The auto industry's problems are self inflicted. Piss poor planning, lack of vision and over paid management.
The writing was on the wall in the 70s and 80s. Build smaller, more fuel efficient cars/trucks. The big 3 auto makers ignored this and continued to build big, gas guzzling cars. To add insult to injury, the auto makers wanted to sell 1 car and make 'x' thousands of profit per vehicle instead of selling 10 cars and make 'x' hundreds of profit. The more product you move cheaper, the more profit you make. Wal-Mart is a perfect example.
NO CEO should be getting 25 million a year when the company is going down the shitter.
The only was this could work is if their are major strings attached. NO money is to be used to pay management. GM is required to build smaller, fuel efficient vehicles in 5 years. Change the business model. The Tax payers are part owners in GM (Since its our money), Upper management gets cleaned out. The money can only be used to help the blue collar workers.
NO one buys GM cars because they are over priced. They are too big. They break down too often. They cost a fortune to repair. They get shit for gas mileage.
I Love my Honda CR-V. It was much cheaper than anything American. Gets good mileage for a SUV. Its not costing a fortune to put gas in. Doesn't break down.(Knock on wood). It does not require the same amount of maintenance as an American car.
The writing was on the wall years ago, the management of GM chose to ignore the writing and now they have to pay for their stupidity.