A MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN F ord Motor Company is moving forward fast. We’ve made substantial financial and operational  progress over the past three years. During that  period, we accelerated our flow of new products to  the market, created ongoing efficiencies in our cost  structure and business processes, and improved  our cash flow. Our pre-tax profit, excluding special  items, improved by more than $7 billion.* We are determined to build on the progress we’ve made. In the short term, that means meeting  the challenges of a difficult operating environment.  Longer term, it means leveraging our unique  strengths to differentiate ourselves in a  fiercely competitive global industry. Our efforts to move forward will  benefit from our achievements  in 2004. Those included: The Year Ahead Even with the positive momentum these accomplishments  have given us, meeting our targets for 2005 will be a  challenge. Our quality continued to improve last year, F O R Bill Ford, Chairman and  Chief Executive Officer 4 • A pre-tax profit,  excluding special items, of $5.8 billion, compared  to $3.4 billion in 2003.** • Cost reductions of almost $900 million. In total, we improved  our automotive cost performance by more  than $4 billion over the last two years.*** • Improved per-unit revenue of $745 in North  America, along with improved residual values. • Market share increases in Europe,  South America and Asia.