Daihatsu allegedly rigged Perodua Axia safety tests
ROSKHOIRAH YAHYA
SHAH ALAM - Daihatsu Motor Company, a subsidiary of Toyota Motor has allegedly admitted to faking and forging results of the safety crash test involving door trims of 88,000 units of cars sold under the Toyota brand.
The company confirmed that the door trims was modified with a notch to minimise the risk of the door interior from breaking into sharp edges that could hurt passengers when the side airbag were activated.
The affected models included Toyota Yaris Ativ manufactured in Thailand from last August and Perodua Axia that was manufactured in Malaysia from February.
Out of the 88,000 units, about 76,000 were Yaris model were distributed to Thailand, Mexico and Gulf Cooperation Council (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman) and about 11,800 Perodua Axia 2023 cars were sold in Malaysia.
Citing a report from Reuters, Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda defined the incident as unacceptable as it betrayed the trust of their customers.
"We are investigating how the door trims of Yaris and other models were modified for safety test and sincerely apologise for what had happened as it betrays the trust of the customers," he said.
However, they haven't received any reports of accidents or injuries related to the crash test.
He added that a detailed investigation will be conducted, but it will take some time.
