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Will America's 3 biggest automakers die?

November 18, 2008

In 2008, this sloppiness and gross inefficacy has been worsened by the perfect storm of circumstances -- spiralling oil prices this past summer, a lack of available credit this fall because of the Wall Street meltdown, and a looming recession on the horizon -- putting the already reeling auto-industry into crisis mode.

But despite slipping sales and net losses, these behemoths still provide hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars to the world's largest economy; and, perhaps most importantly, they still sit atop the food chain of an intricate and interlinked automotive and automotive parts ecosystem that is at the very heart of American manufacturing.

Now these pillars of the US economy teeter on the brink, at risk of imminent bankruptcy, particularly the world's largest automotive maker, General Motors.

Image: The Ford Motor Company world headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan. Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

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