Detroit Automakers Outline Hopes for a Rebound

Jan. 29, 2007 — -- The last several years have not been kind to American automakers. Ford and General Motors in particular were forced to close plants and lay off workers as they lost market share to overseas rivals and watched profits tumble.

But the CEOs of GM and Ford tell ABC News that they believe their companies can make a comeback. They even claim to be optimistic about the future of the once-mighty U.S. car industry.

Ford posted the lowest profits for any American carmaker last year, losing a mind-boggling $12.7 billion. And now Toyota is expected to surpass GM as the world's largest automaker this year.

But even amid these sobering numbers, Ford CEO Alan Mulally told ABC News he believes the company will bounce back over the the next few years.

"Our plan now is that we'll return to profitability in 2009, so we are just at the bottom and next year we'll start to climb out again," said Mulally.

For the full report watch "World News with Charles Gibson" from Detroit Jan. 29 and 30.

Mulally assumed the leadership at Ford in October after successfully reviving the airline maker Boeing. He said the struggles facing the automaker are easily identified -- foreign carmakers like Toyota and Honda have benefited from inspired engineering and design while many consumers now view their American counterparts as stodgy and unimaginative.

"Clearly the world has changed … and so we need to shift with that and create cars now that are more efficient, the customers really want and value."

In the past three months, Mulally has worked to devise a restructuring plan and said it's imperative the company sticks to its new strategy.

"The most important thing on a turnaround is that the entire team deals with the situation and we look through the world with very clear glasses, what the business situation is, what the environment is, our competition, our situation … and then develop a very comprehensive plan to deal with that."

At the same time, the leadership at GM is watching closely to see if Toyota in fact passes GM in total production in 2007.

"There's a lot of people who are predicting the outcome, but that's why we play the game -- to see who wins at the end," said Rick Wagoner, the GM CEO. "We're going to be fighting for every sale right to the last part of the year. And if we win, great, if we don't -- we'll come back the next day and try harder."

In the meantime, he said GM will focus on its strengths to push for that title this year.

"We produce 9.1, 9.2 million units the last couple of years. We benefited from unbelievable growth in places like China, where we have a great representation, in fact a leadership position … so if we can take advantage of that and strengthen our position, redouble our position here in the U.S. and Europe, we'll see how the race comes out at the end of the year."