People's trust in Japanese cars has been questioned following revelations that two domestic automakers that enjoyed strong reputations — Nissan Motor Co. and Subaru Corp. — allowed unauthorized employees to conduct final quality checks on finished vehicles.
The scandal has caused Nissan to cut its operating profit forecast for the business year, which ends next March, by ¥40 billion to ¥645 billion due to costs related to the flawed inspections, including the recall of around 1.2 million vehicles in Japan, the company said earlier this month. Meanwhile, Subaru has recalled 395,000 vehicles and costs for corrective measures may top ¥20 billion.
Despite the misconduct, both carmakers claim vehicle safety and quality were never compromised, and that the core of the issue has more to do with compliance than quality.