The reinventing has been going on for the last two years (at least) but many haven’t been watching, and that is not a shot at you, It it just reality. As far as bringing the Euro Transplants here, a gnome tells me that decission was made almost 2 years ago internally with no fanfare. Again, I do not have the cycle plans so I do not know which will be built here, but I am going to out on a limb here and say some will be built here.
Sorry, waiting until the last 2 years for a fundamental restructuring that should have begun 30+ years ago is just way too little, way too late.
Vulnerability to an oil price spike was demonstrated in 1973 (35 years ago). There have been 3 more since.
Quality gap with japanese was evident to everyone by the early 80’s (25 years ago). Big 3 has been arguing they are “almost as good” for 25 years while every family in north america has a horror story which says different.
Labour and benefit cost disadvantage have also been an issue for decades. The weakest link always caved to the UAW to avoid short term problems and the others followed via pattern bargaining.
The big 3 just limped thru the past recessions and waited until the next boom where they could get back to profitability selling guzzlers. But they lost market share with every cycle. GM has lost a point of market share, each year, every year, for the last 30 years!
When you have an industry where all of the domestic manufacturers have repeated the same mistakes for decades, it becomes clear that they are all braindead, and will never restructure for long term viability.
They need to die so the assets and resources they waste can be applied to other businesses with a future.