Toyota’s small-car division halts all deliveries amid crash-test cheating scandal

Toyota has announced it has suspended all shipments and deliveries of new cars from its small-car brand Daihatsu in the wake of an ongoing safety test cheating scandal.

As reported by Drive in May 2023, Daihatsu – the Toyota division which specialises in small city cars and commercial vehicles – was found to have rigged side-impact crash tests on four new models.

Now, an independent panel investigating the incident has handed its findings to Daihatsu and Toyota – and it appears the fraud may be even more widespread than previously known.

In a written statement, Toyota's head office confirmed an independent investigation into Daihatsu's actions found a further 174 new, so-called "irregularities" across 25 "test categories".

These included 64 models and three engines – including 22 vehicles and an engine sold under the Toyota brand.

Among what Toyota calls "irregularities" is the discovery that, for two vehicle ranges, the airbag control units in the vehicles used to pass crash tests were different to those in the examples sold to customers.

Earlier this year, the Japanese car giant admitted to modifying door panels on four models – destined for developing markets with low safety requirements – to ensure they passed basic government standards.

Approximately 88,000 vehicles affected had already been sold, marketed as the Toyota Yaris Ativ in Asia, Mexico, and the Middle East, the Toyota Agya in Ecuador, the Perodua Axia in Malaysia.

A fourth model had also cheated the safety tests, though this vehicle was currently under development and has not gone on sale.

The car maker says in the final stage of the investigation, it was found that different airbag control units were used during the testing of some models compared with those fitted to production cars sold to customers.

These applied to the Toyota Pixis Joy and the Toyota Town Ace, also marketed as the Daihatsu Move and Subaru Stella, and the Daihatsu Gran Max, Daihatsu Cast, and Mazda Bongo, respectively.

Daihatsu has produced 1.1 million vehicles in the first 10 months of 2023, with 660,000 sold overseas – making up around 7 per cent of Toyota's sales, Reuters reports.

No Australian models are believed to be involved, and it appears none of the vehicles affected have been approved by the Australian Government for personal importation. Daihatsu exited the Australian market in 2006.

"We would like to express our sincere apologies for the inconvenience and concern this has caused to all stakeholders, including customers," Toyota wrote in a statement.

"In response to these findings, Daihatsu decided today to temporarily suspend shipments of all Daihatsu-developed models currently in production, both in Japan and overseas. Toyota has also decided to temporarily suspend shipments of the affected models."

Toyota says a "fundamental reform" is needed within Daihatsu, and it will conduct a review of management and business operations, as well as the organisation and its structure.

The scandal comes after Toyota's truck division, Hino, was found in 2022 to have falsified data on engines dating back to 2003 in order to pass emissions and fuel efficiency standards.