They had (have) some advantages that American car companies don't. Those companies are good investments, if you are interested in holding stock for a long time

They had (have) some advantages that American car companies don't. Those companies are good investments, if you are interested in holding stock for a long time, and have the patience to wait out what is a cyclical market. One of the reasons why GM & Chrysler had to go to the gov't for loans in 2009 was that they literally hadn't enough money on hand to fund operations until normal lending from banks resumed...Ford didn't need a bailout (initially), b/c Mullaly had negotiated for a huge line of credit before the crisis, and Toyota didn't, b/c they were sitting on $50 billion in cash and could pay for operations with that. Wall St. routinely loses its shit when a publicly-traded company accumulates cash like that...that money should go to buying back stock to drive up the price, or returned to the shareholders. Long term contingency planning...not so much. Japanese, OTOH... Likewise, as exporters into the US market, they can depend on a favorable monetary policy at home to make their products look more affordable, and they haven't the sort of labor-management dynamic that has been foisted on the US mfg. industry since the 1930s, either.