Some years ago I worked out of the United Kingdom which used to pride itself
in
being the motorcycle supplier to a good part of the world.  Of course,
Harley of the USA
was a major American supplier.

The British story was that the Japanese got a foothold on the market that
finally destroyed
the classic British cycle industry.  Low prices, good performance, an eye to
what the people wanted
rather than trying to sell what the industry wanted to push.  The Japanese
destroyed the British
industry (or rather, the British committed suicide) which never rebounded.

If history repeats itself, the Japanese are jockeying to control the auto
industry that the US
has been so proud of.  Same tactics.  And with a solid ten years of
constantly increasing
market penetration, they are gnawing away at the American bedrock.

Like it or not, get your poop hot or not, and accuse me of denigrating the
USA or not,
only a fool avoids the facts.  The American auto industry is headed for
tough times,
both because of international competition, because of organizational
problems, because
of producing what the people don't really want to buy, and **worst of all**
because the
cheap fuel situation here is a thing of the past.