The U.S. auto industry will be much like the European industry is right now -- in a word, fragmented. Everybody will be fighting to get as much as 15% of the market. Nobody will exceed that for very long, if they get it at all.

If the sport-utilities coming in January don't save the day, the restructuring we're seeing now will be the first in a series of restructurings.

The dealers have to buy in, the suppliers, their shareholders, Wall Street. Each of those constituencies need to buy into the brand identity if it is to succeed.

[Meyers notes that GM also is buffeted by macroeconomic winds that are damaging the company's bottom line and over which it has no control. Prices for steel, oil and plastics all have risen in recent years. GM also is burdened with legacy costs over which it has little control if it keeps its current promises to employees.] Health care is the one you hear most about -- and it's big, ... But pension costs are enormous too.

The heat is excruciatingly high.

It's necessary now. The message has to not only be presented, it has to be accepted.