Is This Detroit's Last Winter?

After 30 years of poor cars and worse management, the Big Three want Uncle Sam's help. Does that make sense?

Christopher Morris / VII for TIME

A GM plant in Lordstown, Ohio

"The American people made Ford Motor Company what it is. We have nothing the public did not give us. No surplus exists for personal benefit — every surplus is provided for future use. The future is here, and we are going to do our utmost — risk everything, if necessary — to use this surplus which the public, through its dealings with us, has provided, to see if we cannot make what the country needs most — work, jobs."
— Henry Ford, Feb. 11, 1932

This is the...

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