[grandalf]

All cars have lots of "known bugs", many of which could cause loss of life but are not subject to recall.

Why? Because there is a cost benefit equation that car companies use. If the cost of doing a recall is less than the possible bad publicity + lawsuit damages.

Toyota is no different, if anything, that they decided not to mention it suggests it's a low risk (if the cars killed even a few dozen people the cost the recall would have been obvious from the beginning).

[somecanuck]

It was not a case of "not mentioning" the problem. They actually hid the truth and lied.