The Ford Edge crossover in America and the Mondeo midsize sedan in Europe are Ford's two most vital vehicles. The Edge plays to a growing demand for crossovers Stateside, while the Mondeo seeks to inject some style into a Ford of Europe line-up that has long been among the best, dynamically, but humdrum to look at.

This, incidentally, has been the Ford Explorer's greatest problem. New for 2006, the Explorer is easily the best midsize SUV - here defined as a body-on-frame vehicle, with 4x4 and a locking differential - in its class. Yet everything has changed but the design; consumers barely notice it, and its sales drop 33% in its first year on the market. Then soaring gas prices condemn it. A true pity.

Meanwhile, the Ford Five Hundred (as of 2008, the Taurus) and Mercury Montego are perfectly good cars with a similar issue: their designs are simply not attractive enough.

The more striking Ford Fusion/ Mercury Milan/ Lincoln Zephyr trio of midsize mainstreamers and near-luxury sedans has done fairly well.

In Europe, the Ford Ka city car is aging, being almost a decade old. It remains a fantastic drive. The next-generation Ka will be sent Stateside, to compete with the Chevrolet Aveo; Honda Fit; Hyundai Accent; Kia Rio; Nissan Versa, and Toyota Yaris.

Further down the line, the 2008 Ford Flex crossover and 2009 Ford F-150 pickup truck will be absolutely vital. The Fairlane is a squarish approach to the minivan segment that the Ford Freestar and Mercury Monterey have failed to capture.

The F-150 is the best-selling vehicle in America, and Ford's highest-volume product. For 2008, the F-150 will be completely redesigned.


For 2010, Ford installs its EcoBoost 2-liter gasoline motor in the S-Max crossover, producing 200 horsepower thanks to new direct injection technology, which raises power by 25% but cuts carbon dioxide emissions by 19%. Claimed average fuel consumption is 29 miles per U.S. gallon. The S-Max, and its (slightly larger) Galaxy cousin, thus become the first European models to adopt Ford's EcoBoost engines, which combine direct injection, turbocharging, and twin variable camshaft timing to deliver improved efficiency and performance.

Ford plans to build 1.3 million EcoBoost engines annually across the world (750,000 in the U.S.) and, by 2013, Ford expects to offer the technology across 90% of its global line-up.

Ford first introduced EcoBoost on the Lincoln MKS sedan with a 3.5-liter twin-turbocharged V6, saying it would produce the power and torque of a V8 engine with the fuel efficiency of a V6.


At Frankfurt 2005, Ford's Iosis Concept shows the way forward for Ford of Europe. Ford believes, quite correctly, that it does not receive the credit it should on the Continent, where a series of dynamically brilliant cars (think Puma; Mondeo, and Focus) suffer at the hands of more premium brands and more invigorating design languages.

"Ford products are acknowledged for class-leading driving dynamics; our objective, quite simply, is to express this leadership in our design," says Martin Smith, Design Director for Ford of Europe. Smith wants future Fords to be more emotive, distinguishing themselves through assertive stances and athletic lines.


Like General Motors several years earlier, Ford in 2006 begins exploring ways of using its Australian cars' rear-wheel-drive architecture as a basis for larger cars in other markets. Certainly, the rear-wheel-drive Ford Interceptor and Lincoln MKR concepts of the 2007 North American International Auto Show in Detroit illustrate that there is no lack of design talent at Ford. If a rear-wheel-drive platform could be found, potentially from Australia's Ford Falcon, these much-praised designs may yet see the light of day.


All Ford cars produced from 2009 onward will have an additional mirror embedded in the top outside corner of their external rear-view mirrors, eliminating the driver's blind spot. Optionally available is a radar system, borrowed from Volvo, which detects the presence of vehicles in the blind spot area.


Ford in 1981 seemed to be "racing Chrysler toward the bankruptcy courts," as Alexander L. Taylor III put it.

"Between 1980 and 1982, Ford lost $3.26 billion and piled up an additional $2 billion in short-term debt. The company's share of the U.S. car market declined from 22.8% in 1978 to 16.9% (1.1 million vehicles) at the end of 1982.

"Suddenly (in 1983), things are looking up, way up. During the last ten days of June, Ford registered a robust 76.8% increase in sales over the same period in 1982."

Part of Ford's problem had, certainly, been the formal looks of its late-70s models; the slab sides and flat roofs on models like the Ford Fairmont. As Edsel Ford, great-grandson of Henry Ford, tells Taylor, "people thought we built boring cars."

Of particular concern to Ford is its 14% share of the Californian market. California at the time accounts for 10% of all new-car sales in the U.S., and is already a lightning rod for new trends; a sort of American Switzerland, which tends to go its own way.

Ford quadruples its market research over eight yars, and conducts elaborate consumer samplings. Yet the shapes of its new cars are penned largely by a single man: Chief Designer John Telnack, who supervises development of the 1983 Thunderbird; 1984 Tempo (and Mercury Topaz), and 1986 Taurus/ Sable.

Between 1982 and 1983, Ford introduces ten new car and truck lines at a total development cost of $3 billion. The newest models feature radically rounded contours, like their successful European counterparts (the innovative Sierra, in particular). "We didn't want to stay with the herd," grins Telnack.