Foreign automakers experienced large 2008 U.S. sales declines... is bankruptcy in the works?

With all the fuss over the U.S. automakers asking for a government handout, you’d think the foreign car market was either stable or at least eclipsing sales of clunky American cars. However, Honda and Toyota posted larger U.S. sales declines in December than Ford and GM. Here’s a rundown of the December sales dips: Ford Motor Co.: -32% GM Corp: -31% Toyota: -37% Honda: -35% In another blow to the auto industry egos, the only major automaker with a yearly U.S. sales increase in 2008 was... wait for it... Subaru of America Inc., with an increase of 0.3% from 2007. So how do the foreign car companies plan to weather the economic storm? Would they qualify for a double bailout from the U.S. and Japan? Would they be able to lower their pride enough to ask for a bailout? There’s a stigma against the U.S. car companies for producing cheap, low-quality cars, and little sympathy was shown to these companies as they groveled to the government to save them from bankruptcy. Maybe the difference is that although the foreign automakers are experiencing a decline, they haven’t been in the toilet for so long that bankruptcy is around the corner. Although the end of ’08 sales declines are dismal for foreign automakers, U.S. auto sales have steadily declined between 2000-2008, with only a slight .3% increase between 2003-2004. Therefore, foreign automakers are experiencing a decline due to a wretched economy, but U.S. automakers have to battle both the economy AND their faulty business models.