Quoted from jgentry:

Fortunately in my area Tennessee has benefited from several of the foreign car makers opening plants or moving head quarters to our area in the last few decades.
It's incredibly sad to see so many people lose job this time of year. But if something is not selling or making a profit it is going to happen and government bail outs only put a band aid on a corpse. The trend right now is trucks and SUVs and the bigger the better. Probably 1/3rd of the people in my area are driving 4 wheel drive trucks/SUVs that get 16mpg or less. They have never seen a dirt road and the roads are slick here at most 4 days a year. I have a truck as well but I bought it used for 15K and it's for hauling stuff or pulling my boat. Otherwise that gas monster is in the garage. I see people everyday that have a 65K truck, 40K boat and a 60K house. Makes no sense to me to me but to each their own I guess. Seems like the money would be better off in the house which has a chance of gaining value as opposed to cars/trucks and water toys.