This morning saw the very last car roll off of the NUMMI assembly line. At 9:40 a.m., a red Toyota Corolla drove off under the watchful eyes of workers, white-collars and union leaders.

Toyota is still upset about how its joint NUMMI venture with General Motors was handled, and according to Automotive News, the Japanese automaker has now filed a lawsuit to the tune of $73 million.

During the '80s and the fallout of the Oil Crisis, U.S. automakers had to think outside of the box to develop competing, ...