Toyota and Mazda caught cheating with Yaris Cross and MX-5

At the end of last year, it became known that one of the good Toyota subsidiaries had secretly cheated on crash tests. Production of Daihatsu ceased immediately. Fraudulent practices have delved deeper, and more violations have now been discovered at both Toyota and Mazda. What does this mean for Dutch customers?

Toyota has discontinued production of the Toyota Yaris Cross in Japan and Mazda has discontinued production of the MX-5 RF, Mazda 3 and Mazda 6. All models are also sold in the Netherlands and Belgium. The Yaris Cross is the most popular car in its segment here. Fortunately, Yaris Cross and MX-5 customers don’t have to immediately go to the dealer to return their cars – it’s just for the Japanese market.

Tested incorrectly

Toyota explains in its press release that the brand’s testing methods deviated from standard government methods. With the Toyota Yaris Cross, this will include testing of occupant safety and pedestrian safety. It is also claimed that this test was not performed properly on the Toyota Corolla Fielder and Corolla Axio. We do not have these last two models in the Netherlands.

With the Mazda MX-5 RF and Mazda 2, there will be nothing wrong with the crash tests, but the engine software will behave differently during the test. You would think that other car brands would have learned something from Volkswagen. The Mazda 3 and Mazda 6 crash tests were tampered with: they deployed the airbag with a remote control instead of the crash sensor during the tests.

Therefore the cars do not comply with regulations in Japan. So, as far as we know, cheating has no effect on cars manufactured for the European market. in Car news europe Toyota Europe announces that the Yaris Cross for the European market is manufactured in France and that no action will be taken here.