Ford's Jim Farley apologizes to GM for comments in upcoming book

Jim Farley -- head of global marketing, sales and service at Ford Motor Co. -- is trying to smooth things over with the folks at General Motors.

In a pre-publication excerpt from the book Once Upon a Car by New York Times reporter Bill Vlasic, Farley did some trash-talking about his crosstown rivals.

"We're going to beat on them, and it's going to be fun," the book quotes Farley as saying. "F*** GM," he said. "I hate them and their company and what they stand for. And I hate the way they're succeeding."

And he added: "I'm going to beat Chevrolet on the head with a bat. And I'm going to enjoy it."

But in a meeting with reporters Tuesday, Farley said he had called GM marketing chief Joel Ewanick to a apologize.

"No one respects the competition more than Jim Farley," he told reporters at an industry conference in Traverse City, Mich., sponsored by the Center for Automotive Research. "I told them I respect what they've done."

Asked whether he had been misquoted, Farley declined to comment.

By David Sedgwick- Automotive News