THE head of Japanese car maker Subaru has bowed deeply in apology as the company admitted it has been carrying out flawed inspections of its Japan-made cars for years.
The announcement by chief executive and president Yasuyuki Yoshinaga was the latest in a flurry of such scandals. Earlier this month Nissan recalled more than a million domestically made cars because of faulty routine tests.
Subaru will submit a report on the problem to the government on Monday, Yoshinaga revealed.
He said a domestic recall is likely, spanning the entire Subaru line-up totalling 255,000 vehicles.
“We are truly sorry, and we apologise,” he said, after bowing deeply. “We all wanted to do the tests properly.”
The government ordered car makers to check their inspection procedures after Nissan apologised for allowing unauthorised employees to do final vehicle checks for years.
The scandals have stunned the public and cast a shadow over this nation’s prized “monozukuri”, or production, reputed for quality, order and meticulousness.
Yoshinaga said the faulty inspections for Subaru’s finished products had been going on for 30 years. The workers involved did not fully realise their method was wrong, he said.
The recalls are expected to cost 5 billion yen (£33 million).
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