Here is an excerpt from a research paper I did on the exact same topic:
First, we must put the unintended acceleration problem into perspective. The issue itself has been blown out of proportion. If the 100 reported deaths due to runaway Toyota's are true, you are still more than 100 times more likely to die in a Toyota because of an entirely unrelated cause. Besides, every company has had problems and recalls. That, however, is not why Toyota should be criticized. The NHTSA had started investigations in 2004 (Shunk), but limited to cases of unintended acceleration that lasted one second or less. The regulators who halted the investigations were later hired by Toyota (Bloomberg). This leaves reasonable suspicion Toyota cheated the NHTSA. An internal document later revealed they bragged to the top North America executive they had ?Negotiated 'equipment' recall on Camry/ES re: [sudden acceleration], saved $100 million+? (Valdes-Dapena). This refers to Toyota bargaining with the NHTSA in 2007 to only recall floor mats that could trap gas pedals, rather than the gas pedals themselves. It wasn't until the NHTSA stepped up and threatened Toyota that they 'voluntarily' recalled over 8 million cars. During the congressional hearings the head of Toyota's North American operations admitted the recall may not fix the problem (Deveau). Putting their profits over the public's safety is why we should be critical of Toyota. This is not the first time an automaker has neglected a serious problem. Ford made the same mistake with the incendiary Pinto. The cost to fix it was $120 million, compared to $50 million in potential payout to victims. The conclusion? Let 'em burn. We all know that didn't end so well for Ford, and Toyota is facing a
PR disaster. However, this isn't even the first time in recent years Toyota has encountered a major problem, and tried to avoid fixing it. In 2008 they announced they would buy back over 800,000 1995-2000 model year Tacoma's due to severe frame rust (Left Lane News). A class action lawsuit in 2007 resulted in Toyota being required to replace sludge damaged engines in roughly 3.5 million cars (Benton). Perhaps the worst example is the 2007 redesign of the Camry, of which Toyota's U.S. President said ?We knew in the very beginning we had a transmission issue with that vehicle? (Auto Spies). It's no wonder Jim Press, the highest ranking U.S. born executive ever at Toyota, said they had been ?hijacked? by ?financially oriented pirates? (Shunk).
Mine's better :P
All those (...) are sources cited. My paper would entirely disprove everything you just said. Sure, Toyota had better quality and reliability in the 80's, 90's, and early 00's, but you can't rest on past laurels forever. The new products coming out of Ford and GM are better rated in quality and reliability than Toyota. Chrysler's really yet to show what they can do, but now that they're owned by Fiat they're sharing parts with Alfa Romeo and Lancia, and rubbing shoulders with Ferrari and Maserati. They have several new cars set for launch later this year and all through the next. Trust me, they'll be great. It wasn't ridiculous at all for the government to invest in GM/Chrysler. Over the years they have paid trillions in taxes. What's a few billion when they need it? If they went under the gov't would have lost billions in tax revenue and directly put the millions of people employed in assembling the cars, manufacturing the parts and raw materials, and sales jobs out of work. In the long term this is an investment they will more than likely make money from. Oh, and the gov't has given Toyota more than $1 Billion in funds, but why was nobody outraged? While it did help build plants in the U.S. and create a few thousand jobs, but in it hurt our economy as a whole because it made it easier for a foreign company to wipe out our native industries which had to cuts tens of thousands of American jobs.
For years the media has been thrashing the Big 3, yet when Toyota F's up bad it all turns into this whole "Oh, we should feel sorry for the greedy corporation" deal
is this sentence correct about our government and Toyota?
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