From the WSJ:

TOKYO—The financial impact on Toyota Motor Corp. from its global recall could total more than $5 billion over the next year, due to increased incentive campaigns, litigation costs and marketing efforts by the embattled car maker, analysts say.
The critical question facing the world’s leading car maker is how long the fallout from the recall will affect sales in North America, its largest market. After a slow start, Toyota is biting back at its critics and has launched an aggressive sales campaign in the U.S., featuring a 0% interest five-year loan offer, competitive lease prices and free maintenance across 80% of its vehicle line-up.

Elsewhere in the paper, Liam Denning notes that this strategy could have an adverse impact on Toyota’s competitors:

The televised unraveling of Toyota’s reputation for quality could only be good for Detroit, right? Ford, for example, certainly capitalized on Toyota’s woes, with sales growth in February busting through analysts’ estimates.
Toyota’s resorting to incentives, however, raises the worrying prospect of a price war. Indeed, industrywide, average incentives rose month-on-month in February by 10.6% to $2,588 a vehicle, according to Edmunds.com, as Toyota’s competitors tried to lure away customers. Rebates and cheap financing are useful for winning business, but they undermine the No. 1 priority for the Detroit three: restoring profitability in North America.

Is this massive recall really warranted? I have my doubts. (Gas pedals getting stuck under floormats? Here’s a thought: Toss the mats.) But if its true that a government-labor-Detroit nexus worked to blow this issue out of proportion, it’s ironic that the effort might blow up in their faces.