Ford Motor Co.'s top executives have met almost daily during the past six weeks to formulate a make-or-break plan to keep the company solvent in the face of the worst financial crisis in decades, The Detroit News reported today following exclusive interviews with the automaker's top executives.

With gasoline prices falling, some argued Ford should abandon its costly plan to retool North American truck factories to make smaller, more fuel-efficient cars from Europe, and others pushed to stave future investment in products like the F-150 pickup that has seen drastic sales declines in recent years.

But global product development chief Derrick Kuzak–with the support of CEO Alan Mulally–argued that if Ford has a future, it needs to deliver a new generation of class-leading cars and trucks that consumers actually want.

"We're only going to be in business if we create products that people really do want and value," Mulally told the News. "This is the essence of creating a viable Ford."

Unlike rival General Motors Corp., which has curtailed its investment in some new vehicles to conserve cash, Ford is betting the business on new, fuel-efficient cars in a make-or-break bid to turn the company around before time runs out.

Ford's latest launches have done little to arrest its decade-long decline in U.S. market share, and it is far from certain that the cars and trucks in Ford's pipeline will be enough to turn the tide.

Yet, Wall Street analysts such as Eric Selle of JPMorgan say this is the only way forward for an automaker that has wasted too many years producing lackluster products that barely covered its costs.

"The status quo is no longer acceptable," he told the News. "Abandoning the product plan would have been a bad move."

Ford has demonstrated that it can make money off its small cars in Europe, Selle said, adding that the concessions it won from the United Auto Workers union last year should allow Ford to do the same thing in this country.

Tags: ford, gm

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