The assets and advantages at Ford

1. CEO Alan Mulally

Since arriving from Boeing Co., Mulally has been helping to eradicate Ford's culture of political infighting. He has worked to promote teamwork and confidence within the company, and is regarded as a focused advocate of Ford's turnaround plan.

2. Quality improvements

According to Consumer Reports magazine, Ford's reliability "is now on par with good Japanese automakers," such as Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co.

The magazine lauds Ford for continuing "to pull away from the rest of Detroit." Now, Ford just has to get that message to consumers.

3. Telematics leadership

Consumers are still catching on to the impressive technological advances inside a Ford vehicle.

But Ford's continually improving Sync technology, which was developed with Microsoft and allows drivers to communicate with their phone and audio system using voice commands, remains unique in the market.

Ford has said it remains committed to staying ahead in this area, too, as mobile electronics continue to become a bigger part of Americans' daily lives.

4. Safety

Ford has the most 5-star government crash safety ratings of any automaker. In September, it passed Honda for the most top safety picks from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Ford recently introduced MyKey technology, which helps parents encourage teens to adopt safer driving behaviors through safety-belt usage, lower audio volumes and a limited top speed. MyKey will become a standard feature for many models in early 2009.

5. Improving fuel efficiency

In addition to the Focus, which gets a combined 27 miles per gallon, the new Ford Fusion hybrid will beat the Toyota Camry hybrid by 6 miles per gallon, Ford says.

Ford's president of the Americas, Mark Fields, has said Ford's product development team is committed to making its future vehicles "meet or beat the competition in fuel economy."

By Sarah A. Webster