polarbear
just growing older not up
If that's so, how come the car companies (Ford a couple years earlier) are in financial ruin?
It's a complicated answer, but has nothing to do with profits from full-size pickup/SUV sales. Without those product lines, the financial ruin would have just come sooner.
Cliffs Notes: domestic car companies spent billions designing products that didn't generate a dime's worth of profit. They spent billions buying other manufacturers that generated even larger losses. Back in the 90's, when all the car makers were flush with cash, they made some incredibly stupid decisions. That includes the Europeans- Daimler Benz flushed $8 billion down the toilet with their Chrysler purchase, for example.
On a side note: is anyone aware that Toyota and Honda are the only two Asian manufacturers that haven't gone bust? Nissan got taken over by Renault, Subaru by GM (later sold to Toyota), Mazda by Ford, Mitsubishi's on life support (Japanese Government), Hyundai and KIA merged by the Korean Government, which kept them out of the BK courts, Daewoo bought by GM (another brilliant decision)... there's a theme here.