The question is does Toyota need any excuses for the defects in their products that
caused a record recall? I say NO! I am not the only person bouncing around the world wide web who can recall that some 20 odd years ago the FORD Pinto caused much bigger problems and many more deaths and that company was NOT good enough to affect a recall.

The rationale for FORD has become famous in college business ethics classes
and was highlighted in the 1999 movie Fight Club.   So, before Edward Norton as
the unidentified main character found his imaginary friend Tyler Derden, he was
going about his vocation of paying off for auto manufacturing defects one by one
because over all it was cheaper than a recall.

And FORD’s rationale went something like this:

Exhibit One: Ford’s Cost/Benefit Analysis
Benefits and Costs Relating to Fuel  Leakage
Associated with the Static Rollover
Test Portion of FMVSS 208

180 burn deaths, 180 serious burn injuries,
2100 burned vehicles
Unit Cost:  $200,000 per death, $67,000 per injury, $700 per vehicle
180 x ($200,000) + 180 x ($67,000) +
2100 x ($700) = $49.5 Million

11,000,000 x ($11) + 1,500,000  = $137 Million
original profit on cars sold; subtract
49.5 million from that, and there is still
a reasonable profit

From Ford Motor Company internal memorandum: “Fatalities Associated
with Crash­-Induced Fuel Leakage and Fires.” Source: Douglas Birsch and
John H. Fielder, THE FORD PINTO CASE: A STUDY IN APPLIED ETHICS.
BUSINESS, AND TECHNOLOGY. p. 28.1994.

Contrasted with the PINTO from FORD of some years ago, the Prius from
Toyota looks good.  The company recalled to correct, and the head of the company
went before congress voluntarily to apologize.  Still the Toyota brand is
the largest selling in the world.