those assembly lines employ non-union workers who are thankful for jobs that pay more than they could get anywhere else, but are still far less than GM workers get.

When GM tried to re-invent itself by producing a completely new compact car — the Saturn, the best it could offer were plastic door panels, which don't show parking lot dings. While Japan was flooding the U.S. with reliable, gas-efficient SUVs, the best that U.S. automakers could do was the rollover-prone Ford Explorer. GM didn't even enter the SUV market until Ford and Toyota had captured it, and it wound up going to Honda for engines and transmissions for its SUVs.

SUVs weren't the first trend GM missed. By the time GM figured out that Americans want performance and economy, they lost that market to Toyota, Datsun/Nissan and Honda. While Americans were snapping up VWs and Corollas, the best GM could come up with was the Corvair, which Ralph Nader dubbed "unsafe at any speed." Its other cars were designed for Iowa farmers, while Japanese and German automakers saw that the future was with L.A. freeway commuters.

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