The smearing of Toyota

Ray Exum, while not overlooking the 34 deaths involving malfunctioning Toyotas, zooms in on the smearing of the world'd largest automobile manufacturer in The Chattanoogan:

In the past two weeks I have been drawn, by some almost unexplainable reason, into the way that Toyota, one of the premier automobile makers in the world, has taken such a glaring whipping that has resulted in 8.5 million cars being recalled and caused what will be billions of dollars in damages for the company.

Just over a year ago, this just before the U.S. government became the largest stockholder of General Motors and also bought a 10-percent stake in Chrysler, we were assured Toyota made the most reliable cars in the world and, if you’ll recall, the bail-out sponsors then pleaded for American manufacturers to rise to such a level of expertise.

It was pointed out at the time that a foreign car could be built for roughly $2,000 cheaper than a similarly-equipped American-made vehicle because of the huge automotive unions. Honda, Toyota and Nissan, for example, do not have unions, thus a problem for American manufacturers in the highly-competitive market.

It so happens the United Auto Workers union is the government’s major partner in the General Motors ownership. When the American people bailed out GM, we kept many auto workers afloat, you remember that? So when Toyota’s problems with sliding floor mats and sudden acceleration were brought to light, there was launched a witch hunt that is now being questioned in a shameful but equally necessary way.

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