From initial appearances, new Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) CEO Alan Mulally is making great progress in turning around the fledgling automaker from a series of huge losses (quarters and years) into turning out vehicles customers actually want and are buying in decent numbers. The huge SUV and gas-guzzling full-size car that remained specialties of Ford for so long are being replaced by the Fusion mid-size/compact and smaller crossover SUVs like the Edge, according to recent monthly sales results. Mulally said recently that his "Way Forward" plan on revitalizing Ford is on track, if not slightly ahead of schedule. For Ford investors looking for good Ford news in the face of recent disastrous quarters and fiscal years, this is music to the ears.

Although Ford saw a 12% sales decline from January to May of this year, the automaker has made many right moves to correct the ship and get its product portfolio more competitive to Toyota Motor Corporation (ADR) (NYSE: TM), Honda Motor Co., LTD. (NYSE: HMC) and even Nissan Motor Co., LTD. (NASDAQ: NSANY). Mulally's "Way Forward" plan to get Ford back on track relies partly on product planning, getting unions to cooperate with business needs (always a nightmare), and competing with the newest #1 seller on the planet, Toyota. Neat job if you can get it, but as he said recently, he's making progress.

I'm not sure that changing the name of the Ford Five Hundred luxury sedan back to the venerable "Taurus" name will do anything but give the automaker good press, but who knows. At one point, the Taurus was the most popular sedan nameplate in the country, even selling more than the Toyota Camry (the Taurus did this for years). Mulally says that Ford is on plan with regards to the company's turnaround, and he's probably right about that. Sometime in 2009 Ford should be profitable again, according to Mulally. But, until then, there's quite a bit of hard work left to be done.

Bill Ford, great-grandson of the storied American auto company's founder, is stepping down from his position as CEO of Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) according to AP reports. He'll be replaced by Alan Mulally of Boeing.

It was only this January that Time magazine asked in a cover story, "Can This Man Save the American Auto Industry?" The question mark loomed large over the whole article, and it seems Ford -- Bill, as well as the company he led -- have answered, "no."

It's interesting that even last week, when Coke's Donald Knauss announced he was leaving to head another company, we speculated: could it be Ford? We were wrong in the name of the replacement, but not the sentiment: even though it seemed a little far-fetched, at the time.

Time for a new question. "Can this man save the American auto industry?" What do you think?

[Photo byrdiegyrl]