Its definitely a good idea and very needed. The old Duratech V6 was already an old design when it came out in the Cougar back in the late '90s.

It'll be interesting to see if they can pull off the "One in every Five Ford vehicles" deal. Nissan (and the VQ-series engine) is the only company that comes to mind that has proven it can create a flexible enough for a LOT of different applications (Altima, Maxima, Xterra, G35, Z, FX35, Pathfinder, etc.). Well, GM has done so with the Ecotec, but with much less success.