In the last few months, you’ve probably read story after story about how Ford is laying off workers and trying to get them to retire early. This is done to match the demand for Ford vehicles with the number of workers making them. Luckily for Ford, though, several foreign markets are selling cars like hotcakes and creating a profit for the automaker.

The Russian market is one example of this. While many North American factories have downsized, the Ford Motor Company is adding workers to a factory in Russia to keep up with the demand for the product in the region. By doing this, Ford increases that country’s production of vehicles by 75 percent!

That’s an amazing feat for the automaker, too. That means the workers will be making 125,000 vehicles by next year.
The Vsevolozhsk plant in St. Petersburg is the facility getting these new workers. Employees there create the Ford Focus hatchback, which has become the most popular imported brand in the country since 2007. The factory will also begin production of the Mondeo, another popular export of the Ford Motor Company.

Russia’s great sales figures are one reason why Ford is looking to the eastern European region to increase sales globally. That particular market sold nearly two million units in 2007, which is about 72,000 more than it sold the year before.

Unfortunately, the North American market isn’t doing that well. But the figures do look promising. With any luck, maybe Ford’s domestic market will perform as well (or even better) than the ones overseas.

The European Mondeo is one of the more popular and successful Ford vehicles in the region. In addition to the car’s winning a multitude of awards recently, the ACF Car Finance company has noticed a huge increase in sales figures. In fact, the Mondeo is the automaker’s best-selling model thus far in 2008.

But the Mondeo isn’t a new concept in the European market. Ford introduced it in the region about 15 years ago. But that was a bad time in Ford’s history. It was a period when the automaker wasn’t experiencing much sales success. But the Mondeo seems to have revived the European market in much the same way that other great models have revived the North American market.

Here are just a few of the awards that the Mondeo has claimed:

• Car of the Year by Business Car
• Family Car of the Year by Top Gear Magazine
• Car of the Year by Top Gear TV

A spokesperson with ACF Car Finance showed little surprise at the Mondeo’s popularity. According to him, the car is a great value for the money. Who doesn’t like to get a great car at a bargain price?

More than 70 percent of ACF Car Finance customers have listed the Ford Mondeo in their top three choices for a new car. Its reliability and performance are ideal for a wide variety of drivers and car owners.

ACF Car Finance is one of the most prominent finance companies throughout the UK. The company has several branches throughout the region, and it even allows customers to apply for loans over the phone or Internet.