katekebo

Chapter 2 - Japanese authorities didn't buy Akio BS apology, and are now raiding Toyota HQ.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1wwj1p2wdyo
And powerful advisor groups are calling for sacking of Akio Toyoda.
https://www.msn.com/en-ae/money/comp...vertelemetry=1
Akio Toyoda should have been fired long time ago. This flagrant example of nepotism has costed Toyota billions - his crazy obsession with hydrogen, his push for Gazoo Racing.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

amen!

wow, serious situation.

SW17LS

I find the blaming Toyota’s cheating because of regulations pretty ridiculous. “Of course he cheated, there’s a test!”

Motorola

Blaming the feds whenever Toyota screws something up is just common practice, see all the online defenders of their recent V6 recall blame it on emissions regs instead of Toyota's incompetence lol

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

everyone's cheating at regulations. some just haven't been caught yet.

Motorola

This has literally nothing to do with emissions and fuel economy lol, both the V6 and this crash test cheating

LeX2K

Exactly. Other auto makers have no problem exceeding safety standards what is Toyota's excuse.

mmarshall

Well, yes, I agree that cheating, just for the sake of cheating, just because there ARE regulations, is unacceptable. But my point (and bitkahuna's) was that the more you pile on regulations, and the more difficult you make it for auto manufacturers to comply, the more temptations there are going to be for the manufacturers to try and get around it, whether (technically) legal or illegal. In other words, some regulations are fine (and needed), but if excessive, you eventually reach a point of diminishing returns. We've seen it before.....particulalry at VW with Dieselgate.

katekebo

It will be interesting to see if authorities in other countries follow through and investigate Toyota for compliance with their respective national certification standards. I don't think there will be any significant consequences in Japan because Toyota is the engine of Japanese economy and the largest Japanse company by market capitalization. Japanese government won't do anything that could harm Toyota beyond a gentle slap on the hand. But if NHTSA or European Union authorities find similar problems, it could cost Toyota a lot. Imagine a "Stop Sales" order of RAV4 or Camry. It would be devastating.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

good point, i edited my post.

link13

I guess we will see if there are consequences. VW has ownership of Electrify America in the US as their penance for lying about fuel economy. They don't want it, but it's theirs.

spwolf

Thats unlikely since NHTSA and EuroNCAP are actually doing independent testing, and IIHS buys vehicles from dealers. So your EU and US safety tests come from authorities, not manufacturers.

More importantly - this scandal affects Toyota, Honda , Mazda, Yamaha and Suzuki vehicles.

Question is - what is actually the problem, but there is a long history of falsifying data:

https://www.ft.com/content/828110d5-...a-1b9cca1a5ba3

situman

Well I've always had the suspicion that Toyota's stats arent what they claim. I find it odd that Toyota and Lexus models typically lose drag races or arent as fast as they claim out in the real world. It is the same with the level of body rigidity and crap. I always sense quite a bit of body flex and shudders even in their Lexus models but hey the door closings still sounds nice.

katekebo

Re. NHTSA and IIHS testing it's actually a mixed bag. They do a lot of their own tests, but also rely on manufacturers' reports from self-certification tests. They do NOT do 100% of the testing in-house.

Most of the issues with Toyota non-compliance reported so far seems quite "mild" - performing a pedestrian protection test on one side of the vehicle only, but reporting the results for both sides, performing another test at a wrong angle (65 deg instead of 50 deg), not using proper weight "luggage" in the trunk for rear seat back strength. Tweaking engine ECU tuning when engine failed to deliver reported power on the dyno.
The biggest problem is that Toyota acknowledges that there are thousands and thousands of test protocols and results still to be reviewed, and that they have only identified 6 issues so far. This clearly leaves the door open for more "discoveries". Evidently Japanese authorities were not satisfied with Akio's speech, as they raided Toyota HQ the following day. While other manufacturers also reported (minor) violations, Toyota is the only one that is now being scrutinized directly by the authorities. Odds are, many more issues will be found, some probably far more serious that the ones Toyota chose to share in the press conference.

The issue must be serious because investor advisor groups are calling for Akio's firing. There is probably much more information that has not been disclosed publicly. Akio was investors' darling for his financially successful push for hybrids. No he is a pariah.

Striker223

Yeah, meanwhile the Germans sandbag everything they possibly can.