Detroit-based companies built almost every car sold in the US when Charles Wilson, General Motors’ former chief executive, famously told the Senate in 1953 that “for years I thought that what was good for our country was good for General Motors, and vice versa”.

But Americans now buy fewer than half their vehicles from GM, Ford Motor and Chrysler – 47.7 per cent in November – helping to explain why Detroit has struggled to persuade many members of Congress to approve its request for a $34bn (£23bn, €26bn) government bail-out.