All of that hinges on whether Ford can complete a complex transaction over the next six to eight weeks and then turn around one of the world's sickest car companies. Some critics are saying the price will be too high; Ford's bid is estimated at nearly $7 billion, as much as $2 billion more than rival General Motors Corp's bid. And then there will be the costs of fixing Daewoo Motor.

Success, however, would mean a giant step forward for Ford in the auto industry's race for scale. Daewoo Motor's 1.1 million in global vehicle output last year would boost Ford's world-wide production to 9.3 million vehicles, including Ford-controlled Mazda Motor Co GM and Isuzu Motors Co, which GM controls, built nine million vehicles last year, but strategic alliances in which GM holds minority stakes boost the total GM-related volume to 14 million.

Acquiring Daewoo Motor might not help Ford's stock price any more than any of its other recent acquisitions. The purchase "makes good strategic sense, but the visibility of returns is very low," John Casesa, a Merrill Lynch & Co analyst, said in a research note. Still, in 4 pm New York Stock Exchange composite trading on Thursday, Ford shares were quoted at $43.25, up $1.3125.Ford beat out a joint bid from GM and Italy's Fiat SpA and another from DaimlerChrysler AG and Hyundai Motor Co, South Korea's No. 1 auto maker.

DaimlerChrysler officials maintained that Daewoo Motor "was never our main objective"; forming an alliance with the stronger Hyundai Motor was.The outcome was a major blow to GM, which had invested months and millions of dollars in studying Daewoo Motor, in lobbying and advertising in South Korea, and in preparing bids in December and then this week. Alan Perriton, GM's executive-in-charge of alliances and partnerships in Asia, expressed disappointment but maintained that "the ending song hasn't been sung."

Should the Ford deal fall apart, "There isn't anybody who has a better idea of the true value of Daewoo" than GM, Perriton said. Neither Ford nor the Daewoo restructuring committee with which it will try to negotiate a purchase agreement would disclose details of Ford's bid.