The recall of nearly 8 million Toyota vehicles was years in the making and was complicated by excuses offered to regulators and by delay tactics employed by Toyota, according to several news reports this morning.

Toyota's relationship with industry regulators, as The New York Times puts it, was a "kabuki dance" that even involved an unprecedented trip to Japan by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Secretary Ray LaHood. Toyota execs were reportedly "dragging things out" and "offering excuses that didn't make any sense."

Worse, the problems with the accelerators in Toyota vehicles were first spotted in 2003. Here's the NYT