Ford limits cost of new car development

Ford locks product development spending for the rest of the decade. "This is really a stretch target," says car development chief Jacques Nasser. "We owe it to our marketplace. We owe it to our customers." Ford also owes it to itself. The company obviously never wants to undergo the industry ridicule and shellacking by the automotive press it took after spending an estimated six years and $6 billion developing its world car - the Mondeo/Contour/Mystique. By most accounts, Ford never will recoup that money. And though it publicly defends the world car's cost, Ford brass vow never to spend that much on a single product again.