That General Motors and Ford are in serious trouble is no big surprise. Standard & Poor's says it might cut their rating deeper into junk and specialists have told Bloomberg their liquidity levels are so low they might have to file for bankruptcy.

GM is losing around $1 billion cash each month. There is no let up in that figure which is expected to continue well into 2009. Its cash reserves have fallen from $27.3 billion last December to $21 billion on June 30. This is not a good sign for the future.

According to Reuters, auto industry tracking firm Global Insight has warned that US auto sales will fall further in 2009 and the two are clearly now in a fight for survival. Gerald Meyers, a University of Michigan business professor and former chairman and CEO of American Motors Corp told the Detroit News: "It's like finding out that you have a terminal disease. You try to do something about it, but you know and everyone around you knows that you are in deep trouble."