Marque recalls 320,000 units

Daihatsu has recalled more than 320,000 vehicles and extended a factory shutdown on January 24, deepening troubles sparked by a safety testing scandal.

The Toyota-owned marque has notified Japan’s transport ministry that it will call back a total of 322,700 units of two models due to door defects.

The company has also announced that operations at three of its four factories will stay suspended until February 16 with the firm considering plans to restart a plant in Kyoto.

It comes as Daihatsu revealed in December that it had been manipulating safety tests since at least 1989, affecting 64 models including some sold under the Toyota brand. In the same month, it suspended all its domestic production.

In April 2023, it reported it had been falsifying crash test results for four of its models, involving a total of 88,000 units made in Thailand and Malaysia in 2022 and 2023.

The following month, it announced it was halting production in Japan of two hybrid models because of similar “irregularities”, including the Toyota’s Raize SUV made on behalf of its parent company.

Founded in 1907 to make internal combustion engines, Osaka-based Daihatsu launched its first three-wheeler in 1931 before being taken over by Toyota in 1967.