“Our cars are safe!” and other lies manufacturers tell you
Daihatsu’s scandal explained
If there’s something I take no small pleasure in, it’s hearing about other people’s work screw-ups.
It’s probably because I’m the perfect employee who never makes them myself. The foibles of the common man are interesting to beings like myself. They are the fuzzy bacteria to my perfect petri dish.
Now, if I were to make mistakes at work (which I don’t) they would actually be strategical missteps. Like that time I admitted to my colleagues I was stealing the toilet paper rolls from the bathroom.
“If they didn’t want us to take them,” I’d said “they’d go to more effort locking them up”.
For the record, I don’t regret stealing the toilet paper. That was a good economical decision for a 20-something on a radio producer’s salary.
I do regret telling my co-workers who almost immediately dobbed me into the radio host I was working with. He then did an entire talk break on my pilfering. It was the number one drive show in NSW. My mother’s friends contacted her about it.
It didn’t stop me.
However, I did learn an important lesson about trusting your co-workers and never admitting to your wrongdoings.
Which was a technique which was working wonderfully for Daihatsu up until it didn’t. The result is a glorious PR scandal which exploded in their hands like a live grenade in the dying days of 2023.
It turns out Daihatsu have been falsifying their safety records, were caught in the act, and have now shut down all their Japanese factories while investigations take place.
Faking safety records is, of course, very naughty. Stern-talking-to-in-a-serious-voice naughty.
But this story becomes particularly bad when you realise they’ve been up to these shenanigans for over three decades.
I think we can all forgive one person signing off on a safety document or two which they haven’t read because, like, it was super boring. Sometimes important things like the truth, accountability, and the safety of your customers is a total yawn-fest.
But for three decades the Japanese car maker has been testing the safety of their vehicles, but then releasing the cars with different, untested parts.
It all came to light thanks to a whistleblower back in April (see above advice: don’t trust co-workers, never admit to wrongdoings) who reported safety test cheating on a few models.
We now know it’s not a few models. Its all models currently in production.
The odds are that you don’t have a Daihastu sitting in your garage. They left the Australian market way back in 2006 but are still popular in Japan for small cars and trucks. But this story effects more than just this brand.
You see, Daihatsu is a subsidiary of the Toyota company. They make up around 10% of the enormous car-maker’s sales. They also manufacture some cars which carry the Toyota, Mazda and Subaru branding. Cars which have a reputation for safety and reliability.
All up, there are 64 models embroiled in the scandal so far. None of them are sold here in Australia.
It’s a bad story for Toyota. It erodes trust in the brand.
But hey. Toyota may be the biggest car maker in the world (based on units sold), but at least other manufacturers can be trusted, right?
Wrong!
Back in 2015 Volkswagon (the second biggest car maker on the same metric) went to incredible lengths to lie about their diesel emissions in America.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found they had designed computer software which could sense when the car was being tested. It did this through monitoring speed, engine operation, air pressure and the position of the steering wheel.
During the performance evaluations the car seemed to activate a safety mode which led to the engine operating at lower power and performance levels than usual.
But, when they were on the road, the engines went out of test mode and released nitrogen oxide pollutants that exceeded permissible levels in the United States by up to 40 times
Okay. That’s not great. But you never hear anything bad about the third biggest car manufacturing group, Stellantis, right? The guys who make Jeep, Alfa Romeo, Citroen amongst others are totally above board!
Absolutely correct.
Unless you ignore their similar diesel emission scandal back in 2022 where they decided to not disclose all the emissions information to the EPA. That little slip up cost them around 300 million US dollars. Ouch. .
We could go further down the list, but I suppose you get my point.
To be fair, making cars is tricky. They have so many moving parts! And you can’t just make them fast and fun. Oh no, the pointy heads want you to do things like make them safe and not destroy the environment. A total drag.
But it’s not even one set of pointy heads to contend with. It’s an army of pointy heads all around the world, each with their own checklists and laws. Laws which you have to know and abide by.
Ugh.
So I’m not saying that if I was in Toyota, Volkswagon, or Stellantis’s shoes I’d directly and remorselessly lie about the product I’m selling. This isn’t dozens of rolls of toilet paper in a year-long campaign of theft we’re talking about here.
But I can also see why it happened. Humans are lazy, opportunistic, and take the path of least resistance.
I’m not entirely sure what the moral of this story is. But I suppose if we can all agree that if you’re going to lie about something important, make sure you do a very, very good job at hiding it.
And I think that’s a great lesson we can all take into the beginning of working year.
If you enjoyed this newsletter, please send it to a friend. It’s great to be back in your inbox and I’ll see you next week.
Steph