Peter Horbury: The Interpreter Moves In

Peter Horbury The Interpreter Moves In
Inside Ford Motor Co.'s top-secret design studio, stylists gather around a hulking clay model of a work-in-progress pick-up truck.

Their boss, Peter Horbury, sweeps in, throws off his suit coat and declares: "Let's do some designing, shall we?" But while the workhorse vehicle before him is quintessentially American, Horbury, who moved to Detroit only last year, speaks like a proper British gentleman; until a year ago he was designing Jaguars.

"I'm learning to speak truck," he confesses.

Ford's new U.S. design director is best known for having given Volvo a Swedish-style makeover; now he's intent on bringing out Ford's American spirit.

His charter is to draw up a bold new look for the automaker's mainstream cars to help reverse a decadelong skid in sales.

With gas prices soaring to record levels, Ford's SUV sales are plummeting at what CEO Bill Ford calls a "breathtaking" pace.

Guzzler fatigue is finally bringing the traditional family car back in style, but Chrysler's hip-hop 300C is getting all the buzz, while Ford's Five Hundred sedan has been dismissed as far too sedate.

Enter Horbury, 55, who promises to design cars "with a distinct face that you see coming from down the road."

Since moving to the States, Horbury has been immersing himself in America's love of large, buying a 7,000-square-foot moder