I’ve bought a Toyota Corolla in 2009 and I had problems with the accelerator pedal. I was surprised of that problem as the car was new and I didn’t expect to experience technical problems so soon. Soon after that they’ve called me to the Toyota service and they made me a very good offer. I subscribed to their donate car campaign and they gave me a new model of Toyota and also a two years insurance policy for free.

So nice to see a corporation recognizes the importance of recalling a product when it’s obvious that product is dangerous. My daughter just dumped a Chevrolet Cobalt after the steering gave out a few times while traveling at high speeds. Fortunately she didn’t get killed. Unfortunately General Motors pleaded ignorance to the growing problem. “Never heard any complaints” one representative was quoted as saying. Visit nhtsa.dot.gov then search “Complaints” to find out how dangerous the ‘06 Cobalt is and how little GM cares about it’s customers.

I have read several articles about this but I cannot tell where the factories are located. I am curious because Toyota has non-unionized labor in the US even though the Japanese factories are unionized (almost certain about that). Did the quality falter in the non-union shops? Or are the defects worldwide?

My understanding is that Japan’s auto workers were organized into a union modeled after the UAW. I think it’s important for Americans to understand that the Japanese employ non-union labor in the US but their workers are unionized in Japan. The media promotes a myth that the Japanese make better cars because they don’t have to deal with unions. This is a good time to talk about that.

At this moment I cannot locate the source where I read info last year about the creation of Japanese auto unions but a quick search found this vintage 1983 NYT’s article about the Japanese auto union acting in support of American auto workers: http://www.nytimes.com/1983/05/18/us/around-the-nation-japan-s-auto-union-chief-pledges-to-help-uaw.html