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April 28, 2023

Toyota, Daihatsu Rigged The Crash Safety Test Of All-New Vios, Wigo


Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda is apologizing after 88,123 of its vehicles were found to have been rigged in order to achieve side-impact crash test performance.

Toyoda said that Toyota and affiliate Daihatsu are now investing how the side panel of the Yaris Ativ (aka Vios) and the Perodua Axia / Toyota Agya (aka Wigo) had been changed for safety testing. He also apologized for what we called an “unacceptable” violation of consumer trust.

The affected models are the Toyota Yaris Ativs made in Thailand from last August, Perodua Axias manufactured in Malaysia starting from February, and the Toyota Agya (Wigo) in Indonesia planned to start production in June.

So far, both of these vehicles are not yet for sale in the Philippines. However, the all-new Wigo, which shares its basic platform with the Perodua Axia, will be launched in the next few months.

The affected vehicles had been modified with a notch to minimize the risk in testing that the door interior could break with a sharp edge and cause injury to an occupant when the side airbag deployed in an accident.

The modification for testing was not part of the production vehicle, and it is not clear who had rigged the doors for crash testing.

Toyota said it had not received any report of an accident or injury related to the rigged side-crash test.

Daihatsu said it had discovered the rigged safety test after a whistleblower report. It said it had reported the issue to regulatory agencies, and stopped shipment of affected models.

Daihatsu said it would run new safety tests in the presence of regulators and confirm the safety of the models before resuming shipments.

The discovery of the rigged safety test is the first crisis for Toyota President Koji Sato, who took over the top job from Toyoda on April 1.

“We have to find the cause of what happened, including examining the environment in which it happened, and once we’ve confirmed that to take appropriate action to address the underlying cause,” Sato said.

32 comments:

  1. Well ir happen to all car manufacturers all the time even in USA and europe(helow diesel gate) whats important is the asap correction implemented. What worse is dito sa pnas dears a miles and miles of confirmed horror stories of reliability issues of chinese cars and yet no one china cars issued a recall(good job ford ph for the recall of territory) they just let customers fend for themselves😔😔😔

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  2. You know that scene in Spiderman when Tobey MacGuire is at the table and goes "oops, how that get on there?" and then laughs nervously?

    Toyota is doing that right now.

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  3. With record sales, Toyota will just laugh all the way to the bank. its a small dent on toyota, whats important is they show to customers that dear action for correction is immediate.

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  4. Buyer beware always. There is good reason why Toyota rebadges from Daihatsu and Maruti. Are you still getting good ol' Toyota quality you know?

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  5. Someone would always justify this story because it's toyota not unless if it's chinese, they'd automatically insult all brands from the country if ever there's one brand that encounters such error/s with their vehicle. I for myself still doubts a lot of vehicles from a chinese brands but i must admit, there's these brands that totally have the balls to overtake even japanese when it comes to build quality. I won't name any but they're just a few and underrated because of its roots.

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  6. And someone here is always bashing toyota almost everytime he post a comments, and always praising all brands of china cars here in ph as the best of all d best...sorry to dis appoint but kotchi from china for now is not yet in par with japz and kpop, maybe except gèely😁😁😁

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  7. DNGA miles and miles better than unreliable china cars with very very low resale value

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  8. As an owner of mostly Toyota vehicles (which includes both Lexus and Toyota badged Daihatsus), this news would bother me in a big way if it would go unnoticed and injure me seriously in a side impact crash if I buy the all new Vios or all new Wigo, especially if Toyota would get away with the issue and not do any rectification since we are talking about safety here. But Akio Toyoda-san himself acknowledges the issue and apologized, it would be rectified through a recall.

    It's easy to get away with this issue by denying the whistleblower report, but the Japanese people know how to accept and take responsibility for such big quality issues with their products.

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  9. 🤣🤣🤣China cars fancy but not reliable and not durable

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  10. Toyota messed up big time. What if there were no whistleblower... There probably wouldn't be any recalls and the buyers would be subjected to a higher chance of death should they be involved in an accident.

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    1. That's even smaller compared to what happened with a certain manufacturer of car airbags, that scandal caused them to ultimately file for Chapter 11

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  11. Japanese car manufacturers should not be put in a pedestal. Remember these problems that led to global recalls:

    1) Takata airbag issue
    2) Mitsubishi admitting that they had quality defects in their cars throughout the 90s that lead to their US exit
    3) Mitsubishi SUA
    4) Toyota and Honda oil sludge problem
    5) Subaru's unreliable boxer engine which is just okay to use upto 80,000km and good luck if you get a 2nd hand car and use it beyond 80,000km.
    6) Nissan JATCO CVT issues

    All documented problems with Japanese cars and yet people still believe they are much better than Korean & Chinese cars.

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    1. Where did you get that info on number 5? We have a 13 year old Subaru Legacy GT sedan that is nearing 120k KMs and has no engine problems whatsoever.

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    2. Did a random check at caroussel 126/147 used subarus clocked 80k and below... Subaru owners so scared to hit that 80k mileage that they sell it right away.

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    3. Well that's an unreliable conclusion. Lots of subarus in the USA reach 200k to 300k miles. I think it would be much better if you joined the subaru facebook group and ask around for owner's experience.

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    4. Well you are aware that driving conditions here in the Philippines for all brands is tagged as extreme - which means shorter maintenance intervals & engines/cars don't last as long as those in cooler climates like in US & Japan.

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    5. Hmnn...owner own experience vs assumption/random carousel???...🤔🤔🤔

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    6. Yes, those are just mere assumptions. And he ignored the fact that we own a 13 year old Subaru with an turbocharged engine running as good or even better than the day it rolled off the dealership.

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    7. Carousel listings are a fact - 85% of those listed second hand cars are for sale and are below 80,000km in mileage

      Maintenance category - Extreme is a fact regardless of any japanese, korean or chinese car manufacturer

      Your subaru "success" story is a miniscule 1 out of a possible 1,000,000 to 5,000,000 cars that they have sold. If you want to prove Subaru's success then counter may claim by providing your figures.

      Bilangin mo lahat yang 200,000 to 300,000 mileage "success" stories mo.

      It is possible that only represents 1% of all total Subaru production cars.

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    8. Dears no better proof than the experience of owner itself. Assuming 1 out of 1m or worse 5m is definitely an absurd assumption. Assume pa more🤣🤣🤣

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    9. Just look at the roads, old subarus still running well and doing good and dears a lot of new subarus on the roads it means dear doing well. Wala naman akong nakitang subaru sa junkshop. Even in USA subaru's doing well.

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    10. I still don't understand. So what if people are selling low mileage subarus in carousell? That doesn't really mean anything. There could be thousands of reasons why they are selling it... maybe they are upgrading, trying other brands, etc. You can't just assume that the sellers are selling their subarus below 80k km because it has engine issues. If that is your "documented" proof, it has no evidentiary weight.

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    11. Sure freedom and special character user. Assume pa more kayo. You do not have figures to justify what you say. Be more factual by providing numbers okay?!

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    12. Well do you have the data of your imagine 1 out of 1m? and worst out of 5m? Lets settle the score here about subaru, for the one who owned and experience subaru: 100% credibility rating👏👏👏, for the one who never owned and experience subaru...credibility rating is...🤔🤔🤔...1 out of 5M

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    13. @Kimiraikz, and you think your random checking of low mileage subarus on carousell is a factual representation of subaru's quality? Unless you're a mind reader, you don't know the reason why the sellers are selling their cars.

      We have a subaru group in facebook, you're welcome to join. You can see and ask owners sharing their experiences there. That's the more logical thing you can do, not browsing carousell and making baseless conclusions.

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    14. Numbers.... I am waiting for numbers Freedom & Special Character User.....

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    15. Well, again when it comes to subaru reliability/durability, owners experience is the best credible sourced💯. and 1 out of 5M credibility rating for the one who Never owned and experience a subaru. Buti nga naka one ka pa🤣🤣🤣

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    16. Assume ka pa more Freedom... 1 out of 5 million who says Subaru is reliable is not concrete proof - more an empirical error. ;-p

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  12. Hmmnn...kimi sounds like kuchi888

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    1. Oh really Freedom? you a fan of kuchi you can't get over him.... Go ahead and have blind faith on your jap brands... I have moved to koreans & chinese already.

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  13. Problems/issues with all car manufacturers happen from time to time, times tell which car brands has proven its reliability more than the others. car buyers can just picked what brand they trust, its dear money after all

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