The unfortunate part is that it's the little guy that suffers and will continue to do so.
From my view, I have no love lost for the auto industry as a whole as they brought it upon themselves.
It's all the other small businesses like you mentioned. Not only local restaurants but everyone from the suppliers to the guys that mow the lawns outside the plant that will both lose jobs and businesses.

Innovations like fuel injection and disc brakes to just mention a few had been around for decades. Why didn't Detroit adopt them? Why should they? There was no competition that forced them to.
They continued with the attitude of why should we build a better car when you have few if any options.
The name of the game was planned obsolesence. Drive it for a few years, have it fall apart and we will sell you a new one.
Even to this day looking at my new issue of Consumer Reports it's difficult to find an American branded car that is on the list of quality vehicles.
It's not the ability of the American worker after all they are the same ones that build the Hondas and other models in this country. It's the attitude of the companies as a whole.
As long as Uncle Sam is standing by with an open wallet, nothing will change.

Yes car quality has become better and one can laud that a particular model has made the list on the JD Powers satisfaction survey but that is too little and two late.
We have lost at least 2 generations to foreign made vehicles and it will take a lot more than a short blurb in an auto magazine telling us how good a particular car is to win them back