Then it was Japan's earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster which crimped the supply of parts to car assembly plants in America.

America is the world's largest producer of nuclear energy, but has not approved a single new plant since a scary (but non-lethal) nuclear accident at Three Mile Island in 1979.

The cooling problems at the Japanese plant raised fears of a repeat of 1979's Three Mile Island accident, the most serious in the history of the U.S. nuclear power industry.