Toyota Warns Europe Before U.S.

As many of you know, the Japanese automaker Toyota has been held responsible for thousands of car accidents due to the sticking gas pedals and acceleration issues in their cars. Sticking gas pedal complaints in the U.S. increased by the end of 2009, while the European division had similar complaints weeks earlier. Ray La Hood, Transportation Secretary, said Toyota made a "huge mistake" by not disclosing the safety problems sooner. Toyota is now faced with a fine of $16.4 million for failing to alert the U.S. government to the safety issues earlier. "The Japanese automaker was still weighing its options Tuesday about whether to accept or contest the fine. It has also been named in 138 potential class-action lawsuits over falling vehicle values and nearly 100 personal injury and wrongful death cases in federal courts."More than 8 million cars have been recalled worldwide, more than half of them being from the U.S.

"Toyota, in a statement Tuesday, said it "has and will continue to practice its philosophy of satisfying consumers with high quality vehicles that are safe and reliable, and responding to consumer feedback with honesty and integrity.."

Too bad, the Toyota customers that have been killed due to these problems will not be in any way affected by what they promise. Although Toyota has been very successful with their sales, because of this outsourcing issue they encountered, their production has come to a halt and millions of dollars are at stake because of the bad quality and design of the cars that have been distributed all over the world.

I think outsourcing is a very productive technique, however, when the design of cars (something that has to be designed very carefully because if they are not..they malfunction and cause BAD accidents to happen...) has been poorly taken into consideration and the drawbacks of owing money is more significant than the money made in the first place when they sold the automobile.