Joined
·
14,692 Posts
Mitsubishi covered up defects
News.com.au / News Interactive
June 3, 2004
Tokyo
JAPAN'S Mitsubishi Motors hid 26 defects in its cars from regulators for years - in addition to four problems it publicised in 2000 - to avoid issuing recalls for the vehicles, the company said today.
The automaker said it would immediately start recalling the affected cars, estimated at over 160,000 and most of them sold in Japan.
The newly discovered problems are the latest to taint Mitsubishi since it acknowledged in 2000 that it systematically covered up auto defects for more than two decades.
In 2000, however, Mitsubishi Motors only made public and issued recalls for four defects - even though it discovered about 30, the company said today.
A special investigative team that the automaker set up last month as part of a new revival plan disclosed the additional problems, the company said.
"We conducted a thorough probe back to 1993, the earliest possible date we could study," said Yoichiro Okazaki, the president of Mitsubishi Motors, at a hastily called news conference.
"We apologise deeply for damaging public and consumer trust by failing to conduct recalls before and also for carrying them out now for problems rooted in the past."
The company said none of the defects had caused any accidents that resulted in death or property damage. Of the 163,707 newly recalled vehicles, 156,433 were sold in Japan and 7274 overseas, the company said. It did not give a breakdown by country outside Japan.
Among defective parts was an oil cooler hose used in 20,056 vehicles - including more than 3000 sold overseas - that could break when excessive weight is loaded into a car, or if acceleration occurs too quickly. The 1992 and '93 models of the Lancer, Mirage and Libero autos used this part.
The automaker couldn't immediately say which defects might cause accidents.
Mitsubishi warned the number of recalled cars could rise, and the figures it provided were only estimates.
The company's image has been seriously battered by the recalls and the cover up that came to light in 2000.
Burdened with more than 1 trillion yen ($12.75 billion) in debt, plunging car sales and the recalls, Mitsubishi reported a much steeper than expected loss of 215 billion yen ($2.69 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31.
Sales for May alone plunged 60 per cent from the year earlier.
Mitsubishi also suffered when US-German automaker DaimlerChrysler, after years of trying to help the company turn around, abruptly announced in April that it would not provide it with a fresh cash infusion.
Under a revival plan its chief executive described as its "last chance", Mitsubishi last month it said it would cut 22 per cent of its global work force, close an assembly plant in Japan and receive a $US4 billion ($5.67 billion) infusion from the Mitsubishi group and other investors.
A truck unit spun off from the company in 2003 - Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus Corp. - has also been tainted by defect cover-up scandals.
Mitsubishi Fuso today said it would cut the pay of six executives and managers as punishment for their cover up of wheel and clutch defects to avoid recalls.
Twenty-three other employees of Mitsubishi Fuso were also penalised in the scandal. Four were told to stay away from work for five days and 19 others were reprimanded.
Full Story Here
News.com.au / News Interactive
June 3, 2004
Tokyo
JAPAN'S Mitsubishi Motors hid 26 defects in its cars from regulators for years - in addition to four problems it publicised in 2000 - to avoid issuing recalls for the vehicles, the company said today.
The automaker said it would immediately start recalling the affected cars, estimated at over 160,000 and most of them sold in Japan.
The newly discovered problems are the latest to taint Mitsubishi since it acknowledged in 2000 that it systematically covered up auto defects for more than two decades.
In 2000, however, Mitsubishi Motors only made public and issued recalls for four defects - even though it discovered about 30, the company said today.
A special investigative team that the automaker set up last month as part of a new revival plan disclosed the additional problems, the company said.
"We conducted a thorough probe back to 1993, the earliest possible date we could study," said Yoichiro Okazaki, the president of Mitsubishi Motors, at a hastily called news conference.
"We apologise deeply for damaging public and consumer trust by failing to conduct recalls before and also for carrying them out now for problems rooted in the past."
The company said none of the defects had caused any accidents that resulted in death or property damage. Of the 163,707 newly recalled vehicles, 156,433 were sold in Japan and 7274 overseas, the company said. It did not give a breakdown by country outside Japan.
Among defective parts was an oil cooler hose used in 20,056 vehicles - including more than 3000 sold overseas - that could break when excessive weight is loaded into a car, or if acceleration occurs too quickly. The 1992 and '93 models of the Lancer, Mirage and Libero autos used this part.
The automaker couldn't immediately say which defects might cause accidents.
Mitsubishi warned the number of recalled cars could rise, and the figures it provided were only estimates.
The company's image has been seriously battered by the recalls and the cover up that came to light in 2000.
Burdened with more than 1 trillion yen ($12.75 billion) in debt, plunging car sales and the recalls, Mitsubishi reported a much steeper than expected loss of 215 billion yen ($2.69 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31.
Sales for May alone plunged 60 per cent from the year earlier.
Mitsubishi also suffered when US-German automaker DaimlerChrysler, after years of trying to help the company turn around, abruptly announced in April that it would not provide it with a fresh cash infusion.
Under a revival plan its chief executive described as its "last chance", Mitsubishi last month it said it would cut 22 per cent of its global work force, close an assembly plant in Japan and receive a $US4 billion ($5.67 billion) infusion from the Mitsubishi group and other investors.
A truck unit spun off from the company in 2003 - Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus Corp. - has also been tainted by defect cover-up scandals.
Mitsubishi Fuso today said it would cut the pay of six executives and managers as punishment for their cover up of wheel and clutch defects to avoid recalls.
Twenty-three other employees of Mitsubishi Fuso were also penalised in the scandal. Four were told to stay away from work for five days and 19 others were reprimanded.
Full Story Here
