[DGthe3]

Ford would have to gain ~10% more sales than GM, which is going to be very tough (unless GM 'Toyotas' and takes a massive PR hit). For 2010, GM's core brands rose 21% in sales while Ford Motor Company went up 19%. Plus, Ford is killing Mercury, which accounted for ~5% of their sales (and only a portion of buyers will stay within FoMoCo, the rest will switch to competing brands much like Pontiac and Saturn buyers did). So they'd have even more ground to make up. On top of that, there is talk within the industry that Ford will be hit with some UAW strikes in the near future, with workers demanding that some of their benefits they gave up during the crisis be returned (the UAW is not allowed to strike against GM or Chrysler for the time being, due to their bankruptcies).

All in all, its a pretty tall order. Chances are slim to nill that it will happen within the next year. And in the long term, there are more things working against Ford than there are against GM, making the prospects lower.