DEARBORN, MICH. -- Calling 2004 its Year of the Car, Ford Motor Co. plans to roll out at least five new cars and one crossover model among its traditional Ford, Lincoln and Mercury brands this year.

"Never before have we flooded the market with so many new products. We need to do it on time, and we need to do it with quality," says Ford executive vice-president Jim Padilla.

In all, Ford plans to roll out 65 new models for North America under the Ford, Lincoln and Mercury brands between 2003 and 2008. The auto maker is already in the midst of a five-year blitz that will bring 45 new vehicles to its European showrooms.

Meanwhile, Ford's luxury brands under the Premier Automotive Group umbrella (including Jaguar, Aston Martin, Volvo and Land Rover) are planning 35 products during this time span. And Japanese affiliate, Mazda Motor Co., has an assortment of new vehicles in store.

Many of the new models, such as the Freestyle crossover, take Ford into new market segments. But perhaps the most closely watched will be the refreshed 2005 Ford Focus compact car. That's because the Focus represents both the best and worst from Ford in the past five years.

Praised for its excellent ride and handling, the Focus was also plagued by 11 recalls in its first two years on the market (2000-2001). But a ferocious effort at Ford to improve quality has paid dividends. This spring, the Focus became a "recommended" pick in the well-regarded Consumer Reports auto issue. Focus quality was also rated higher than the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla in J.D. Power & Associates' most recent Initial Quality Study.

Ford officials now insist they have a high-quality small-car entry that will attract new buyers with its improved looks inside and out, not to mention better braking and handling and a low-emissions engine.

The bread-and-butter Focus is to be followed by the Freestyle and two large sedans, the Ford Five Hundred and Mercury Montego (the Montego will not be sold in Canada). All three models are based on the mechanical architecture of the Volvo S80 sedan.

The Freestyle is aimed at vehicles like the Honda Pilot, Nissan Murano and Buick Rendezvous, while the Five Hundred will compete against large sedans such as the current Chrysler Concorde and next year's Chrysler 300, as well as the Toyota Avalon and Chevrolet Impala.

Ford has also announced that it will produce as many as 10 different vehicles off the Mazda6 platform with combined sales of 800,000 units by about 2008. Ford has announced that its 2005 midsize sedan will be one of the Mazda6-based models, and it will compete against the Honda Accord and Nissan Altima.

The midsize car will draw some styling cues from the Ford 427 concept shown at the Detroit auto show a year ago, notably the five horizontal bars at the front of the car.

Ford chairman Bill Ford Jr. says this product onslaught is the good news of a turnaround effort that began in the early days of 2002 after the disastrous financial results from 2001. Ford lost $6.4-billion (U.S.) over 2001-2002, but has since returned to modest profitability.

While Ford is still zeroing in on ways to cut costs, the product blitz ahead will put the spotlight on Ford and Lincoln showrooms. Buyers should be excited about what they find there, and that should translate into more market share for Ford.

Ford would be pleased to see an up-tick in its sales fortunes. In 1995, Ford and Lincoln-Mercury had 25.6 per cent of the North American market; this year they are running at about 20 per cent.

Bill Ford says the company is now on solid footing. Quality, Ford officials report, has improved by 5 per cent in the past year, recalls are down by 40 per cent and warranty payments have dropped by 10 per cent.

Ford now has 18 vehicles on Consumer Reports' recommended list, which was just behind Toyota and ahead of General Motors. And its product development efforts and manufacturing plants continue to grow more efficient.

Still, Ford executives admit their product plan doesn't go for sales home runs along the lines of the current Honda Accord and Toyota Camry, and Ford's own Taurus from the early 1990s. A home run in this case translates into sales of 400,000 units a year. Ford's planners and executives say they are going for singles and doubles -- products that sell about 100,000 to 125,000 units a year.

Some critics wonder why Ford plans to launch several models -- the midsize car, the Five Hundred, the Montego and others -- to replace sales of the current Taurus. Ford officials say they are keeping the Taurus in production for another few years to provide a car to fleet buyers.

So in Ford's Year of the Car, the one car that has symbolized Ford for two decades -- a model that for several years in the early 1990s was the best-selling car on the continent -- is on its way to becoming a footnote of history as other new vehicles arrive to take its place.