Tuesday, 03 October 2017

Nissan to recall 1.21m new cars

Reuters reports that Nissan Motor Company Ltd is to recall all new passenger cars it sold in Japan in the last three years. This will equate to 1.2m new cars.

The automaker has discovered that final vehicle checks were not performed by authorised technicians. The affected vehicles were produced between October 2014 and September 2017 and will undergo re-inspections for checks on issues including steering radius and braking and acceleration capabilities and is estimated to cost around 25bn yen.

CEO Hiroto Saikawa apologised to customers for the inconvenience saying 'we must take the registration framework and procedures seriously, regardless of how busy we may be or how short-staffed we may be', adding that the company would be investigating how and why the inspection process had fallen down.

'This could turn out to be a serious issue depending on whether the misconduct was intentional or a simple oversight,' said Takeshi Miyao, managing director of consultancy Carnorama.

'At the very least it could have a big impact on Nissan's brand image, given that it prides itself for selling quality products.'

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said on Friday it has asked Nissan to report measures to prevent a recurrence of the issue by the end of October.