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To: Randy Ellingson who wrote (107446)	8/25/2000 7:52:53 PM
From: H James Morris	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 164684

>DEARBORN, Mich., Aug 25 (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co. <F.N> said on Friday it has partnered with its 4,200 dealers to form FordDirect.com, an Internet site that will allow customers to configure, price, finance and buy a new Ford brand car or truck online. Ford and General Motors Corp. <GM.N> are racing to establish major presences on the Internet and fend off some of the independent car-buying Internet sites. Amazon.com Inc.'s <AMZN.O> announced earlier this week that it plans to offer cars and trucks along with books and CDs on its popular Web site. Because of restrictive state dealer franchise laws, most of the Internet car-buying services refer the final sale back to auto dealers, which they claim simply adds another layer of cost to the whole process. Unlike many of the independent car-buying sites, Ford and GM are partnering with their dealers. They say they can offer consumers the best and most accurate prices, and access to the automaker's car and truck inventory, so they know exactly what models are available. Ford has diversified its bets, taking a 25 percent stake in Microsoft's <MSFT.O> online car-buying service CarPoint, which racks up about 6 million visits to its Web site every month. FordDirect, which will be run by an independent management team and owned jointly by the automaker and its dealers, is expected to be fully operational in California in September, with full implementation throughout the country next year. Earlier this month, GM said it was considering a similar venture with its dealers. GM said the proposed Web site, which it is referring to internally as Retail.com, would present unbiased information on all makes and models of cars and trucks, to better compete against the third party car-buying Web sites. GM officials believe the new site would thereby reach consumers who would not visit GM's existing car-buying site, GMBuyPower.com. 10:35 08-25-00