Fine only begins Toyota's penance

Automakers have five days under U.S. law to tell transportation authorities about safety defects.

Toyota missed that deadline by four months.

That's how long it took the company to report its problems with sticking accelerators. According to internal company documents, Toyota dodged a federal investigation into the matter for more than a year before that.

As The Washington Post and others have reported, Toyota officials boasted during a 2007 company presentation that they'd saved the automaker $100 million by holding off a probe into a flurry of reports of unintended acceleration involving multiple models.

When Toyota's ongoing crisis is over, however, those supposed savings will be overwhelmed by what the company will have to pay - in dollars and reputation - for failing to comply with the law and honor obligations to customers.

This week, Toyota decided not to contest a $16.4 million fine for waiting months to report problems with gas pedals that made some cars prone to sudden acceleration. The penalty is the largest ever imposed on an automaker by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Beyond that, the company could face hundreds of millions, or billions, of dollars in settlements with accident victims and their families. Customers whose vehicles were part of a massive recall this year also could receive compensation in class-action lawsuits.

It's a sad turn of events for Toyota, which has long enjoyed a reputation for quality and safety. As company officials now acknowledge, they let ambition to sell more vehicle flatten a corporate culture that emphasized maintaining customer satisfaction while pursuing profits.

Toyota's saga isn't over. This week, the company recalled its 2010 Lexus GX 460, an SUV susceptible to rolling over. Consumer Reports took the rare step recently of slapping a "Don't Buy" warning on the vehicle, prompting the company to run tests on it and other SUVs.

The saga also isn't over for U.S. transportation officials, who still must answer for why mounting evidence of runaway Toyotas went unaddressed for so long. This episode calls into question the thoroughness and independence of regulators.

The record size of the fine is clearly intended to send a message to Toyota and other automakers to abide by the five-day rule. But an equally forceful message needs to be driven home to federal officials in charge of ensuring auto safety.