are Americas carmakers headed for the junkyard?
DOWNTOMN in Motor City a giant electronic sign relentlessly tots up the number of vehicles produced in America. But Detroit can no longer congratulate itself as the tally climbs. Like America’s best-selling car, the Honda Accord, more and more vehicles are pouring out of Japanese-owned factories elsewhere in America. Japanese companies now sell one in four new cars in America, including imports. They are expected to sell one in three by 1992. General Motors, Ford and Chrysler are on a perilous road. They might not survive the next decade, at least in their present form. The inability of Detroit’s carmakers to stem the Japanese advance has raised unsettling questions about America’s ability to compete in manufacturing and fueled an often emotive debate about…
