Toyota’s ‘negotiated equipment recall’ with the NHTSA

Maybe I’m missing something, but all of the press on this issue seems to be on Toyota’s recall avoidance negotiations to save $100m, and none on the government agency that it negotiated with.  Not that Toyota should be held blameless of course, but the US government had a lot more to do with this than anyone seems to be giving them credit, er, blame for. 

The linked article below from the Detroit News discusses an internal presentation Toyota officials gave last year, where they boasted of savings they got by avoiding a recall on accelerator problems by negotiating a ‘equipment recall’ on floor mats instead.  So you can negotiate your way out of safety recalls with the government?!?   Isn’t this agency’s very existence based on the premise that they are protecting us from this sort of stuff?!?  The article also points to evidence that State Farm Insurance notified the government of a spike in unintended Toyota acceleration complaints back in 2004, but nothing was done then either.  In my opinion, officials from NHTSA should be sitting right next to the Toyota executives during the upcoming congressional grilling…

http://detnews.com/article/20100222/AUTO01/2210325