'As an industry, we pretended that cheap oil would last forever. There was no plan to quickly import fuel-efficient vehicles. There was no plan to make up the lost profit loss caused by the rapid drop in SUV and truck sales,' he said. 

The sharp admonishment to automakers, suppliers and industry watchers at the annual Traverse City conference, comes less than two weeks after automakers reported that July U.S. sales were at the lowest level since 1992. Year-over-year sales have fallen for 14 consecutive months.

General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC ended the month with a combined market share of 43.3 percent, down from 49 percent a year earlier, after suffering double-digit declines. Industrywide, vehicle sales fell 13.2 percent.

Light trucks continued their freefall, with sales tumbling 25.2 percent despite generous discounting by the automakers.

The overall industry contraction has accelerated faster than was anticipated at the start of the year. The annualized selling pace in July fell to 12.55 million vehicles -- the weakest since April 1992, according to Autodata Corp.