Ford: Built Toyota Tough

Ford's new chief executive, Alan Mulally, and Mark Fields, the head of Ford operations for the Americas, met with Fujio Cho, chairman of Toyota Motor, and other top Toyota executives in Tokyo last week. According to the International Herald Tribune, the meeting was held at the request of the Ford executives. Toyota described the meeting as a courtesy call.

Ford has had what could easily be described as a bad year and may be looking for guidance out of its current mess from one of the top automakers in the world. In fact, many believe Toyota will become the biggest automaker on the planet next year. The two have a history together that dates back to the 1950's.

Toyota and Ford officials indicated that the talks focused on the development environmentally-friendly technology and manufacturing efficiency.