My Top Two Stocks: General Motors Company (GM) and Ford Motor Company (F)

It was almost embarrassing, really.

When a Fool editor asked me for an article about my top two stock holdings, I had to log into my brokerage account and look to see which ones they were.

While I closely follow the companies I own, I pay less attention to the moment-to-moment value of my holdings, which go up and down over time. I really didn’t know for sure which stocks would top the list until I looked.

But sure enough, my biggest positions at the moment are the two stocks I follow most closely for the Fool: General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) and Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F).

I bought them both for good reasons. But would I buy them again now?

Ford has been a very good buy…
I’ve had my current position in Ford for about four years, dating back to the dark days of early 2009. Those were the days when the market seemed to be getting crazier by the day, following the “Autumn of the Massive Collective Pants-Soiling.” The voices on CNBC were getting shriller by the hour as that winter unfolded, and I decided to heed Warren Buffett’s maxim and get ready to be greedy when others were at their most fearful.

I made up a list of stocks to buy. Most were big, high-quality dividend stocks that I hoped to own for years, companies like Diageo plc (ADR) (NYSE:DEO) and Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT), both of which I still own. But I also slipped a sentimental favorite onto the list, a company I’d owned on and off at several points in the past: Ford.

I wrote an article at the time that explained what I was thinking. While General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) and Chrysler were clearly headed for bankruptcy or worse, Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) – which had borrowed all it could back in 2006 in a last-ditch attempt to fund a turnaround, and had over $30 billion of debt at that moment – was showing signs of life, even in those dark days.

Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F)’s latest cars were very good, its turnaround plan appeared to be on track, and CEO Alan Mulally’s strategy – called “One Ford” — inspired great confidence. If the company survived the economic crisis without going bankrupt – and I thought it had a very good chance of doing so – then its stock was a steal, I wrote at the time.

I made the buy not long after I wrote that article, in early March. As we now know, that turned out to be a clear-cut great move… unlike my investment in General Motors Company (NYSE:GM), where the jury is definitely still out.

…but the jury is still out on General Motors
I took a position in General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) at around $33 not long after its November 2010 IPO, and bought more at around $23 the following summer. Taken as a whole, my GM investment is up about 4% at the moment.