General Motors and Chrysler will lose continuity in how they operate by having taken federal bailout money, a long-time auto executive said. Donald Petersen, who headed the Ford Motor Co. for 15 years, said the two car manufacturers will survive in some form but perhaps not as meaningful as they had been before. Petersen appeared with J.D. Power III, founder of the marketing information firm bearing his name, at the Corporate Leaders Breakfast at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks. Power said that while the federal government came in with its money to help GM and Chrysler it had also come in with its own management. “We know how well the Post Office and other things the government has run,” Power said. Together, Power and Petersen have more than 100 years experience in the auto industry. Petersen joined Ford in 1949, rising through the executive ranks to become chief operating officer in 1980 and CEO and board chairman in 1985 before retiring in 1990. Power’s company has on its client list nearly every major car manufacturer and importer serving the U.S. market. The U.S. auto industry hit a turning point with the energy crisis in 1973, Petersen said, which resulted in more sales of smaller, more fuel efficient Japanese cars because the Big Three were slow to adapt. “(The Japanese) did not have to redesign vehicles form the ground up,” Petersen said. “That was one of the biggest advantages they had.”