Chrysler has just announced that it will join General Motors, Ford, and Hyundai in playing the "kick Toyota when it's down" game. Hyundai is offering a $1,000 incentive for the Sonata and Elantra while Chrysler will offer $1,000 to any current Toyota Tundra, Tacoma, or Sienna in hopes of stealing Toyota customers stuck in the middle of the AcceleratorGate recall scandal.

Plenty of people have criticized Ford and GM for taking advantage of the AcceleratorGate situation, including bloggers and Hyundai who called the two domestic companies "vultures." Yet, as mentioned earlier, it seems that Hyundai has become a hypocrite.

Honda, on the other hand, one of Toyota's biggest rivals (if not the biggest), has decided to take the high road. Honda had sent a letter to various dealers that sell Hondas and Acura in which they said that the company "will not react in a predatory way toward either Toyota or Toyota customers."

By not offering incentives that take advantage of Toyota's situation, Honda's message is twofold. First, Honda is telling the public that they are so confident of their sales that they don't need to offer fairly heavy incentives to boost sales for a couple days. Second, Honda is showing that it has morals by not attempting to steal otherwise happy Toyota owners after one mishap from Toyota (as a Corolla driver, I'm certainly annoyed by the constant ads).

theCD's Take: We're really proud of Honda for doing the right thing here. Hopefully the decision works out for them in their income statement.