Filing for bankruptcy and reorganizing with a new competitive plan is the only real solution here. Chrysler really only wanted the money to spruce up the line and make it more marketable to sell the company off. GM is in the most trouble though. They are going down fast and probably are not very viable in the near future market. GM needs to think 5-10 years from now. They need to sell off everything and cut the union contracts out, and almost start all over again as just GM and Chevy. Ford will struggle, but they did have alot better sales with the F150, Mustang, and some foriegn models, not to mention Mazda has been doing alright for them over the years, as opposed to Land Rover and Jaguar. Volvo has a good history, but volume is way down also.
There are things that come to mind when I think about all this. Like what really happened? Remember when Ford battled head to head with the Taurus against the Camary and the Accord? It was like Ford just gave up in the mid to late 90's and started going in this strange direction, despite Toyota and Honda having more and more success. Chevy hasn't made a well designed, nice looking, sedan, let alone "sport" sedan since the Nova in the late 70's! And if you were to take away fleet sales from all the american car mfgrs, we would then see the real sales numbers. If it hadn't been for the SUV market going nuts, all 3 would have sunk years ago! I don't see anything else in thier line up that even remotely interests me. The new Camaro? The Mustang, the new Challenger, they are cool cars, but when I look across the market and I see BMW 3 series, the MB C class, Lexus, Infinity, Acura, Audi, Saab and Volvo. All priced in the $36-50K range, not a single american made contender. In the $18-36K range you have Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Cooper, Mitsubishi, Mazda, Subaru, Hyundai, and Kia. I can't think of a single american made vehicle that truly competes with any of these. The all new Malibu? maybe.........the Fusion?.......MKS?...........that's the best they can do?
It's almost like the Ford, Chrysler and GM are saying, "ok, you don't want to buy our cars? then just give us your money anyway.