In this week's automotive adventures, Steve hails the rise of Ford's new CEO, ponders how Covid-19 could affect future car innovation and introduces us to an idiosyncratic car revivalist.
Monday
So chuffed by the elevation of Jim Farley, a proper car bloke, to Ford’s top job that I half-entertained the notion of rushing out and buying a Blue Oval product to celebrate. Farley is a lifelong car enthusiast who spent his early years in the orbit of Phil Hill, America’s Formula 1 champion and a famous car collector. Besides building a stellar career in the big-numbers US industry, Farley has also raced his own Lola in the Le Mans Classic, and a Ford GT40 at Goodwood.
He also ran Ford’s European operations between 2015 and 2017, becoming a good enough Autocar friend to drop by for lunch: I remember how excited we all got about the STs, RSs, Bullets and Raptors that Farley believes are so vital to Ford’s success. He even took the trouble to meet photographer Stan Papior and me at the 2016 Geneva show when we drove there in a 40-year-old Ford Fiesta to celebrate the little car’s anniversary. Seems to me Ford’s greatest eras have always been when its leaders were charismatic car people. Here begins another.
Wednesday
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Whilst I wish Jim Farley every success in his new position as CEO of Ford he is hardly following in an illustrious line of predecessors. I know Jim Hackett and Alan Mulally did not come from a motor industry background but Mark Fields was supposedly a car guy and he didn't cover himself in glory. I don't think being a life long car enthusiast qualifies you to successfully run a auto company. Sadly, Andy Palmer was the latest to perhaps let his enthusiasm get the better of the company's resources. I believe all CEO's must be committed to product or service excellence but the most enduringly successful auto companies - think BMW, Toyota, VW have been led by an engineer or a top team culture of engineering excellence. However much styling and marketing is applied it is no substitute to being able to produce a vehicle efficiently, profitably and to the highest quality standards. To my mind for the last two decades Ford has had to compromise on at least one of these goals. It hardly gives me confidence in their future when they have all bar given up on car manufacturing (it is difficult to see how a majority of their European products will now last beyond the current generation of models) and without a strong partner can survive in Europe other than as a van manufacturer. Now they have signed up to using VW's MEB platform I can quite envisage a time when in Europe Ford will become another VW brand to meet a demand from a (shrinking) band of loyalist in countries like the UK (just as PSA have retained the Vauxhall badge for a little bit longer). With Ford and VW collaborating on the next generation of small and medium size vans - Caddy/Transporter and Transit Connect and Custom - it seems inevitable that Ford will eventually fall into the jaws of the mighty German monolith.