Some of us probably have very warped perceptions about what happened to the Big 3, since humans are susceptible to The Narrative®. GM has never lost its market share leader position in America, and the Big 3 had majority market share until 2008. This, despite the fact that they manufactured pure garbage from 1971-present. That is why I try not to call anything too early. If you had looked at the situation in 1965 and said "50 years from now, Japan and US will contend for market leadership" that would have been accurate. If you had said then "GM has buried itself in a grave of irrelevance", you would have been extremely wrong.