Ford has come a long way since its founder Henry Ford said: “Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants – so long as it is black.”

But offering a mind-boggling array of colours and options does not necessarily make it any easier for customers trying to envisage which combination they prefer.

This is one of the reasons that Ford is currently upgrading 500 of its dealers around Europe to become ‘Ford stores’ – about a quarter of the dealer network.

Peter Fleet, the vice president for sales in Europe, said the stores would offer the latest digital customer experience, with the costs of the upgrade shared between the dealers and Ford.

Peter Fleet

“For example, you could configure the car of your dreams on your iPad or computer at home, bring it into the dealership and connect wirelessly to a power wall to see what the car would look like, turning it around, looking inside it and so on,” he said.

It is, however, unlikely that the agents in Malta, Gasan Zammit, will be able to dedicate a store exclusively to just one brand, given the size of the market, although Mr Fleet has been actively trying to persuade Gasan Group chairman Joe Gasan of its merits. Gasan has represented Ford in Malta for over 86 years, making it the second oldest representative for Ford outside the US, but is both importer and dealer.

Mr Fleet was recently in Malta for a conference of its importers.

“Although we have national sales companies owned by Ford in our largest markets, we rely on a network of importers. So every year, around 50 of us meet for a few days to talk about plans for the next year,” he said.

Ford is riding high at the moment, having announced profits of over $6 billion in 2014, derived from revenues of over $140 billion. The company is seeing considerable growth in the US – “it is really turbo-charging those numbers” – and is investing heavily in China and India for future growth.

It is also looking hard at ways to transform its European market, where it lost just over $1 billion last year. Mr Fleet said the outlook was positive.

“At the start of the year we thought we would be lucky to see a $15 million industry, but so far this year we have already seen $15.5 million, so it is a little stronger than we thought it was going to be. Our market share is up. We grew it by 2/10ths last year, up to eight per cent. And this year our market share in the first couple of months is already up 3/10ths. So we are growing,” he said.

“Manufacturers in Europe had great problems as there was too much capacity. We took some tough decisions to rightsize our capacity for the circumstances in which we find ourselves. The most significant action was the decision to close our plant in Genk in Belgium, which represented about 18 per cent of our vehicle assembly capacity,” he said.

“We are also investing heavily in bringing new products to Europe under our One Ford plan, selling products around the world from one global portfolio,” he said.

Apart from refreshing its volume lines, Ford is aiming at a new sector: performance cars, launching the Focus ST Diesel and the exclusive Ford GT. It also has a growing family of SUVs, the fastest growing segment in all of Europe, including Malta where the Echo Sports is poised to make inroads. It is also introducing its Vignale luxury line to Europe.

Apart from the vehicles themselves, Ford is excited about apps for the cars, such as its satellite navigation feature which reads the road signs and slows a car down to below the limit, and sensors in the front of the vehicle which detect the gap between you and the car in front and slows the car down – or stops the car if you are going to crash.

“There is a huge range of stuff, some available today, some round the corner, some further down the road. We are developing all these technologies under the Ford Smart Mobility umbrella. We are talking about the connected car and its ability to talk to other cars or to the manufacturer or dealer to tell them it needs a service or that there is something wrong with it.

“Then there are alternative solutions for mobility. Maybe I do not need to own my own car if I live in a city. Maybe what I want is a share of a car, or the ability to jump into a car parked in a rank of six cars. My smartphone would be recognised by the car so that I would be charged automatically,” he said.