Subaru may have one-upped Nissan when it comes to bad final inspections, this time data falsification is directly linked to a car’s safety.
Nissan submitted its findings to Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Tranport and Tourism on the results of its internal investigation linked to shoddy final inspections affecting the final product quality of thousands of Nissan’s sold in Japan and now even Subaru is fessing up. As per Subaru in an official press release they put out earlier last week (Sept. 29, 2018) the tally for the number of vehicles affected by their latest internal investigation on their final vehicle inspection process hit 1,869 Subarus hinting at a bigger problem which they go through even further.
In their press release, like Nissan, they also admitted to falsifying data and manipulating test room facilities to an extent, a problem they initially confessed to earlier this year. It’s not so much that they falsified information, but brakes and steering were the main systems areas where they skipped important final inspection steps, two components crucial to car safety.
Subaru justifies their excuses by citing that despite these bad practices when random inspections of one out of a 100 Subarus was done, all random test cars met their final inspection standards.
To give you an idea of what was done Asahi reports that as far as braking is concerned, to give brakes an almost one hundred percent pass rate, when measuring rear braking power both the emergency parking brake and foot brakes were applied at the same time, an unfair practice that’s both dangerous and unrealistic in the real world.
Also, if the steering wasn’t up to snuff and a car’s tires didn’t turn within a certain standard, either body panels were manipulated every so slightly or the tire was given a shove in either direction for that extra degree of turning radius needed measuring on a mm level.
A lot of these problems stemmed from, like Nissan, a need to get as many Subarus out there assembly line as possible. Subarus brought in for reinspection can’t be sold as new.
And like Nissan, Subaru reiterated its commitment to safety and wrote out several steps that will be taken so this doesn’t happen again.
First Nissan, and now Subaru. Whose next?
