We Used to Build Cars in California

Lots of cars. At one time there were auto plants up and down California, but not anymore:

The last car has rolled off the production lines at California's sole auto plant.
Workers are trickling out of the New United Motor Manufacturing plant in Fremont as they complete their tasks and the plant readies to shut down.

Nearby, job centers have been set up to help the newly unemployed figure out benefits, retraining and other options.

The plant made Toyota Tacoma trucks and Corolla sedans. The last Tacoma rolled off the assembly lines last week, and Corolla production ended Thursday.

The plant began 25 years ago as a joint venture between Toyota Motor Corp. and General Motors Co. GM pulled out last year, and Toyota later announced it would halt production, eliminating about 4,700 jobs.

California has become toxic to business. This is just the latest of the flood of businesses leaving the state.

Speaking of Toyota, the current climate of fear built around those cars by the media and the government is certainly not slowing down their sales:

Toyota on Thursday reported a 35.3 percent jump in US sales in March, rebounding from a series of mass safety recalls which have undermined the embattled Japanese automaker's reputation.

"Toyota's strong sales performance in March reflects our customers' continued confidence in the safety and reliability of our vehicles and their trust in the brand," said Don Esmond, senior vice president of automotive operations for Toyota Motor Sales USA.

"We are standing by our cars, and we're grateful that our customers are standing by Toyota."

I think something else is going on too. Some people smelled a rat when they saw how Toyota was being treated by Congress and the hatchet job they were getting in the media and decided to vote with their pocketbook. While it might have been the mission of the Toyota haters to get people to buy something from Government Motors or Chrysler instead of that Japanese car that goes on wild sprees of its own, the consumers thought otherwise.

Good for them and good for Toyota.