Ford could have recently been taken over if not for Ford family
 

From the "Believe it or not, but still not surprising" files:
http://www.detnews.com/2003/autosins...a01-171988.htm

Surprising. Of the big 3, one has basically fallen (Chrysler), will the others follow?

O-T, but did you know GM or Chevy had a chance to buy Ford in the early 1900's but didn't? Imagine the type of effect that'd have on the auto world and the whole Ford vs Chevy rivalry that had spawned decades of performance cars.

Nifty Trivia
 

How about the fact that Ford started Cadillac?

Re: Nifty Trivia
 

Or more specifically, Henry Leland founded Lincoln after he was forced out of Cadillac.

I was just a teenager at the time(so I may have something mixed up) , but I think GM briefly looked again at the possibility when Ford imploded in the very early 80s.

It's pretty facinating watching our automakers taking turns falling on their face. Chrysler in the late 70s, Ford in the early 80s, GM was so big it took from the mid 80s to the early 90s. Chrysler again in the early 90s, GM in the late 90s, Chrysler again a few years ago, and Ford just now back on track (for the time being) from their meltdown.

Re: Nifty Trivia
 

How about the fact that the Dodge brother's actually started as a tooling shop that did the tooling work for Ford. They were intimate in Ford's beginning. Ironically, they learned so much about Ford's new "assembly line" doing his tooling, they ended up going into truck manufacturing on their own!

Ford and Leland were at arms about what to do with the Cadillac, initally they were at odds and then Ford left. Leland displayed a car in New York (I think) and sold everyone of them that weekend. He quickly moved Cadillac upstream and they became the most important car company from an invention stand point though the teens and into the 20's. The rest, as you know, is history.

Honda got its start when it founder, Soichiro Honda, supplied piston rings to Toyota.