Ford has 2 finalists for car, truck of the year

Ford Motor Co. placed two candidates on the short list of finalists for the 2009 North American Car and Truck of the Year awards.

Ford's Flex car and the F-150 pickup are among the six vehicles to make it through the latest round of voting by 50 automotive journalists in the United States and Canada.

The other cars were the diesel-powered Volkswagen Jetta TDI and Hyundai's Genesis luxury sedan. No Korean automaker has made the cut before.

The Mercedes-Benz ML320 Bluetec and the Dodge Ram pickup round out the truck field.

The VW and Mercedes models are the first vehicles with diesel engines to qualify as finalists in the 16-year history of the awards. The winners will be announced Jan. 11 at the Detroit auto show.

Last year, the Chevrolet Malibu won car of the year, and the Mazda CX-9 was honored as the top truck.

Domestic automakers have won the car trophy eight times, the Europeans four times and the Japanese three times.

In trucks, domestics have won nine times, followed by the Japanese four times and the Europeans twice.

Additionally, hybrids have won four times.

More than 50 vehicles were considered this year; 14 cars and 11 trucks made the initial ballot.

Dodge to launch new 2009 Ram with 0 percent loans

Chrysler LLC is offering 0 percent financing for 72 months on 2009 Dodge Ram pickups in most of its business centers. The company announced the offer in a July 8 conference call.

Dealers in several regions of the country confirmed they were scrambling to get the offer into their advertising.

Chrysler is on a company-wide summer shutdown this week. No officials were available to confirm whether the offer is nationwide.

Chuck Eddy, owner of Bob and Chuck Eddy Chrysler Dodge Jeep in Austintown, Ohio, said: "We're trying to get some lift on it (the 2008 Ram)."

Dealers want to unload their slow-selling 2008 Rams to make room for the redesigned 2009 model, which arrives in about two months.