Ford Vehicle

‘I don’t have much time’ There is hope in the refreshing candor of a new sales and marketing chief, Jim Farley, the import from Toyota Motor Corp. who has the guts, the vision and, most importantly, the cover from the top to say what so many in and out of Ford have long known: Ford’s marketing and advertising are a mess. “This is a time for us to be really realistic,” Farley told The Detroit News at the Los Angeles Auto Show.

“I don’t have much time.” If the first step to fixing a problem is acknowledging it publicly — and it is, particularly in an industry whose products draw such impassioned criticism from pros and consumers alike — Farley has accomplished more in his first few days on the job than any top Ford marketing exec has in, oh, the past decade. How? By setting a tone that is heavy on reality, bereft of denial and biased for action. I’d call that hope.

These have been dark times for Detroit — restructuring run amok, plant closings, job cuts, a state government in disarray and now soaring oil prices, slipping home values and the likelihood of a slowing national economy. In Dearborn, the malaise runs deep — even among people who don’t work for Ford because Ford defines Dearborn far more than the other way around. Ford changes course — or dies Commercial space along Michigan Avenue stands vacant.

Wander into local businesses, as I do most weekends, and talk turns to the latest new business that has already closed or is rumored to be soon. And everywhere are questions about Ford’s future, asked in a gloomy tone that is less appropriate today than anytime in the past two years or more. Because there is hope. For all the guff Chairman Bill Ford Jr.