The White House says it is considering using money earmarked to rescue the US banking industry to bail out the country's struggling carmakers.
The White House said a disorderly bankruptcy in the motor industry would be a huge blow which the US economy could not withstand.
A $14bn (£9.4bn) bail-out deal for the US car industry failed to get Senate support, raising fears of job cuts.
Meanwhile General Motors said it was temporarily stopping some production.
And Honda is also to cut back output in North America.
GM, which has been pleading for an emergency government loan to avert collapse, said it would halt 30% of its North American production "in response to rapidly deteriorating market conditions".
It saw vehicle sales fall 41% in November, when overall US car sales fell 26% industry wide.
The temporary shutdowns will affect 14 US factories as well as three in Canada and three in Mexico, reducing output by 250,000 vehicles in the first three months of 2009.
"The speed and severity of the US auto market's decline has been unprecedented in recent weeks as consumers reel from the collapse of the financial markets and the resulting lack of credit for vehicle financing," it added.
'Irresponsible'
Earlier this year, the US approved a $700bn (£467bn) bail-out for the finance industry, known as the TARP programme.
It had previously been reluctant to use this money for other industries but White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said it would consider other options, including the use of the TARP program, to prevent a collapse of troubled automakers.
She added that it would be "irresponsible" to further damage the economy by allowing the Detroit car companies to fail.
"The current weakened state of the economy is such that it could not withstand a body blow like a disorderly bankruptcy in the auto industry," she added.
President-elect Barack Obama said he was disappointed that the Senate failed to act, adding that "millions of jobs rely directly or indirectly on a viable auto industry".
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