terry wrote:

If General Motors et-al want to survive they should make Toyotas.
Other companies around the world have done similar things. From China
there were numerous cheap versions of older model Toyota pickups, with
four cylinder engines, for example, running around Middle Eastern
countries.
Costing a few thousand dollars they are cheap and efficient in
countries where gasoline can cost as little as the equivalent of 50
cents per US gallon!

India is starting to produce cars that will cost between $2500 and
$5000 in various versions. The antics of the Big Three would seem to
have ignored the needs of those and also the needs of the European
market?

Toyota decided they didn't want Nissan getting all the high-end glory so
they designed a $50,000 sports car to compete with the 350Z. They also make
SUVs and larger pickup trucks, so the notion that the Japanese companies
make only little, economical cars while Detroit builds only land-yachts
seems inaccurate. General Motors is actually doing well overseas, selling
lots of cars in Asia for example. And Toyota's customer approval ratings
have been slipping lately as their quality isn't what it once was. I drove
Toyotas for years, but my last few vehicles have been Fords and I've had no
trouble with them. Whatever is behind the state of the U.S. auto industry,
it doesn't seem to be a case of the Japanese auto companies being run by
geniuses who make no mistakes and the U.S. companies being run exclusively
by morons.