NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) Oct. 26, 2011--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services views Ford Motor Co.'s (BB+/Stable/--) third-quarter results, announced today, as consistent with our recent upgrade. Although Ford's automotive operating cash flow in the quarter was only $400 million (after an $800 million use of working capital), it seems very likely to exceed $5 billion this year, consistent with our assumptions. The automaker announced a consolidated pretax profit of $1.9 billion for the third quarter (excluding special items), down sequentially and year over year. Ford's global automotive operations produced a $1.3 billion pretax profit in the quarter (up year over year but down sequentially). Although the total automotive pre-tax margin declined to 4.8%, it was consistent with our expectation
