Ford expands in northern Iraq as new Niva facility opens in Erbil

Ford, Lincoln and Mercury customers can now have access to world-class products and services from Ford Motor Company and its dealer-partner Niva at the new facility located on the Ring Road 100m, facing the Human Rights Ministry. Niva already operates another facility in Sulaimaniyah (Chwarta Street). With the addition of the new facility, Niva's team is now made up of a group of 42 sales and service local employees.

The three-level, 1,581 square-meter sales and service facility in Erbil is open from 9AM until 9PM, Saturday to Thursday. The showroom telephone number is 00964 66 2578888 and the service centre can be reached at 00964 66 2553634.

Hussein Murad, Ford Middle East's director of Sales said: "This new facility opening marks an important milestone in Ford's expansion efforts to reach more customers in the fast developing Northern Iraq and Kurdish territories.

He added: "The significance of this expansion lies precisely in the joint dedication of Niva and Ford Middle East to their customers here. We are thrilled to witness this demonstration of confidence of Niva in the Ford, Lincoln and Mercury brands, and are happy to be part of the action as we launch additional facilities in Erbil, Sulaimaniyah and Kirkuk in the near future."

Mohammad Al Masri, general manager, of Niva said: "We are proud to be partners with Ford, a company that has such a strong heritage that goes back to more than 100 years of producing pioneering and quality products. We strongly believe that the Ford brand has tremendous potential in our market, given its broad product line-up catering to almost all customer needs."

"We are equally excited to mark this new opening by introducing high quality products such as the new 2009 Ford Explorer and the European Focus. The arrival of these new models is very important to us as they expand customer choice in the very competitive mid-size SUV and small-size segments in this market. We are confident our customers will see the great value and outstanding quality that both these products offer," added Al Masri.

These new vehicles reinforce Ford's achievements in quality, safety, innovation as well as environmentally friendly technologies - areas that will continue to be the focus for the automaker moving forward, according to Murad.

"Across the globe, Ford is committed to delivering products that people want, with the class-leading, quality, fuel economy, safety and smart features that our customers truly value,"

Murad said.

"We have been completely focused on these areas, and today, we are truly excited because our customers are actually able to touch upon these points in the products that we offer across our dealerships in the Middle East."

Driving Quality

Ford Motor Company is focused on putting quality first by building vehicles that offer a much quieter ride, improved handling, luxury craftsmanship and superior safety standards.

Year over year, Ford has made significant and consistent strides to improve quality through a renewed commitment that touches every aspect of the vehicle process - from design to manufacturing to product launch. The cumulative effect of these disciplined, global quality standards earned Ford a record-breaking year, with 102 accolades for quality in 2007 and an equally outstanding 2008. For 2009, the company is looking to keep the trend going as more quality recognitions join the growing list.

Combining customer feedback with advanced technologies has allowed Ford to further boost initial quality and longer-term reliability, resulting in dramatically improved owner satisfaction. According to research carried by the RDA Group, Ford is in a statistical dead heat with Toyota & Honda in initial quality. The quarterly study measures customer feedback from drivers of Ford vehicles and competitive makes and models.

Ford vehicles outperformed the industry average according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2008 Quality Study. Continuing its five-year upward trend, Ford improved by eight points over last year's study, bettering the industry's seven-point improvement and received 10 quality honors in total.

Driving Safety

Ford has a long history of safety leadership. The company led the shift to multiple-deployment air bags in the 1990s and introduced the most unique stability control system in the world in the early 2000s.

Currently, Ford is building on its safety leadership by increasingly addressing driver behavior and broadening its efforts from crash protection to "active" collision-avoidance technologies, and this will be manifested across the new models coming to the Middle East as early as first quarter this year.

Ford Motor Company today is the leader in crash safety with the most 5-star recognitions and Top Safety Picks from both NHTSA and the IIHS, aggressively pushing into the new frontier of active safety with innovations such as Roll Stability Control, Collision Warning with Brake Support, and addressing the often-overlooked area of driver behavior.

Just recently, Ford moved past Honda for the leading number of "Top Safety Pick" crash-test safety ratings when the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) announced the 2009 Ford Flex, Fusion and Lincoln MKS earned the top honors. Ford has received 16 Top Safety Picks, the most that any manufacturer has ever received.

Driving Greener Engines

Ford is focused on making fuel economy a reason to purchase its products. Today, no large front-wheel-drive crossover delivers better fuel economy than Flex. And the Ford Fusion's I4 engine is classified as a zero emission vehicle in California. The new F-150 features an impressive powertrain line-up, including an all-new 6-speed transmission, which helps deliver an average of 1.5 mpg increase across the entire line-up.

The company uses various technologies to help reduce fuel consumption as well as emissions, including increased usage of our 6-speed transmissions, Electric Power Assisted Steering, and aerodynamic improvements. This in addition to weight reductions through increased use of high strength steels and aluminum, use of a unibody platform versus body-on-frame and other weight reductions from lighter weight materials and downsized engines (V-6 versus V-8).

But perhaps the most innovative engine technology Ford plans to bring to the Middle East next year is EcoBoost, an environmentally friendly engine that provides superior power and torque with improved fuel economy and fewer emissions - the fuel-efficiency of a V-6 with the performance of a V-8.

Driving Innovation

Ford has been introducing unique, innovative, class-leading technology solutions that seek to empower, not overpower the driver. Customers are in for a pleasant surprise as they discover these innovations in the vehicle of their choice, and see the positive difference they bring to their driving experience.