Obama twists the knife in Toyota

The president won't cease in his relentless persecution of Toyota. Yesterday the government announced that they were fining the Japanese automaker $16.4 million, a new record that dwarfs any previous fines imposed by the Department of Transportation.

The proposed fine, announced Monday by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, is the most the government could levy for the sticking gas pedals that have led Toyota to recall millions of vehicles. There could be further penalties under continuing federal investigations. The Japanese automaker faces private lawsuits seeking many millions more.

Toyota Motor Corp. has recalled more than 6 million vehicles in the U.S., and more than 8 million worldwide, because of acceleration problems in multiple models and braking issues in the Prius hybrid.

Documents obtained from the automaker show that Toyota knew of the problem with the sticking gas pedals in late September but did not issue a recall until late January, LaHood said. The sticking pedals involved 2.3 million vehicles.

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For those reasons, LaHood said, the government is seeking a fine of $16.375 million, the maximum penalty possible. That dwarfs the previous record: In 2004, General Motors paid a $1 million fine for responding too slowly on a recall of nearly 600,000 vehicles over windshield wiper failure.

Meanwhile, Toyota is facing more than 200 lawsuits from alleged victims of sudden acceleration and their sales have plummeted. All this is to the advantage of GM and Chrysler, both government-owned car companies and competitors of Toyota. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood has crusaded against Toyota for months now, a conflict of interest to say the least.

All the government-fueled outrage obscures the fact that this has happened before. In the 1980s, Audi spent five years recalling their Audi 5000 models after allegations of sudden acceleration surfaced. Audi faced lawsuits from more than 7,500 Audi owners and their sales plummeted. The media piled on: 60 Minutes went so far as to air an alleged demonstration of sudden acceleration in an Audi car, which was later discovered to have been staged. It took almost 20 years and a couple name changes of the Audi 5000 for sales to finally recover. All this was without a massive government fine and a showboating secretary of transportation.

Meanwhile, most people are perfectly content with their Toyota cars. The company remains the most popular and successful automaker in the world. Of the top five most popular car brands in the United States, two are Toyotas. Toyota also remains one of the last automakers in the United States without unionized workers.