A star at Toyota, a believer at Ford

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like its Jaguar and Land Rover units, to raise cash for its nascent turnaround.

“Ford is at a crossroads,” said John Casesa of the auto consulting firm Casesa Shapiro Group. “The business has been declining for 30 years, and the competition is only getting tougher.” Farley says he grasps that reality quite fully, as well as the tortured path that Ford has been on over the last decade.

During an interview, he held out the tip of a finger to illustrate his point. “I cut this finger playing with a model plane when I was 12 or 13,” he said. “I didn’t really feel it. It was like, that’s weird. Then the whole finger came down and I could see the white of my bone.” He paused to let the image sink in.

“Some cuts leave a little scar, and some cuts go to the bone,” he said. “Ford’s experience in the last 10 years went to the bone. I hope that everyone at Ford never forgets what we went through.”