Mitsubishi now says a million vehicles were defective, including exported models...... [+ click to enlarge] Pajeros sold in Malaysia may be defective

Following Mitsubishi Motors' mid-July announcement that it would recall over half a million units due to known defects that were never rectified, the company has now said that it will now be recalling at least one million vehicles for known defects. The vehicles affected were produced as far back as the late 1970s and include vehicles exported from Japan.

Making the announcement personally at a press conference in Tokyo on August 22nd, Mitsubishi Motors president K. Kawasoe revealed that a report on the company's internal investigation submitted to Japan's Transport Ministry contained admissions that a huge number of consumer complaints of defects had been deliberately not reported to the authorities. Japanese law requires all car manufacturers to report defects to their vehicles.

The report also admitted that senior executives were believed to have been aware of the cover-up and took no action, confirming suspicions of government officials. In fact, investigations revealed that many complaints had even been marked 'secret' by certain company executives.

"I have no option but to admit the report reflects a truly regrettable state of affairs.That state of affairs is the result of a lack of respect for rules and regulations on the part of the company officers and employees involved," said Mr. Kawasoe, who added that salaries of executives involved in the cover-up would be cut. He suggested that the executives may have tried to minimize the recalls.

One excuse offered in the report noted that 'technical complexity' had made instituting recalls difficult and executives had 'lacked sufficient information to decide if recalls were needed'.

Besides a projected cost of 7.5 billion yen (about RM262.2 million) for the recall exercise, Mitsubishi Motors will also face punishments from the Transport Ministry, the nature of which has not been announced. Two years ago, Fuji Heavy Industries was fine 1.4 million yen (about RM49,000) when it got caught for having failed to report defects in almost 1.5 million Subaru vehicles.

In an attempt at damage control, DaimlerChrysler, which has a 34% controlling stake in Mitsubishi Motors, separately announced that the episode had not affected their alliance which would be completed by the end of the year, pending approval by the relevant authorities.

Vehicles affected
The expanded recall now includes 200,000 vehicles that were exported to other countries; in the original recall announcement, Mitsubishi Motors had said that only vehicles sold in Japan were affected.

The models affected include the Minicab, Lancer, Mirage, Galant, Eterna, Emeraude, Diamante, Delica, Pajero and six Fuso truck models. The company specified that about 50,000 affected vehicles were sold in North America while 150,000 were sold in other overseas markets.

In the earlier announcement, items such engines, brakes and fuel tank caps had been identified as being defective. References have been made also to cracks in the upper portion of the fuel tank of the Galant and the possibility of a crankshaft pulley bolt which might fail in Mirages made between 1995 and 1997.

Of interest to Proton Perdana owners may be the defects specified for the Eterna models made between March 1st 1994 and August 31st 1995. Mitsubishi Motors has stated that inadequate welding attaching the baffle plate to the fuel tank may cause fuel leakage. The Perdana is known to be based on the Eterna and uses a number of Japanese-sourced components.

Massive recalls are not as common among Japanese manufacturers compared to the US Big Three - although in the light of what has been discovered, perhaps there have been 'conspiracies'. The most significant recall was made by Honda a year ago to change floormats in Civics that were found to be likely to interfere with the accelerator pedal.

Malaysian models
While the original recall stated that only vehicles sold in Japan were affected, this expanded recall now covers vehicles that were exported. Although USF - the official Mitsubishi distributor in Malaysia - has sold mostly locally-assembled models since the mid-1980s, it still imports quite a number of vehicles from Japan. Before the 1997 recession, there were also many Galants sold through Cycle & Carriage (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd which has held the Mitsubishi franchise for passenger cars since the 1970s. Many imported units such as the Colt and Lancer F were also distributed by United Cycle in the early 1980s when it was a Mitsubishi distributor.

Although Autoworld.com.my telephoned and sent a fax over a month ago to USF, no response has yet been received from the company to clarify the situation with Mitsubishi models sold in this country. At the time we made the enquiry, it was said that there was a holiday in Japan and no information was available. However, one month later, the company has still not bothered to reply to our query. USF's silence is certainly disturbing and may be reason for Mitsubishi owners, especially those who have imported models, to now be more concerned because some of the defects are safety-related.

Needless to say, those who bought vehicles (new or reconditioned) from parallel importers would not be able to do much unless the companies concerned offer them assistance. As far as Mitsubishi Motors is concerned, such vehicles are supposed to be still in Japan as they were sold to domestic dealers.

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