American Carmaker Scorecard

Chrysler has always been a boom and bust company. It's investors first tricked Daimler into a disastrous merger (for Daimler), then the vultures at Cerberus Capital Management thought they found a steal. Now everyone's screwed.
Recommendation to government: let this one fail.

Ford had found religion under new CEO Alan Mulally, starting a genuine restructuring in the last 2 years. Small car portfolio was coming here from Europe next year, but.... the financial crisis hit.
Recommendation to government: It probably needs a little bit of money, but not much.

And General Motors has the worst management in the world! Here's the New York Times yesterday on the strategic failure of pursuing profits over long-term stability and innovation. Deserves to fail, but too big to fail because of employees and communities impacted.
Recommendation to government: large government loans on condition of massive restructuring, one that cuts 50% and wipes out investors. New management from outside.

At G.M., Innovation Sacrificed to Profits - New York Times

On its return visit to a skeptical Congress this week, however, General Motors bowed its head. “G.M. has made mistakes in the past,” Mr. Wagoner told Congress, and named three: agreeing to expensive union contracts, not investing enough in smaller cars and failing to convert its plants so they could build more than one type of vehicle.

It was an unusual concession from a company that has rarely felt the need to apologize for anything, given its bragging rights as the world’s largest automaker with operations in 35 countries, and as a company that has built 445 million vehicles and sat atop corporate America for much of its 100-year history.

But the mistakes Mr. Wagoner acknowledged do not begin to explain why General Motors finds itself on the brink of insolvency, begging Congress for financial help.

G.M.’s biggest failing, reflected in a clear pattern over recent decades, has been its inability to strike a balance between those inside the company who pushed for innovation ahead of the curve, and the finance executives who worried more about returns on investment.

The two views were rarely in sync — in effect, fighting over the steering wheel that controlled G.M.’s direction — and the internal battles distracted G.M. from spotting shifts in the marketplace.