Detroit goes begging

The American car industry wants help from the government. Yet foreign car firms are doing well despite the financial crisis. Have they made better business decisions?

Wall Street Journal

The men from Detroit will jet into Washington ... — presumably going commercial this time — to make another pitch for a taxpayer rescue. Meanwhile, in the other American auto industry you rarely read about, car makers are gaining market share and adjusting amid the sales slump, without seeking a cent from the government.

These are the 12 "foreign" … producers making cars across America's South and Midwest. Toyota, BMW, Kia and others now make 54 percent of the cars Americans buy. The internationals also employ some 113,000 Americans, compared with 239,000 at U.S.-owned car makers, and several times that number indirectly.

The international car makers aren't cheering for Detroit's collapse. Their own production would be hit if such large suppliers as the automotive interior maker Lear were to go down with a GM or Chrysler. They fear, as well, a protectionist backlash. But by the same token, a government lifeline for Detroit punishes these other companies and their American employees for making better business decisions. ...