Toyota Avanza Premio MT temporarily unavailable in Vietnam following Daihatsu safety scandal.

Reuters reported on December 20, 2023, that Daihatsu, a subsidiary of Toyota, would temporarily suspend the delivery of all its car models following an investigation into safety test cheating involving 64 car models, including approximately 20 models sold under the Toyota brand.

Shortly after news of the Daihatsu scandal broke, Toyota Vietnam suspended the transportation of related Daihatsu car batches to dealerships starting from the afternoon of December 20 to further confirm specific information for the Vietnamese market.

Following a thorough investigation into the details of the scandal-related anomalies, Toyota Vietnam confirmed that one car model in the domestic market was affected, namely the Avanza Premio manual transmission (MT) model.

Toyota Vietnam stated, “Based on the investigation results of an independent third-party committee, inappropriate modifications were made to the Avanza Premio MT model during overseas emissions and fuel consumption testing. However, in Vietnam, all Avanza Premio models comply with testing regulations and are certified to meet Vietnamese standards.”

Therefore, certain Toyota-branded car models related to Daihatsu, such as Wigo, Avanza (other versions), Veloz, Raize, Yaris/Vios, and Yaris Cross, will continue to be sold in the Vietnamese market as usual.

Regarding the cars sold in Vietnam, Toyota affirms that customers can continue to use them normally as Daihatsu has retested them with actual car models and confirmed that these models still meet safety and environmental standards (as confirmed by an independent testing agency), thus there is no need to discontinue their usage.

According to Japanese media, an independent committee has conducted an investigation into Daihatsu following news regarding the company’s safety crash test cheating involving 88,000 cars in April, most of which were sold under the Toyota brand. However, the latest investigation reveals that the scope of the scandal is much wider.

In particular, the committee found that the airbag device used by Daihatsu in certain safety test models differs from the airbag device used in cars sold on the market. Toyota stated that they have not received any accident reports related to this cheating. The Japanese automaker confirmed that the safety tests may not have complied with regulations and laws, regardless of whether the airbag device in the test car and the car sold on the market meet safety standards for passengers.

Furthermore, the cheating also involved falsified reports on tests involving head restraints and test speeds for some car models. Daihatsu has been engaging in this cheating behavior since 1989 but it only became widespread after 2014.

Toyota stated that the affected car models include models for Southeast Asian markets such as Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Vietnam, as well as Central and South American countries like Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Bolivia, and Uruguay.

TT (Tuoitrethudo)