Revenues are down, and expenses are higher, so something needs to be done soon before the next chapter is written -- a chapter that Ford does not want to be numbered "11", to be sure.

One of the options on the table is to explore selling Ford's luxury English brands of Jaguar and Land Rover. (The company has already sold its third English brand, sports-car maker Aston Martin, earlier this year.) Even if Ford nets a tidy sum from the sale, it may have to plow some money back into the brands, ala what Daimler did with Chrysler. Speaking of Chrysler, rumor has it that Cerberus, the company that bought Chrysler earlier this year, is casting eyes across the Pond at Jag and Land Rover.

Another way to help turn around the company is to standardize architectures across Ford's global divisions. Currently the North American, European, and Australian divisions don't share much in the way of platforms. The plan that's being talked about is to say good-bye to previous "world cars", such as the Mondeo and the Focus -- each of which tried to use the same basic platform and body in all the markets, but with tweaks for each.

The new strategy is to focus more on architecture -- the underpinnings -- and modify the sheetmetal, powertrains, and other things for the various regions, much like Ford has leverages the Volvo S60/S80 platform into the 2008 Ford Taurus (pictured), Taurus X crossover, and Mercury Sable (as well as the forthcoming Lincoln MKS and the Ford Flex CUV). All of those cars look and handle quite differently, but still share the same underlying architecture. The nice thing about this system is that it allows for some flexibility in wheelbase length and car width, so autos based on a single platform do not have to look like carbon copies of each other

For long-wheelbase cars, the base platforms will use the upcoming Lincoln flagship (still to be named), as well as a second platform used for the Australian Fairlane and LTD. Mid-wheelbased cars will be based on the replacement for the Crown Victoria/Grand Marquis (think the recent Ford Interceptor concept car for where that's headed), and Australia's Falcon and Territory. For the small wheelbases, a new Mustang will provide the base mechanicals for that size category.

Even though this plan has not been officially announced, it seems likely that it, or something similar, will come to pass.

Via Motor Trend Blog