Ford Motor Credit Company is a subsidiary of Ford Motor Company, with its own offices, officers, and directors. Ford Credit buys contracts and leases of automobiles entered into by dealers and...

Ford Motor Credit Company is a subsidiary of Ford Motor Company, with its own offices, officers, and directors. Ford Credit buys contracts and leases of automobiles entered into by dealers and consumers. Ford Credit also provides inventory financing for dealers’purchases of Ford and non-Ford vehicles and makes loans to Ford and non-Ford dealers. Ford Credit is not subject to any agreement with Ford Motor “restricting or conditioning”its ability to finance the dealers’inventories or the consumers’purchases or leases of vehicles. A number of plaintiffs filed a product liability suit in a Missouri state court against Ford Motor. The plaintiffs asserted that Ford Credit, which had an office in the jurisdiction, acted as Ford’s “agent for the transaction of its usual and customary business”there. Is Ford Credit an agent of Ford Motor? Explain. State ex rel. Ford Motor Co. v. Bacon, 63 S.W.3d 641 (Mo. 2002).