Vrooom At The Top

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Petersen is focusing most of his attention, though, on ensuring that Ford offers a continuous stream of fresh cars. Some will be gussied-up versions of existing models -- known in the trade as "re-skins" -- while one will be a completely new model. Later this year the firm plans to unveil a Ford Thunderbird with styling resembling a BMW. Also in the works: face-lifts for the Ranger pickup and Bronco II sport-utility vehicle; a nip and tuck for the Taurus; a version of the Aerostar van that will stretch 15 in. longer than the current 14 1/2-ft. model; and by 1991 a compact four-wheel-drive van designed by Nissan and made by Ford to compete with Chrysler's line of Voyagers and Caravans, which now command 49% of the U.S. minivan market.

Ford will need a fleet of attractive cars to hold its own against the flood of rival models coming into the market. U.S. plants owned by Japanese companies, including Nissan, Honda and Toyota, are expected to produce 2.2 million cars annually by 1992, up from 618,000 in 1987. That will surely cut into the sales of the U.S. Big Three, which produced 15 million vehicles last year. Detroit fears the new competition because the Japanese plants, which generally employ nonunion labor, have been able to keep operating costs 15% to 20% below those of the Big Three. "We have more vacations, more holidays and more relief time than the Japanese," says Ford Vice Chairman Harold ("Red") Poling. "Those things will be an impediment to achieving the same degree of productivity."

But as always, Ford's chief nemesis will be GM. With 1987 sales of $102 billion, GM remains 41% larger than Ford. Auto experts say GM could rebound sharply with its planned line of stylish front-wheel-drive cars called the GM- 10 series. "General Motors is waking up," says Auto Analyst Maryann Keller of Furman Selz Mager Dietz & Birney. "Ford is going to face tough competition in the 1990s."

Others think Ford has the ability but needs the desire to overtake GM as the world's largest automaker. Says Vladimir Pucik, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan's business school: "Nobody goes to the Indy 500 trying to be a strong No. 2."