Autoline #1306: Man on Wire

Man on Wire

Thirty-five years ago a French daredevil named Philippe Petit walked where no human will walk again. He snuck his high wire to the top of the World Trade Center Towers and strolled solo between the buildings for nearly an hour. He survived, and today is retired and celebrated in an Oscar-nominated documentary.

This impeccable performance is the perfect metaphor for the economic storm swirling around Detroit where high wire walking is the norm, but so far there's very little celebrating.

One of those men walking the tightrope on a daily basis is Jim Farley, the Group Vice President for Marketing and Communications at Ford. For the last fifteen months he's been trying to advance the same type of Toyota/Lexus magic he learned from his years at the World's Largest Automaker. But so far the walk has been rough.

On this week's show Jim Farley joins John McElroy, Amy Wilson from Automotive News and David Kiley from BusinessWeek to discuss everything from marketing vehicles in this devastating economy to the fresh product like the Taurus, Fusion Hybrid and MKZ that Ford is releasing throughout the remainder of 2009.