Toyota faulty parts saga...

I’m getting very tired of the news coverage on the whole Toyota faulty parts saga. It seems that every day there are new reports and/or accusations being levelled against Toyota.

Amidst all the controversy, allegations and congressional inquiries, the one thing that stood out for me is something I heard from the 1^st report I caught on the story on CNN – the faulty parts were manufactured in the US!!

Of course, since that initial report, this small but vital fact has been dropped. It did not help that the Japanese are not as adept at finger pointing as the Americans tend to be – we know that Americans are never wrong. Even if they are, they’ll find someone/something else to blame it on. On the other hand, the Japanese typically are too ready to accept blame and to apologise.

So, yes – the Part in question is made by CTS Corp. – a Chinese joint venture company headquartered in Elkhart, Indiana (USA). It also has a manufacturing plant in Canada, which explains why some news reports has it that the faulty parts were made “in Canada” – a case of America finding someone/something else to blame?

Perhaps it is merely an attempt by the Americans to hurt Toyota’s market share of the auto-market in the US and elsewhere (not that their own auto-manufacturers would be able to gain anything from this on account of their quality).

Furthermore, I would not be surprised that one key reason why Toyota had parts manufactured in the US (at all) was because such conditions were imposed under threat of trade sanctions by the Americans through an FTA (yes, the Americans tend to do this).

Recalls of vehicles are not uncommon – every single automaker makes recalls from time to time. Even Ford has recently made recalls because of the same faulty part has been installed in some of their vehicles. Yet, all eyes (and fingers) are (perhaps unfairly) on Toyota.