By the mid-'90s, these truck successes added to the continuing popularity of Taurus and Escort to make Ford the sales leader in five vehicle segments: full-size pickups (F-Series), midsize car (Taurus), sporty-utility vehicles (Explorer), subcompact car (Escort), and compact pickup (Ranger). The Ford Explorer was introduced for 1991 and promptly became America's top-selling sport-utility vehicle, despite many new-model "teething troubles." There were several reasons for the vehicle's popularity.

Dearborn also scored big in the burgeoning sport-utility field with Explorer, the upscale 1991 four-door replacement for the two-door Ranger-based Bronco II. So was the LTD name -- but also the Crown Vic wagon, Ford having concluded that minivans and sport-utility vehicles had now largely replaced traditional full-size wagons in buyer affections. The result was surprisingly agile and responsive for a traditional full-size Detroiter and a vast improvement over the old Crown Vic.

The Volt also had regenerative braking technology and energy conservation systems in place that could stretch a single charge out over much further than its projected 53 miles on electric power alone. A power supply is an electrical device that is able to supply electric power to an electrical powered device. A stem-wind clock was standard on Fairlanes, an electric clock optional.

Where GM was content to merely rebody its largest cars, Ford overhauled the chassis, adding standard all-disc brakes with optional antilock control and making numerous tweaks to steering, springs, shocks, and suspension geometry.

As its name implied, this also delivered firmer damping and wider wheels wearing performance tires, as well as ABS and traction control. The Cobra narrowed Mustang's performance gap with GM, but not much. Two different Dearborn regimes presided over this remarkable sales performance. First, Don Petersen handed over the chairman's gavel in 1990 to his one-time number-two, Harold A. "Red" Poling; at the same time, the president's job was reactivated after a two-year lapse for Phillip Benton, Jr.

Both these men were Dearborn veterans, but they were merely a transition team, for late 1993 ushered in the worldly wise Alex Trotman as both president and chairman. As a veteran of Ford Europe, Trotman brought a more-international outlook to the company's "Glass House" headquarters, which was soon populated M Hotel Makkah By Millennium many of his European colleagues.

With all this, Ford Division remained "USA-1" in the early '90s, selling well over a million cars a year and a like number of light trucks.

Just like with a traditionally educated student, the homeschool student should start to think about college choices sometime during his ninth grade year (or its equivalent). An optional fold-out child safety seat was also added that year. The picture might turn your stomach, but they also might convince you that wearing safety glasses is an absolute necessity on the job.