Bill Ford says family "interested and concerned"

The Ford logo is seen on the back of a car in Detroit, Michigan December 10, 2008.

DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr. said on Tuesday the Ford family is "obviously interested and concerned" about the automaker's financial situation but would prefer to pull off a turnaround on its own.

Speaking on the sidelines of a company event, the great-grandson of company founder Henry Ford said family members meet quarterly to discuss Ford's position.

"They're obviously very interested and concerned," he said.

"The family has been with this company through good times and bad times for every kind of cycle you could ever have," he said. "At the end of World War II, coming out of the war, the family hung in there in the early 1980s oil embargo, we were even in a worse shape than we're now today."

Bill Ford, who was the chief executive of the company from 2001 to 2006, said his family's ownership of the company was an emotional one, not just a financial one.

"For us, if this is just about a financial investment, we would have been out a long time ago," he said. "

The Ford family's wealth has declined as losses have mounted at Ford and its stock price plunged in the last few years.

The family holds just under 3 percent of the automaker's shares but controls 40 percent of the voting power under a separate class of shares that could be endangered by a government equity stake in the automaker.

The No. 2 U.S.-based automaker, unlike domestic rivals General Motors Corp and Chrysler LLC, is not seeking emergency funds to survive the deep downturn in auto demand.

GM and Chrysler are requesting $14 billion to continue operating through March, while Ford has said it would prefer a $9 billion line of credit. That would allow Ford to sidestep the issue of control.

But Bill Ford said his family's control of the company was not the reason behind the company's decision to seek only a line of credit from the U.S. government.

"We've always wanted to be an independent company. That's our goal," he said. "When we look at whatever strings are attached in Washington, there has to be better options for us to remain a self-funded company as long as we can."

Bill Ford added that it would be better for the company's image if it succeeded in restructuring on its own, rather than receive emergency funding from the U.S. government.

"It's better for us to be seen as a company that's pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps,"

(Editing by Leslie Gevirtz)