Toyota (TM) suspends sales of Yaris in Thailand following rigged safety tests

Toyota Motors (NYSE: TM) Monday announced that the Japanese carmaker is suspending all sales and deliveries of its Yaris model in Thailand after the company’s affiliate Daihatsu rigged part of the door in side-collision safety tests.

Toyota’s Asia region CEO, Masahiko Maeda theorized in a press release that the problem may have occurred due to pressure on Daihatsu to shorten the development time of the vehicle. However, he added that vehicles customers were currently using were safe.

"If development had been carried out under appropriate conditions, this kind of problem would of course not have happened," Maeda said.

"I think the fact that it still happened, means there was some kind of pressure at the development site," he said, adding that the vehicle's relatively large size may have posed a challenge to Daihatsu, which specialises in the production of small cars.

The companies disclosed in April that Daihatsu rigged part of the door in side-collision safety tests carried out for some 88,000 small cars. Daihatsu said it had discovered the rigged safety test after a whistleblower report.

Around 76,000 of those vehicles were Yaris Ativs mainly bound for Thailand, Mexico and the Gulf Cooperation Council. The Gulf Cooperation Council comprises Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman.

Shares of TM are up 0.02% in afternoon trading on Monday.

By Michael Elkins | [email protected]

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