Toyota: Is the problem here or abroad?

In what will probably go down as among the ugliest chapters in the company’s history, Toyota now has to recall millions of vehicles, to make sure sticky gas pedals don’t send them rocketing off the road, which some vehicles have already done.

As a recent story posting to our Web site today shows, there seem to be two ultimate causes for the trouble (not including, of course, a failure in the supply chain to spot the warning signs).

On the one hand, this could be a design flaw, meaning somebody at a drawing board in Japan is responsible for this.

On the other hand, is it possible that the automaker finally succumbed to the desire to beat Detroit, and eschewed quality control in the name of competition? What do you think?