Farce

In the news today: Toyota is being fined $16.375 million.

It seems to me that Toyota is being punished for false accusations and user incompetence, as if the bad publicity was not enough. Besides, according to the hysteric lady's testifimonial in Congress, it's not like the NHTSA did anything when it learned about the problem. Anyone think they should pay a fine?

It's also the case that Toyota's rates of sudden acceleration incidents are not any higher than the competition. In fact, there are many companies that are far worse, according to NHTSA data.

Furthermore, forgive me if I'm wrong, but I can find no mention anywhere of Ford or Firestone paying a significant fine when the Explorer was found to roll over. Prior to that, when it was found that Ford cars would spontaneously catch fire, they paid a fine and recalled millions of vehicles. In fact, Ford was expanding the recall as recent as last year. The hefty amount Ford paid as a penalty in 1999? $425,000.

Now, Toyota is being fined for allegedly not taking action for four months after learning of the problem. In the Ford fire incident, it took Ford three years to issue a recall AND they "failed to provide complete and accurate information in four investigations."

Do I even need to continue?