You're correct; but if U.S. automakers could respond quickly, they would have done so already. Five years after gas prices started to jump, the big three are still churning out the same old "land barges," while trying to hype new, fuel-efficient models that they plan to build sometime in the future.

Meanwhile, Honda and Toyota remain ahead of the curve, because they developed hybrids five years BEFORE gas prices jumped. They covered all the bases when they didn't really have to, and when the game changed, they were ready.

The Big 3 could have done the same, but like my uncle who recently retired from Ford says, "American car companies aren't in the business of selling cars. They're in the business of selling stock."

When you care more about quarterly profits than quality products, you wind up sacrificing both. But that doesn't matter to the people who run these companies. They jack up the stock prices however they can, then bail out with golden parachutes. And if things get too bad, our trusty federal government will bail them out.

Doesn't matter if it's a car company, an investment bank, or whatever. We're all on the hook for any disasters they create. It's a real gold mine -- they get the gold, and we get the shaft.

So don't count on any turnarounds in Detroit. They're too busy firing people and closing factories to worry about building new cars.