(Photo credit Ford Motor Company Flickr photo stream. Licensed under Creative Commons. Check out more photos of the Fusion on Flickr.)

Regular readers of this space know that of American automakers, I am a Ford fan. With GM being run by a labor economist and Chrysler being sold to Fiat, I would love for one American carmaker to survive.

Especially, if it’s the one that President Obama credited with inventing the automobile….

Yes, Ford lost money in Q1, but they are building cars that people want to buy, and the way they are marketing the Ford Fusion Hybrid with the 1000 miles on a tank quest is inspired.

They are doing the 1000 miles on a tank effort as part of a fundraiser for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Hey, it’s for da kids….

They have charted a 1000-mile course from Mount Vernon, VA to Washington, D.C. From a PR standpoint, that route will probably edge out arriving in chartered corporate jets to beg for bailout billions….

Yes, I’m still bitter about that. Not the arrival, but the decision to give them the money to save them from bankruptcy. That’s worked out well.

The drivers of the 2010 Ford Fusion are to be NASCAR’s Carl Edwards, hypermiler Wayne Gerdes, and a host of the new Ford hybrid’s engineering geniuses. The hypermiler seems like a bit of a ringer, but they are keeping it real. The car is unmodified, running on standard 87 octane, and must maintain an average speed of 57 MPH.

For those interested in the fuel economy ratings for the Ford Fusion Hybrid and more on the 1000 miles attempt, check out coverage by Ralph Hanson at Motor Authority. Ruth Manuel-Logan from Examiner.com also wrote an excellent article on the Fusion Hybrid 1000 mile attempt.

This post written by professional seo content writer Eric Anderson from PDQ Web Copywriting. Eric’s recent writing projects have included content for a Tampa FL English Tutor blog and a Dallas TX classic car storage website.