The truck and SUV market took a huge dive in July (see title for link to BW article). We knew that betting your future on gas guzzling trucks and SUV's wasn't going to work if gas prices were going up. The shoe has begun to drop.
A couple of thoughts -
There is a large supply of gas in the world right now. The problem is that all the military based problems in the Middle East are making the future of that supply uncertain. I think this is one of those unintended consequences of President Bush's (that is "W", not his father) actions in Iraq and diplomacy issues in the rest of the world. A simple fix is to raise the average MPG scores of autos slowly over a few years, gas prices would ease if we did.
One of the main problems the American auto companies have is the price of medical care for their employees and retirees. If we could get a handle on the health care costs in the USA, we would leap back into contention as a manufacturing center. I'm to lazy to find you an article, but it isn't easy to figure that "The Big 3" spend about $1000 per car more than their competitors to cover their health care bills. Needless to say, $1000 is a lot of quality improvements in a car's parts that "The Big 3" can't afford, but Honda and Toyota can (for example, door handles that cost $5 instead of $2 last a lot longer).
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