Well there are many companies out there that make thousands of $ profit per car sold. Especially on SUV's which get marked up sometimes over $10K. In my area we one of the dealers had 03 Explorers with a sticker of $33K. They were selling them for $22K to get rid of them quick before the end of the year. According to my source from the dealer they are still making a $1K profit plus get about another $2K in hold back from the factory. So, how much do you think Ford makes out on this? Ford's not loosing money. The prices are set so the dealers can make money. They set the prices based on what people are willing to pay. People see the Mustang more like a toy now. And more and more wealthier people are buying Mustangs. Again, like the T-bird, this whole new retro, cool, re-live old memories look is not geared for the average consumer. We love the Mustang because its plain, simple and we can make it go fast. But there are people out there that are willing to pay more so that who they want to attract. It doesn't cost much for the auto manufacturer to build a car. Especially today with all the state of the art plastics and metals they use. Also, they use different suppliers for their parts. They just go out and who ever has the lowest price that day gets the contract. Most cars share the same platforms and interchangable parts. Buying in bulk saves a lot of $. As far as employees, they have more people doing the paperwork then they do in the factories. They have robots and machines today that do most of the dirty work. So yeah, cars today are more tech advanced but back in the day they were also built using the best they had back then, but they had to use all metal parts and more expensive materials. Wood trim, was actually real would. Anyone remember chrome? What happened to chrome? Things were done more manually back then. They didn't have computer like we do know. Most of these automakers also have spread into other areas such a finance, ie: Ford Credit, GMAC, etc. I work with mortgages now, and a some people are paying off their homes to Ford and GM. These guys play the stock market game, they get help from the government, lobbyist, campaign contributions, etc. If they were hurting for money they would not be out buying all these other companies. Look at Chrysler, in the 80's they were about gone, the government bailed them out and gave them a time limit to get back on their feet. What saved them was the mini van. They opened a new market and made a killing because everyone had to have one.