Despite years of comeback plans and reorganization blueprints, GM and Ford, the pillars of the U.S. auto industry, have decided they have no choice but to shrink their way back to profitability in the face of the unrelenting pressures of a global market. Although Chrysler has had some success in turning around its business, auto experts today focus less on the Big Three and more on what some call the Big Six. Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. have made steady inroads, adding new U.S. plants and hiring thousands of autoworkers into nonunion jobs.

Ford Chairman William C. Ford Jr. said the company has been guided for too long by "business as usual," which he blamed for the company's over-reliance on sales of sport-utility vehicles. "We need to change the business model that's existed for many decades at Ford," he said.

Ford, the nation's second-largest automaker, employs about 123,000 workers in its North American operations. That division lost $1.6 billion pretax in 2005, precipitating its second financial crisis in five years. Ford's U.S. market share declined to 17.4 percent last year, down from 24 percent six years ago.