford will be drawing down available credit lines of $10.1 billion to address concerns on the rocky global economy.

Ford files a net loss amounting to $5.9 billion for the 4th quarter of 2008 compared to a year over year $2.5 billion. The car manufacturer closes 2008 as its third year of not earning any profits. Pretax operation loss was recorded on their books at $3.7 billion compared to $620 million in 2007.

The whole of the auto industry faced an unusual major slowdown in markets all over the globe recorded during the last three months.

Economist estimates the needs of Ford to stand at $10 billion to keep its operations running. Looking at its trend of burn rate, Ford without doing anything, can only survive until the end of February. The car manufacturer is expected to deplete its funds slower this year though.

Ford explains that they have enough liquidity to keep everything on a healthy level. Without any cash expenditures this January, the company will have a reserve of $26 billion.

The revenue of Ford dropped significantly by 36%. Its total income for the 2008 4Q is $29.2 billion amid the US recession.

Ford asked for a government bail out aid of $9 billion in December but declared that it will only use the funds when the economy further drops.