While there is a lot of truth in Lataif's comments, I believe that the comment ( Lataif: The credit crisis–induced recession (and the earlier, unprecedented spike in gasoline prices) could not have been anticipated by the auto companies) is disingenous. The uptick in fuel prices has been predicted for years and was not a suprise to anyone (just the rate of increase). Given the issues with milage going back to the 1970's and beyond, this was clearly a situation of a lack of forsight on the automakers part. Just compare the non-US manufacturers with the Big-3