Their idea of "innovation" lay in building ever larger, oversized vehicles for which they could charge premium prices, and then marketing them to the American public. "You need a truck capable of climbing--and hauling--Mt Everest!"

That's what they built and pushed, and then used declining passenger car sales as "proof" they weren't wanted... so they built fewer of them, thus reducing sales even further. Rinse. Repeat.

Back in the '80s during the oil crisis people started buying well made, fuel efficient, affordable foreign automobiles.

Today the answer to the same problem is running to the government and demanding tariffs that effectively outlaw the competion.