Red bean paste, private Marseille!
Toyota President Akio Toyoda, Honda President Toshihiro Mibe, and Mazda President Katsuhiro Moro wish you a happy new year!
Just yesterday, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan reported that five brands, including Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Suzuki and Yamaha, had engaged in “fraudulent” activities when applying to the government for vehicle production certification.
Simply put, it is fake again.
Moreover, this time, it was not the car companies that deceived themselves, but the government as well. The extent of this is similar to that of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in China, where the data was falsified by car companies. These car companies are destroying the government's credibility along with themselves.
According to the specific data given so far, 38 models and more than 6 million vehicles are affected, and the situation is still expanding.
What can I do? I can only bow and apologize.
On the afternoon of the incident, Toyota, Honda and Mazda immediately held a press conference and Kuku apologized.
However, the “craftsmen” were still stubborn and all said that these problems were caused by irregular testing procedures. After internal technical verification and actual testing, the performance of the models involved met the standards and consumers can use them with confidence.
Do you think this sounds like human language?
So this time even the Japanese government couldn't stand it anymore. Early this morning, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan raided Toyota's headquarters in Aichi Prefecture. We will continue to watch to see if the situation will escalate further.
As for how this shocking news was exposed this time, we have to mention Daihatsu’s body safety fraud incident last year.
Older friends may still have some impression of this Daihatsu, which is the yellow bread in the north. As a younger brother of Toyota (a wholly-owned subsidiary), this brother has almost contracted the manufacturing of most of the A-class and below models of Toyota Group, including the k-car that can be seen everywhere in Japan, and occupies nearly 30% of the market share in Japan.
At the same time, Daihatsu also provides parts and OEM services to Toyota and its related brands, including Subaru, Suzuki, Honda, and Yamaha.
Everything was fine until a letter of accusation exposed Dafa's behavior.
In April last year, Daihatsu itself announced that it had received an internal letter of complaint stating that the door panel linings of four models developed for overseas markets had been improperly modified, which could cause injuries to occupants in the event of a side collision.
Half a month later, Daihatsu Motor once again publicly announced that there were violations in the pole side impact test (side impact pole) of the Rocky and Raise models in Japan. Only the passenger side was tested, and the most important driver's side was not tested.
Pole impact test
As the incident escalated, Toyota arranged for a third-party committee to enter Daihatsu to conduct an investigation. It was eventually discovered that Daihatsu had a total of 174 violations in the 34 years from 1989 to 2023, and fraud had almost never stopped.
It can be said that if this guy can cheat, he will never take the right path.
For example, the Japanese “Wuling Hongguang” HIJET produced by Daihatsu does not have airbags. For cars without airbags, the whiplash effect of the head hitting the headrest during a collision, whether it will hit the front center console, etc., all need to be tested obediently.
But Dafa is different. They directly prepared the data that can pass in advance. It doesn’t matter whether it passes or not, they will submit it with safe data anyway. . .
After the incident, the Japanese side estimated that Everbright itself would lose hundreds of billions of yen, and more than 5,000 small and medium-sized suppliers would also be involved.
When the Japanese government saw this, it realized that this was not acceptable and ordered 85 major automakers, importers and suppliers to conduct self-inspections to see if they had engaged in similar fraudulent activities, in order to prevent the situation from escalating further.
This led to the scene at the beginning where the three presidents greeted each other in the new year together.
Now, the Japanese government, peering into the “abyss”, finally realizes how big this mess is.
Let’s first talk about Honda, which doesn’t have too many problems.
We complain about Honda's poor sound insulation every day on the Internet. Maybe, I mean maybe, Honda itself knows that its customers are buying the “champion's sound”, so it simply faked the noise test.
Their operation was also very simple: they falsely reported the weight of the car body and overstated the weight of the car.
The reason for doing this is that in the Japanese standard “JISD1024-1: 2016 Automatic vehicle exterior noise test method during acceleration”, the heavier the car, the higher the noise may be. They report a higher car weight to make their NVH (noise control) effect appear better.
You can hear “Kaitec” and have good NVH. Honda, you also have “fairy technology”, right?
As for Toyota, it was revealed that seven models, including Crown, Senna, Yaris Cross, Lexus RX, and Corolla Touring, had only undergone pedestrian protection testing on one side, while the Japanese national standard requires both sides to be tested.
After the incident broke, Toyota was very unconvinced. While apologizing, it said that they had conducted more stringent tests than the national standards during internal development and testing, which were much more difficult than the national standards.
It means that I am very good, but I am not in compliance with the regulations.
No, the national standard is not as strict as yours. Why don't you just test the national standard requirements? You are so lazy…
Mazda is the most outrageous one.
Its airbag test was actually set to explode with a timer…
Originally, after a car collides, the airbag sensor on the front of the car will receive information and trigger the airbag inside the car. The purpose of the collision test is to simulate a car accident to see whether the airbag system can work properly.
This process requires car companies to spend a lot of manpower and material resources to calibrate, such as how the airbag should be deployed under what kind of obstacles and at what speed. Expensive test dummies are also placed in the car to obtain relevant data, such as whether the airbag can catch the head, the degree of injury of the dummy, etc. These are all very particular.
Otherwise, if you hit the car casually, the airbag will explode, not only will you lose thousands of dollars, but you may not be able to save the person. Mazda's trick is really amazing, using a timer to trigger the airbag. To put it more seriously, it seems to be a disregard for human life.
The most outrageous thing is that this happened to Mazda's flagship models, the Mazda 6 and MX-5. Under Mazda's outrageous operation, the remaining problems such as the melting of the sound-absorbing glass wool of the Yamaha YZF-R1 and the weak braking force of the Suzuki Alto are nothing.
To be honest, in the current situation, except for Mazda, the others don’t seem to be a big problem. But! Let’s not forget that these are the self-inspections and self-disclosures required by the Japanese government. We really don’t know how much truth they can tell and whether they will come up with bigger ones. . .
After all, this plot is too familiar. Dafa admitted his mistake with a good attitude at the time. He checked the initial problem by himself. As a result, the problem got bigger and bigger as he dug deeper. As time went by, the melon turned from a melon into a melon field.
But don't panic. Although the problem this time involves well-known models such as Accord, Crown, Lexus RX, etc., they must be tested according to our rules when they are sold in China. The Japanese testing standards do not apply to us. Toyota China released a response today
Friends who bought Yamaha YZF-R1 and Mazda MX-5 (luckily I can’t afford them) should pay attention to whether these special models have any problems and which batch they belong to. You really need to check carefully…
After all, the next big thing is coming. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan will conduct on-site inspections of these five companies and confirm whether the cars they have produced meet the “safety standards” mentioned by the car companies.
Whether we will see more “gongjiang” and whether there will be any substantial improvements depends on whether the Japanese can live up to their expectations.
But let me say that I am pessimistic about the subsequent development. It is difficult to “scrape the bone to cure the poison” for the Japanese cars in this wave.
Because the criminal records of Japanese companies are so “illustrious”.
From the controversial Camry brake scandal to the flying blade airbags made by Takata, the world's second largest airbag supplier, every fraud is accompanied by major safety hazards. But even if the companies need to pay sky-high fines afterwards, or even go bankrupt like Takata Group, Japanese companies still continue to move forward.
Do they think that after something happens, all they have to do is bow and apologize, and everyone will forget about it after a while?
Perhaps we can see some clues from the follow-up report of the “Toray Hybrid Line” company's fraudulent inspection of tire reinforcement materials in 2017. As long as the product is safe, there is no problem even if its quality deviates slightly from the quality standards agreed upon in the contract signed with the customer.
The report cited the culture of “If you speak up, you lose.” (言ったもん負け) to explain this mentality of employees.
Perhaps it is this kind of culture that has given rise to the phenomenon where front-line employees deceive themselves and senior management also deceive themselves, so that the idea of ”as long as nothing goes wrong” spreads within the company until tragedy occurs.
These Japanese companies have also fallen into a vicious cycle of “fraud – apology – fraud again”. At the same time, the continuous group warming and weak alliances among Japanese automakers may also accelerate this trend.
Toyota and Honda are relatives, Suzuki and Yamaha are also subsidiaries of Toyota, and Japanese automakers also hold cross-shareholdings in order to coordinate with the supply chain, resulting in a complicated relationship. . .
It is hard to say how many places there are for filth and dirt to hide under the bond formed by the interest relationship. Of course, the global market is very vast. Even though it declined by 0.8% last year, Toyota is still the second largest automaker in the United States, and it has no worries about food and clothing.
However, if you, Japanese, do this abroad, your reputation in China will suffer as well.
The Chinese domestic auto market is now in such a state. To put it bluntly, the three big aunts (Sylphy, Levin, Corolla) and the three big heroes (Accord, Camry, Teana) can still have a monthly sales volume of about 10,000 under the impact of “998” and “19.98”, mainly relying on the good reputation for more than ten years. If the reputation is really ruined, how much can Japanese cars bring out in terms of products and design?
I hope Japanese cars won’t cause any more trouble. After all, people of Brother Neck’s generation still have some Initial D sentiments, so they shouldn’t let that really ruin it.
Editor: Noodle Soup & Twisted Neck
Art Editor: Huanyan
Image and information sources:
Toyota And 3 Other Japanese Automakers Admit To Cheating On Safety And Emissions Tests —— CARBUZZ
Professional counterfeiting for 30 years? Looking back at the decade of counterfeiting by Japanese automakers – DeepLab
Investigation Report (Summary Version)——Daihaatsu Industry Co., Ltd. Third Party Committee
“Heart-breaking” Toyota Motors President Akio Toyota apologized for not being prepared for the trial of the domestic “Carlover Ferrari”——FNN
JISD1024-1:2016 Test method for external noise during acceleration of automatic vehicles – Part 1
Shocking scandal! Five major Japanese automakers cheated on tests – Securities Times
The Daihatsu quality scandal: A glimpse into the epitome of the “hidden disease” of Japanese manufacturing—milk tangerine peel candy
Yahoo, Google, Baidu