Last week, it was reported that Toyota Australia was attempting to locate a number of Toyota vehicles that may be fitted with counterfeit airbag parts, which could pose a deadly risk in the event of a crash. The topic was revealed in a confidential dealer bulletin issued by the company, which a news publication managed to get its hands on.
The bulletin said that the company had identified two suppliers selling counterfeit Toyota airbag spiral cables that were marketed as original replacement parts. Packed in bogus Toyota Genuine packaging, these counterfeit parts were sold to independent repairers, who were likely to be unaware that the parts were fakes.
Today, the company has announced that it has lodged Federal Court proceedings against the two independent retailers over the matter. Toyota Australia says the legal action relates to ‘trademark infringement’ and ‘misleading and deceptive conduct’.
The company said via a statement that it was concerned that customers have been misled into believing they have purchased a genuine Toyota part, and that internal testing had found that the counterfeit airbag spiral cables are of inferior quality.
It had been reported that the counterfeit parts do not feature gold-plated connectors and doesn’t use copper wire like the genuine part. Additionally, the crimping of the cable is apparently not strong enough, and the plastic locking tabs are also said to be poorly formed or misaligned.
Toyota Australia added that it is expecting independent retailers in the country to contact the impacted customers to advise them that they have purchased counterfeit parts and to replace the airbag spiral cable with a genuine Toyota part at no cost to the customer.
The spiral cables are a core component of the airbag connector assembly, and the unit is replaced along with an airbag if the latter is deployed. While cars that have never had their airbags deploy are unaffected, vehicles that have been repaired, especially outside Toyota’s dealer repair network, may be equipped with a counterfeit unit.
Looking to sell your car? Sell it with Carro.
Can we take Samloo & UMW to court for selling fake substandard toyotas too?
First, we have to Bring VW to court selling Lemons.
Nope, killer must be in court first!
Looking for substandard car? you should bring Proton to the court at the very first place!
Fuel hunger, powerless, poor build quality, substandard spare parts… who is not a Proton victim in Malaysia??
Maybe typing error… proton aus lorr
Lol nowadays they dun have Jepunis quality like last time,
they are worse than p1!
Proton never ever take any of its suppliers to court and never ever bother to claim damages for substandard supply. so, please don’t even start. it just show how ignorant you are. here’s the actual news way back in 2006, and reported in PaulTan itself.
http://paultan.org/2006/07/31/proton-audit-report-reveals-mismanagement/
why Proton to be on same world-standard level ? ask their management to cut the crony, political crap and start making people accountable and then only start talking.
Wah 2006 news? Now ady 2015, almost 10 years later.
And do other automakers take their suppliers to court coz of sub-standard quality? Of course no.
And Toyota only took action ONLY after being sued.
That’s Jepunis quality nowadays.
These parts are hardly to be identified. But sellers are mostly know they are counterfeit as the price & warranty from the manufacturer are different than the original 1. So beware.