Ford Motor Co. Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally's crisis is Mazda Motor Corp. CEO Hisakazu Imaki's opportunity.

The two men are partners in moving the second-largest U.S. automaker away from the trucks and large sport utility vehicles consumers are shunning in the face of $4-a-gallon gasoline. Ford, which saved Mazda from near-bankruptcy 12 years ago, owns a third of the Hiroshima-based company, Japan's fifth-largest automaker.

Ford's Fusion and Mercury Milan midsize sedans, based on the Mazda6 and rated at up to 29 miles per gallon (12.3 kpl), were the Dearborn, Mich.-based company's only models to gain U.S. sales last month. Half of the automaker's cars will be based on the designs of its Japanese affiliate by 2010, up from 43 percent this year, according to CSM Worldwide, a Northville, Mich.-based automotive-consulting firm.