Ford Vehicle

The hour-long presentation was broadcast to another 500 sales and marketing employees throughout the United States, according to Ford spokesman Jim Cain. “It was basically his first chance to introduce himself to the whole team in this country,” Cain said. Farley, who headed Toyota’s Lexus division in North America and was responsible for launching the successful Scion brand, told employees he always wanted to work at Ford.

He is a Mustang enthusiast whose grandfather worked for Henry Ford in the early years of the company. Widely viewed as one of Toyota’s most promising rising stars in the United States, Farley will face far greater challenges at Ford, which is still struggling to end a decade-long decline in U.S. market share. “Jim has one of the toughest jobs in Ford right now,” said analyst Jim Hall, president of 2953 Analytics in Birmingham.

While Ford has some solid new vehicles coming out over the next couple of years, Hall said it will not be until 2010 that new big-volume products arrive in showrooms. “Until that happens, the only tool they have is sales and marketing,” he said. Farley was asked if he was related to Chris Farley. He said the late comedian was his cousin and then showed a clip from one of Chris Farley’s movies, “Tommy Boy,” saying he had helped inspire the scene.

You can reach Bryce Hoffman at (313) 222-2443 or bhoffman@detnews.com .