After two years of job cuts that laid-off thousands of blue collar, and hundreds of white collar workers, Ford Motor Co. felt it had to do something drastic to reassure its remaining employees, and hopefully, its remaining customers. The solution? Let the employees test out the cars. The idea behind letting the employees drive the up and coming vehicles is to show them that Ford can still make cars people want to drive. Employees got to spend a day on the test track, zipping around in Euro midsize sedans, luxury turbo engines with increased fuel efficiency, and even a hydrogen fuel-cell prototype. Ford Motor Co. hopes that the test drives will encourage employees to ?talk-up? its products.
See "Ford hopes to boost worker confidence by letting them drive its future cars and trucks", Tom Krisher, Chicago Tribune, August 19, 2008