[fpv_gtho]

Well i'll clear up some numbers here for the AU's "total" life span.

AU - 700 million
series 2/3 - unknown, assume 200 million together

BA - 500 million
mk2 - 100 million
BF - 200 million
BF2 - 100 million

Thats 1.8 Billion Ford may stick into their latest chassis. Now what will they get back from it...
sales
1998 - around the 60-70K mark
1999
2000
2001 - 50K mark
2002
2003 - 60K mark
2004
2005 - around the 50K mark

So you can see the AU caused a dive in sales, the BA managed to pick that up but then the oil prices kicked in. So maybe hazard a guess of around average sales around 55K-65K per year.

Prices are another thing to consider. AU's started around the 30K mark, but BA's were around the 35K mark. So say the average price for an AU could be around $35K, and the average BA was around $40K.

Worst case scenario, Ford sells 55K per year at an average $35K. That puts them at getting back 1,925,000,000 per year. Best case scenario is about 65K at $40K, which brings back 2,600,000,000. Difference in revenue of around 700 million, enough to fund the AU.

This is of course not considering profits vs cost per unit price.