Globe Drive

Ford's in a tricky situation.

Both of its Detroit-based competitors – GM (that would be Government Motors) and Chrysler – soaked up billions of taxpayer dollars to get out of bankruptcy this year while the Blue Oval paid its own bills.

Now Ford has new products in the showrooms and its sales and cash flow are easily outperforming its refinanced rivals.

But Ford doesn't dare utter a word that sounds like boasting for fear of derailing efforts to get the same concessions from the unions that General Motors and Chrysler got. Ford now carries more debt and works under less competitive work rules than the other two. The Canadian Auto Workers union settled late last week, although some locals of the United Auto Workers in the United States are still refusing.

David Mondragon has learned his lines well. He's a very competitive individual, an ex-football player from California and a good communicator who I'm sure would love to tell the world that superior Ford management has trounced the domestic competition once and for all. Instead, he speaks quietly about adhering to the business plan and promotes the virtues of Ford technology like EcoBoost.

Mondragon was on a panel recently pointing out that Ford's EcoBoost uses gasoline-turbocharged direct-injection to deliver up to 20-per-cent better fuel economy and that EcoBoost produces 15-per-cent fewer CO{-2} emissions.

The panel's moderator, Allan Gregg of TVOntario, then queried Mondragon: “Tell me more about EcoBust.”

Sometimes even a skilled communicator like David Mondragon can't get his point across.

Vaughan: You have General Motors and Chrysler on the run right now. Is this Ford's day?

Mondragon: At Ford, it's all about working our own plan.

We're not gauging ourselves against the competition, we're not following the competition. We're setting our own course and we're excited about that because our products are delivering the story about Ford today.

C'mon, one day taxpayers are going to realize they're never getting their money back from GM and Chrysler. I think that's going to change perceptions in the marketplace.

Well, we are fixated at Ford on financing our own way.

We've gone through some very difficult times and we made tough decisions. We started making tough decisions years ago – well before our competitors – and that's put us in a position of strength today and we'll continue to finance our own way going forward.

But all that government help for GM and Chrysler hasn't helped you at all. Do you feel the playing field is level?

We don't feel disadvantaged in any way over the government actions. We're going to continue to stay focused on our plans working closely with our stakeholders.

We bought down over $10-billion in debt this year and that helped our bottom line by about half a billion in terms of improved profitability.

We're going to work smart and we're going to work efficient.

But our product is our key differentiation from our competitors. Ultimately, the consumers will decide who wins or loses in the marketplace – it won't be the government.

Your sales are recovering nicely but there's no subcompact in your lineup and the compact Focus has been around for a while. This is where the Canadian marketplace is – compacts and subcompacts – and you're not there yet.

We have six new entries coming from Europe. They're all world-class vehicles.

Next year, we start off with our world car. It's a B car [subcompact] and it's on the road today as the Fiesta. The Fiesta will fit a great niche for us in the B segment.

It's also going to be a great feeder to the C car [compact] segment. We're bringing the all-new Focus to the market next year.

That's the largest segment in the market in Canada – it's huge – it's about 30 per cent of the car market. In certain markets like Montreal, it's 50 per cent.

What we're going to do in that segment is bring a multitude of new entries with the all-new European Focus. We're going to be back in the five-door segment and in four doors, too.

We'll be fishing where the fish are biting.

David, I want to congratulate you on being here for a full year. There's been a revolving door in that president's office. Are you going to stay?

There were five guys in five years.

I know it's been a revolving door. I plan to be here for a while. We've told the dealers that.

I have a long-term lease on my house, our kids are in school. I'm here for a while.

Michael Vaughan is co-host with Jeremy Cato of Car/Business, which appears Fridays at 8 p.m. on Business News Network and Saturdays at 2 p.m. on CTV.