What's The Plan Stan? or Using too much gas?

Ann Arbor is a wonderful place for green discussions; whether it is the greenbelt they are discussing or the cars of the future.  This is a great forum I attended and the blog I wrote about the American car manufacturers.  Let me tell you a Toyota  rep was there and looking very calm...can't say as I blame them.  Wish the American car manufacturers would learn from the marketing to the clients that Toyota knows so well. 

I attended the cars and was surprised by the end of the forum that the representatives from the auto companies are still blaming the "fickle public" for their lack of profit.  Wouldn't you think they should own up to their lack of progress and then explain how they will improve in the future?  No!  This was not true for Lawrence Burns (VP of R&D GM) or Nancy Gioia (Director of R & D Hybrid technology Ford) and other speakers as well. 

Questions we should have asked:  why did Ford put all their eggs in the gas guzzling basket: supercharged muscle car (mustang), big honkin pickups and SUVs?  

Their only fuel-efficient car with any brand is the Focus, which lost money each time they sold one.  

Toward the end of the presentation there was a comment from the audience member who suggested the auto companies were reluctant to install seat belts years ago and a very terse answer came from one of the panelists.  I  felt it continued blaming the public for the car companies poor performance (GM & Ford) instead of taking responsibility for lack of vision and their slow to reaction to consumer demand.  The bad news for American manufacturers is that there exists a company who looks ahead and does the R & D for the future and develops cars people want; Toyota is eating their lunch in profit as well as sales.  The Pruis is sooooo successful; you can not dispute this fact.

I'm a marketing person, not a R & D person; but one thing holds true:  we, the public are choosing and the profitable automotive companies are reaping the benefits and so far American manufacturers are not doing so well.  (Sorry, buy Toyota is eating GM & Ford's lunch!)

Sadly this all gets back to Michigan and our state of the economy and therefore...the housing market.

When will we turn around our economy?  Will we be producing wonderful alternative fuel cars in the future?  What are your thoughts?