Nissan’s recently revealed misconduct in its final inspection procedures is another blow to the ‘Made in Japan’ reputation, which is also being damaged by Kobe Steel’s data falsification scandal. Japan’s second-largest carmaker is now suspending domestic production of vehicles for at least two weeks to address the issue, which led to a recall.
Production at Nissan’s six Japanese plants that churn out cars for the domestic market will be stopped to consolidate their inspection lines to comply with Japan’s transport ministry requirements, Reuters reports.
The report points out that Nissan produced around 79,300 passenger and commercial vehicles in Japan in August, and from that, around 27,600 were JDM cars, representing around 6% of its global production.
Nissan admitted that uncertified technicians performed final checks for domestic market models because some inspection steps had been transferred to other inspection lines, in violation of ministry rules. Checks by uncertified inspectors continued even after Nissan said it had strengthened control of its inspection processes when the issue first came to light late September.
“Our emergency measures were not enough. We were unable to change our bad habits,” CEO Hiroto Saikawa said, adding that it appeared that a focus on increasing the efficiency of the inspection process had contributed to the issue, while poor communication between plant managers and foremen also may have been a factor.
This “misconduct” has already forced Nissan to recall all 1.2 million new passenger cars sold in Japan over the past three years for re-inspection. Yesterday, Nissan announced that around 34,000 more cars would be re-inspected.
To recap, Japan’s transport ministry had discovered that uncertified technicians at Nissan plants were using the stamps of certified technicians to sign off on final vehicle inspections, in violation of ministry guidelines. Nissan has admitted wrongdoing, but said the misconduct has no impact on the quality of its vehicles. Also, the issue does not affect exported vehicles, as the certification process for final inspections does not apply to vehicles shipped overseas.
Japanese national broadcaster NHK reported today that inappropriate inspection practices had been going on at Nissan for at least 20 years.
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Responsible enough to admit fault and take corrective action before scandal.
Perform reinspection out of goodwill.
Respekt. Jap overlords banzai.
Respect only if it is not happening at first place
Jepunis quality? What quality?
I have driven a brand new Toyota Camry Hybrid, a new Honda Accord and a VW Passat along the N-S Highway from KL-Penang. Trust me Japanese cars are no where near German cars in technology, performance, fuel efficiency and driver involvement. Japanese cars suffer from lack of involvement and are not so stable at speeds exceeding 140kmh due to their generally higher profile and smaller tyres.
but i can tell you japanese car will outperform any european car in reliability and longetivity. A 2000 year toyota will be more reliable today than a 2008 VW.
I have a 1995 VW Passat and a 1994 Renault Laguna. Both lasted longer and more reliable than my son’s 2008 Honda Accord.
Japanese is not because no technology. Japanese test their products thoroughly before marketing them unlike europeans, designed yesterday selling today. So you are buying untested product.
Jepunis quality is going down to drain
This is small boy talk. Testing and certification started in Europe and is more keenly enforced there.
camry vs accord vs passat, kinda unfair right?
cx5 vs crv vs tiguan? looks unlikely better for German
lexus RX vs BMW x-series vs Merc GLce vs AUDI Q-series : german wins here
You must have not test driven the new Honda civic along the highway and pitched against Audi a3, vw golf.
All those cars cannot catch up suprima s at corners, only win at straight lane
See what reputational car maker like Nissan will do when they have internal problem, they stop the production line, investigate and fix it.
When the problem happened in Proton? No one really care. Let the bad luck customers deal with warranty claiming lar.
And you forgot that no warranty claims for souls