Ok, I amazed what a short term memory most people here have.
Do we all not recall how many AMERICAN MADE SUV'S we have all be buying for the past 10+ years. Gas prices skyrocket and we stop buying them leaving GM, Ford and Chrysler with a boat load of unsold gas guzzlers. They have to push all kinds of rebates to try and move these things leaving then with no profit and in many cases a loss on these vehicles. And for the record, Toyota, Honda and Nissan are all feeling some pain too. Should detroit have been more diversified in their product offerings? No doubt, but it's had to stop selling vehilces that AMERICANS can't get enough of. 2005 marked the first time in history light trucks out sold passenger vehicles.
And to retool and design more fuel efficent vehicles take a bit of time, at least 30 to 38 months, it dosen't happen overnight. In fact GM and Ford were both doing pretty well through the early part of 2000.
Then there are the labor cost that the Big 3 have that no foreign mfg. has when bulding vehicles here in the US. The Big 3 have an overall labor cost of $78.00 per hour while the foreign mfg have a 42.00 per hour labor cost. Now this figure dosen't just represent pay rate, it includes benifits and the cost to cover retired employees as well.
I think the Big 3 have done a pretty good job competing with the foreign mfg with their labor cost almost double.
And don't think for a minute that US Car companies are the only auto mfg that have gotten in over their heads.
Nissan would be gone today if Renault didn't jump in and buy 40% of the company and then run it back to profitabilty. Mitsubishi needed a bailout a couple years back and got it from the Mitsubishi Bank ( a different company).
Here is another question to ask yourself, if the forigen manage their auto companies better then the US, why couldn't Dalimer make a go of it with Chrysler. They bought them 10 years ago for just under 40 billion and sold them last year for what amounted to 650million. Aloss of 39 billion and change.

I just feel it's too easy to say they build crap, and are mismanaged. It's a sure show of how little you actually know about the situation.