Follow this link to the article in The Washington Post.  The journalist author, Frank Ahrens, has a bachelor of sciences (degree) in mechanical engineering.

Ahrens does an excellent job of explaining how engineers go about finding the causes of failures in complex human-electro-mechanical systems such as the modern day automobile.

By inference, you can understand why a well run engineering organization does not solve problems by using a technique modeled after a congressional inquiry.

By comparison follow this link to the USA Today story Did ABC News alter report on runaway Toyota tests? This shows how an irresponsible news organization, ABC, goes about covering a story.