The writing is on the wall for the US’ second largest car maker. Ford’s North American division better shape up or it may be the end for the blue oval. The bulk of Ford’s mammoth $5.8 billion third-quarter loss was recoded by its US arm, and the announcement has spurred the company to start conducting a review of all its products and brands including its entire product portfolio and investment decisions.

Ford CEO Alan Mulally is confident that the new restructuring plan will work, stating that the “integrated look is going to be really good for Ford." Currently execs are looking at progress on a weekly basis, which includes “looking at the metrics of the business environment, travel, GDP growth, new housing starts, economy." If anyone can do it, it likely to be Mulally, who was credited for turning around Boeing's commercial airplane business. “The plan is to continuously improve,” he said in an interview to Reuters.

Ford’s solution is to adopt a new integrated view, which may see the company dropping its money-losing Mercury and Jaguar brands, and perhaps even the shedding of nearly 45,000 employees as well as 16 plant shutdowns. Focus will now be placed on Ford's product pipeline, which so far has been dominated by large pickup trucks and SUVs, with a predicted move towards fuel-efficient vehicles and the crossover segment. Ford's new crossover, the Edge, is pictured above.