Toyota's Small Car Brand, Daihatsu, Halts Shipments

Daihatsu stops all overseas shipments of vehicles following revelations that it cheated on safety tests of its branded models and those of parent company Toyota.

A safety investigation following a whistleblower’s claims that airbags were swapped out of test mules that were not sold with the “kei” small-sized road-going vehicles, found issues involving 64 models, including nearly two dozen sold under Toyota's nameplate, Reuters reports.

The scandal with Toyota’s small-car unit also affects some Mazda and Subaru models sold in the domestic market and Toyota and Daihatsu models overseas, an investigation panel found. Misconduct by the brand’s employees also included false reports on headrest impact tests and test speeds for some models. The investigation found cases of misconduct were particularly prevalent after 2014 and, for one already-discontinued Daihatsu vehicle, went back as far as 1989.

Now Toyota calls the halt to all shipments from Daihatsu plant to conduct a “fundamental reform” as well as a review of certification operations. In a statement the auto giant says: “This will be an extremely significant task that cannot be accomplished overnight. It will require not only a review of management and business operations but also a review of the organization and structure.”