Toyota Vietnam suspends MPV Avanza shipment over safety test scam

Daihatsu said Wednesday it would halt shipments of all vehicles indefinitely after more irregularities were discovered.

An independent committee said it had found issues related to 64 models, including almost two dozen sold under the Toyota brand.

The panel began investigating the unlisted automaker after it said in April it had rigged side-collision safety tests carried out on 88,000 small cars, Reuters reported.

Toyota Vietnam said that concerning the Avanza, one improper modification of the car has been made during the emission and fuel efficiency test.

Toyota has only stopped shipping the manual transmission version of the car and not the automatic version.

But Avanza cars already shipped to dealers will continue to be sold.

Avanza cars have been assembled in Vietnam since December last year.

The car had met Vietnamese safety standards before its recall, and Toyota has informed authorities about the case.

Analysts have said the Daihatsu scandal would have a limited impact on Toyota’s earnings given the parent company’s size.

A one-month suspension of production would equal 120,000 vehicles and translate to a revenue loss of 240 billion yen (US$1.68 billion) for Toyota, Nomura auto analyst Masataka Kunugimoto wrote in a report, according to Reuters.