Last year, Ford ceded the No. 2 position in sales in its home market to Toyota, and its domestic sales have slid a further 9 percent so far in 2008. Moreover, the company has been forced to sell off prized assets 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. They need to change to the core.”

Mr. 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. My hope is that everyone at Ford never forgets what we went through.”

FORD’S current makeover started when it reached outside the auto industry two years ago to hire a longtime Boeing executive, Alan R. Mulally, as its president and chief executive.

Since then, Mr. Mulally has pushed Ford to integrate its far-flung operations around the world. Under the rallying cry of “One Ford,” the company is on a mission to globalize product development and accelerate the introduction of fuel-efficient cars in the United States.