Toyota in Turmoil

Toyota must address the misconduct of its subsidiary Daihatsu, guilty of falsifying the results of thousands of crash tests for over 30 years.

At a time when the automotive landscape is undergoing deep transformation, Toyota certainly did not need this scandal. A sad affair that tragically echoes the Dieselgate incident that hit the Volkswagen group in 2009 when the German manufacturer’s brands were found guilty of falsely reducing the emissions of certain diesel and petrol engines during homologation tests.

Regarding the Japanese automaker, an independent committee reported finding fraud involving 64 models produced by its Daihatsu subsidiary, including nearly two dozen sold under the Toyota brand. The committee was investigating the automaker after discovering in April that Daihatsu had rigged safety tests in the event of side collisions conducted on 88,000 cars.

Daihatsu made the radical decision on Wednesday to suspend deliveries of all its models. While the brand appears doomed in the very short term, the impact will be limited as it remains little known outside Japan. Unfortunately, Toyota will inevitably bear some of the fallout. Without trying to dodge responsibility, the Japanese manufacturer has chosen to face the storm by immediately acknowledging the seriousness of the facts and promising an immediate response and comprehensive reforms.

According to the independent committee’s report, these practices, which could date back to 1989, involve 174 irregularities across 25 categories of safety tests conducted on Daihatsu, but also on Toyota and even Mazda and Subaru, two brands that often draw from the giant’s range to develop their own models.

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