Does Ford have a better idea?

Royal Ford says yes. It's talking product and building on global platforms.

Royal FordAugust 5, 2009 12:42Updated May 30, 2010 12:04

Workers of the Cologne plant of the Ford Motor Company assemble Ford Focus and Ford Fiesta models, Dec. 4, 2008. The Cologne plant is the first Ford assembly facility in the world to build the new generation Fiesta. (Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters)

EVERGREEN, Colo. — It’s gone global, my friend.

Even as the erratically pulsing heart of Detroit awaits a pacemaker, two of its Big (now smaller) Three are looking not only to Washington for stimulation, but also seeking help around the world — looking to bring in cars already built overseas, hooking up with foreign car companies or shedding some foreign brands they had acquired.

General Motors let loose Opel in Europe and shed Saab, Chrysler went Italian, and Ford is in the middle of shipping Jaguar and Land Rover into ownership in India, and, most likely, Volvo into the hands of a Chinese company — slimming down without asking for resuscitation from Washington.

So, does "Ford have a better idea?"

Yes, because to steal another advertising slogan, "Have you driven a Ford lately?" I can say yes. In fact, I’ve driven in recent weeks a broad range of new Ford vehicles that convinced me that Ford, free of government bailout money and heading toward profitability, is far better set for the future than General Motors and Chrysler. Ford, in some cases, is reaching overseas for products it sells there but not, until now, in the U.S.

By the end of 2013, at least seven Ford products will be built on global platforms.

Except for changes to meet, particularly in the U.S., safety and environmental regulations or customer desires, these Fords will be the same from country to country.

Watching GM try to tone its bloated body is like watching government bureaucracy trying to rein itself in. Of course, it is doing so with the help of government money and bureaucracy. And at the same time developing its own small car, but that takes time.

And then we have, "My Italian Wedding," in which Chrysler has been courted by and wed itself to Fiat of Italy — all so it will quickly have in hand the (Italian) small car that it cannot turn around in today’s burgeoning market for small cars.

Of course, not all "better ideas’" pan out — though my bet is that Ford's will.

Look back to the bountiful days for the Ford Motor Co. in 1968, when a new advertising campaign proclaimed, as above, that "Ford Has A Better Idea."