Kentucky town feels Toyota's pain

[Justin Bimmer]

Um, in response to "somebody will buy Toyota's plant" I don't see anybody lining up to buy NUMMI.

[Camino LS6]

When you make deals with the devil...

Seriously, this is the cost that comes with becoming a company town. And that goes for any company, and any town.

Put all of your eggs in one basket and this result is inevitable.

With all of that said, I am still overjoyed at Toyota's misfortunes and the new awareness the press has been showing. Better late than never.

[Drew Dowdell]

glad ya'll could kiss and make up.

[GXT]

I am, however, happy to see Toyota FINALLY get the same treatment in the media that GM, Ford and Chrysler have gotten for a long time. It's nice to see Toyota finally make the front page instead of their issues being somehow relegated to the back page of section C like it has been in the past. All I really want is to see all the automakers get treated equally. GM, Ford and Chrysler all deserved their bad press and got it. Now it is finally Toyota's turn.

No doubt the media likes to pile on and go for the sensational story, but I don't think it is fair to say that Toyota's issues were "being somehow relegated to the back page". I know every little problem Toyota has had is BIG NEWS here, but in the grand scheme of things, especially compared to the woes of the big three, they were non-issues. And until you get that critical mass of problems the media just can't be bothered... but I am almost certain that is because of cut-backs, laziness and poor journalists; not malice.

It is similar to how Ford's issues with the brakes on the Fusion Hybrid, which sounds very similar to the Prius issues, is getting very little attention.

If there is one thing that I hope comes out of this Toyota incident, it is the end of the claims of "media bias" against the big three, and perhaps Consumer Reports (CR has a great video talking about and demonstrating this issue in a Venza, including talking about Toyota's lack of allowing the brake to override the throttle). It is easy to shoot the messenger, but this issue is largely of Toyota's making just as the problems of the big three were largely of their own making.

[Drew Dowdell]

The panic about the Toyota situation stems from the appearance that they've known about these problems for years. The Ford Fusion Hybrid issue doesn't appear to have been festering in Fords basement for years.

[2QuickZ's]

No doubt the media likes to pile on and go for the sensational story, but I don't think it is fair to say that Toyota's issues were "being somehow relegated to the back page". I know every little problem Toyota has had is BIG NEWS here, but in the grand scheme of things, especially compared to the woes of the big three, they were non-issues. And until you get that critical mass of problems the media just can't be bothered... but I am almost certain that is because of cut-backs, laziness and poor journalists; not malice.

I don't know about you but I consider the engine oil sludge, Tacoma frame rot and flying spare tires to be pretty big issues. Yet even in the Detroit area, where there are obviously many Toyota haters, I find many of my engineering coworkers aren't aware of ANY of those issues. It also seems that way from many of the ridiculous comments you see posted on usatoday.com and other "news" sites.