I do not doubt for a minute that there are some Toyota vehicles with problems out there that have taken lives in this deal...and I don't doubt that Toyota was negotiating with safety inspectors...trying to minimize their exposure, etc, etc. This is a public relations NIGHTMARE for Toyota. Anybody that makes a product has exposure to this kind of disaster if something is wrong with their product...whether it's a car, a washing machine, a tire, a baby stroller, or the axle on a boat trailer. Toyota is recalling the vehicles and trying to figure out how to fix this mess...maybe they acted too slow...and I'm sure that they committed some wrongs that will cost them dearly, as they should. The one recording that they keep playing of the 9-1-1 call where the family of 4 is in a car doing 120, right before it crashes and kills them all...that's chilling stuff. The kind of stuff that would make anyone put down the keys to their Toyota. But the problem now is that any schmuck driving a Toyota who rear ends somebody while texting is going to holler and cry that their accelerator stuck. It's an easy out...you think people are dumb??? We need to quit with the Hollywood spin on this crap and just get the problem FIXED. Make them pay, and they will, but why drag a company that employs a whole gaggle of Americans through the mud?

What I don't particularly care for is that the American public is loving to hate Toyota for being a "foreign bad guy" right now...but we have somehow forgotten a lot of the unbelievable greed and waste that was spotlighted by the GM, Chrysler, and Ford inquisitions on Capitol Hill back when Congress was bailing them out of the hole they dug. Somehow they are the "good guys" now because they are "us"...and Toyota is the evil empire. Are we dumb enough to think that a problem with a Chevy, Ford, or Dodge vehicle has never caused an accident that killed someone? OF COURSE it has. I have never really bought into the idea that Toyota and Honda vehicles were any better or any worse than American ones in the quality department over the last decade...the playing field has been more level, and I chalk the gap up to marketing and public perception.

I'm all for "Buy American"...really, I am...I have never owned a vehicle that wasn't a Chevy, Ford, or Dodge. But boys...I can name one state's economy that would be DEVASTATED by Toyota closing up shop and going home. I'll bet you know what state I'm talking about. Yeah, yeah...survival of the fittest...GM, and Ford, and Chrysler would come in and pick up the slack in the market eventually if Toyota was gone. I took Economics in college too. But, how long is eventually? How much MORE wrecked would the economy here be in the meantime and how many families right here in Kentucky would be busted?

I'm not saying that companies shouldn't have to pay the piper when they have done wrong, but we need to quit putting these companies through the **** Spanish Inquisition on cable TV, let them focus on getting the problem fixed before it costs anymore lives, and keep Toyota in the marketplace instead of turning it into a sideshow.

Good competition makes us ALL better. For example, Chevy, Ford, and Dodge might not have made the advances in fuel economy that they have if not for chasing Toyota and Honda for so long.

Also, why is my Ford Truck that was assembled in Mexico more American than a Toyota Tundra that was assembled in Texas, or a Camry assembled right here in Kentucky by the hands of our brothers and sisters? The money goes to Mr. Toyoda over in Japan, but doesn't quite a bit of it also end up in the hands of Americans along the way and put food on their tables?

The economy is GLOBAL now. I buy American made whenever I can, but just because I buy something that was made in a foreign land doesn't mean that American's aren't making a living off it. Bottom line, I want to support companies that employ Americans - Whether that's in manufacturing, retailing, or counting beans - We need all the jobs we can get right now. Toyota is one of them.