Word: detroiter
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...clock is ticking for the Americans, however, and here's why: Detroit loses money on passenger cars. (Trucks have always been profitable.) The problem was a long time coming, as Japanese and later Korean automakers scored annual gains in quality, profitability and market share. But U.S. automakers were lulled into complacency in the 1990s by the supersize profits of their SUVs (light trucks, technically), which just a decade ago earned profit margins as high as 25%. Ford was an innovator with its Explorer model and just kept making them bigger. Meanwhile, the Japanese started making good SUVs...
Some Ford dealers complain that even its new models, like the Ford Fusion and the Mercury Milan, are still too similar. "We'd like to see more differentiation in the sheet metal, not just the inside creature comforts or the taillights," says Robert Thibodeau, owner of a major Detroit Ford dealership. Toyota, by contrast, has produced SUVs and the luxury Lexus--two totally different vehicles--even though they are built on the same platform. Some analysts argue that Ford should get rid of one of its brands, such as Mercury, and narrow its product line. The company's drab minivans...
...staging ground for Ford's innovation revolution is the top-secret Piquette Project. Unknown by all but the very top-level Ford executives, the program is aimed at nothing short of reinventing Detroit. It's named after the third-floor Piquette plant skunk works where Henry Ford and a group of engineers first developed the idea of the assembly line and experimented with lighter materials to create a car that could be mass-produced. The specific goals and the deadlines of the Piquette project are secret. But company officials say it harks back to Henry Ford's innovative experiments with...
...designs will be crucial to Ford's success. Until recently, with the exception of a new Mustang, an instant hit, Ford has failed to produce cars that have energized the market. Peter Horbury, the company's director of design and Volvo's former design chief, whom Ford brought to Detroit in 2004, was stunned by Ford Motor's rulebound ways. "I told the designers to just get on with what they were doing," he says, "and they looked at me terrified, like, What does that mean?" The designers were so used to following orders that Horbury needed first to develop...
...creating a management team for his new vision, Ford deliberately chose executives who have either come from other companies or spent time at divisions overseas, where they developed fresh perspectives. Fields, a baby-faced former sales and marketing guy with a smooth, confident touch, returned to Detroit in September after 10 years overseas, where he turned around Mazda in a difficult Japanese environment and then took on troubles at Ford in Europe, which is now profitable. "[Ford] has given me and my management team [the leeway] to turn the ship around," says Fields. "But he expects us to deliver...