While ford had the cash to survive the Great Recession without a bailout, it would have not survived the collapse of the supplier networks when GM and Chrysler went under.
Would these purchasers have completed the purchase in time to keep the suppliers in business? If GM folds then the part supplier may feel fairly confident that someone else will purchase the assets and start ordering again, but their bank who lends them the money they need to weather the storm may be far less confident that the deal gets sorted out fast enough for the supplier to stay in business. Now multiply that by a hundred.
No way the supplier network would have survived a dual bankruptcy.
