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It is inevitable that the "Big 3" will go out of business as they are now constituted. They cannot compete with the Koreans let alone the coming wave of Chinese cars. They would have a fighting chance if they could chuck their health care and retiree costs, but the Feds want no part of that. As other letters have pointed out the real problem is that the world demand for oil will exceed the supply, except that the market will clear by very rapid price increases. Government price setting (through taxes) is not the way to reduce demand, since the chief competition for car driving is mass transit and the airlines. Mass transit is not more fuel efficient than a typical sedan in seat miles per gallon (or Btu). It merely transfers the Btu source from petroleum to coal, with its much greater greenhouse effect. A lone businessman driving a few hundred miles to a client does not burn more fuel than he would by flying or taking a train. However, he does endure the interface time and money costs that he avoids by driving.
Personally, I'm going to enjoy my declining years by flying a light plane to where I want to go. Go to http://www.czechsportplanes.com/ and look at the WT-9. 165 MPH at 5 gallons per hour which is equivalent to almost 50 road miles per gallon using auto fuel. I will watch the rest of you suckers creeping along the highway at some gas saving low speed. I paid big bucks to become an IFR pilot with 1600 hours, now I will enjoy it.
