They do owe Toyota an apology in my opinion.
The American government had to massively bail out General Motors etc. Bad press for non-American brands of cars will promote the sale of American cars and aid the companies they had to financially assist.
It also happened just a year after the Toyota & GM joint venture New United Motor Manufacturing Inc (NUMMI) closed, which I would hazard a guess wasn't a coincidence.
http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/01/news...sing/index.htm
EDIT: Sorry for dragging up an old thread! Didn't realise how old it was when I posted & couldn't spot the delete post button. Am I being blind? (most likely!)