Well of course the Chinese and Indians have already had discussions with Ford (Australia) and GM (Holden) in Oz, and before our government "bailed" them out, their bankrupt parent companies in the US had already agreed to sell. Ford's engine plant in Geelong, Victoria, was scheduled to close in 2010, but this has now been averted, saving the jobs of 400 Ford workers, and 900 employees of local suppliers.
Opel (GM's major European manufacturer) is asking the German government for a 2 billion dollar bailout, as funs from GM in the US have all but dried up.
http://www.businessday.com.au/business/opel-goes-capinhand-to-merkel-20081118-699q.htmlEd asked "why don't the Chinese buy them right now?" and the answer is that they're in no hurry, the deteriorating situation in the US with the financial meltdown isn't even close to rock-bottom yet, so they'll wait until any speculation of a US government bailout for the car industry is dead, and their shares are worthless, before they come to the table. They've got plenty of money in the bank, and they're a patient race.
It'll be interesting to see whether they'll just sell the American real-estate and move the entire factories off shore like they did in Britain with MG, Rover etc, or whether they'll restructure, and keep some manufacturing assets in the US, but regardless, there will be far fewer Ford, GM and Chrysler (or whatever they'll be renamed) workers in the US in the not too distant future.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6497959.stmWhat surprises me most about the "anti bailout" rhetoric out there is that if American people are so worried about their taxes going in welfare payments to their less fortunate unemployed countrymen, why are they so keen to allow another 8 - 10 million hard working American taxpayers become unemployed?