Toyota triumphant: Can the U.S. auto industry bounce back?

The Associated Press

Toyota is creeping ahead of General Motors.

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Toyota triumphant: Can the U.S. auto industry bounce back?

The struggle between Toyota and General Motors for global domination has shifted toward the Japanese-owned automaker. For now.

Toyota said Monday that it had produced almost 9.5 million vehicles in 2007, leapfrogging rival GM to become the world number one in terms of production. Not that Toyota is gloating. With protectionist sentiment running high in Congress, the foreign-owned automaker is downplaying the milestone.

Should Toyota, Honda and other popular foreign car makers fear a protectionist backlash from the United States? Is Detroit really on the ropes? What should America do to help restore U.S.-owned automakers to market supremacy?

BEN LIKES: Two heroes of Detroit

Paul Ingrassia/The Wall Street Journal

The price of General Motors stock is just one-third of what it was at the beginning of this decade. During this same time period Ford has had three different CEOs. Chrysler has had three different owners since 1998. Nonetheless, executives of all three companies have posed for pictures alongside their latest vehicles, and talked earnestly about how they plan to right their respective ships. If they do manage to do it, they'll owe a big debt to two people who now sit on the sidelines.

JOEL LIKES: Turning back the clock

Caitlin Wall/Foreign Policy

There's a reason the Detroit Auto Show is now known as the North American International Auto Show: The U.S. auto industry is already a composite of U.S.- and foreign-owned companies. The Level Field Institute, an organization formed by retired GM, Ford, and Chrysler employees to encourage U.S. citizens to "buy American," reports that roughly 30 percent of U.S. autoworkers now work for foreign companies.

How to protect these roughly 83,000 U.S. jobs and rescue a drowning industry at the same time? By standing athwart the tide of globalization and yelling "stop"? Somehow, I don't think that's going to work.