Nissan Inspection Scandal, Unfavorable Inspections Have Been Going On For Years

Scandals from the automotive industry involving different automakers have been making rounds in the media recently. Let's take a look at the new and ongoing issues that resulted from recent inspection scandals, how they impacted sales, and how the corporations have responded to counter these challenging effects. Originally, the first issue came to light when Volkswagen was not doing inspections correctly and ran into issues with governmental inspections according to regulations. The big story in the media is the recent Nissan final vehicle inspection in Japan, which is under ongoing investigation.

Nissan Scandal Regarding Inspections Won’t Go Away

One of the Japanese Nissan production plants halted production and ended up recalling 1.2 million vehicles. The initial recalls were due to inspections that were done inappropriately but surprisingly continued to be done without change, even after the issue that resulted in the recalls. Now all vehicle production at the Japanese Nissan production plant is on hold until internal investigations find out what happened and how to correct the problems. The issue is linked to regulations that are established by the Japanese government concerning final vehicle inspection. How this violation occurred is still to be determined.

Nissan’s Investigation Continues

The ongoing investigation and the increasing media coverage from NKH, a Japanese broadcaster, seemsto be making things quite difficult for Nissan, whichhas been conducting inappropriate inspections for over two decades.The same news has been published and announced by Reuters considering the fact that Nissan has had irregularities in its final inspections for at least twenty years. The standards that were not followed for inspections were established by the ministry of transport of Japan regarding all vehicles sold in Japan. So far, neither Reuters or NKH have cited their sources. Other media companies are expected to cover the story and possibly expose more information as the story unfolds.

The Transport Minister's Take

According to Keiichi Ishii, Japan's Transport Minister,who is investigating a violation of ministry inspection requirements by Nissan, the investigations focusing on final inspections that had been conducted for some time by uncertified technicians, has still not concluded how long the violation has been ongoing. On the other side, Nissan has neither denied or confirmed the accusations in the NHK report. Still, Reuters was only given the statement of Nissan’s CEO Hiroto Saikawa, saying that Nissan’s training system designed for personnel to be able to conduct vehicle inspection, suffered no alterations over the last twenty years.

Saikawa Downplays the Situation

Nissan’s CEO, Hiroto Saikawa, also stated that the period of the misconduct was not connected to the training program. He stated that the possible cause was poor communications at assembly plants to be the root of the violation of inspection regulations. The fact that Hiroto Saikawa is taking a position is a positive. The main issue in his position is that it is seen as a generalistic statement that does not solve any issues and fails to clearly identify causes, let alone a concrete action plan, other than an internal investigation and production lockdown at one of the Japanese production plants.

Relief for North American Nissan Markets

The good side of the investigation is that none of the cars that passed the faulty inspections were exported to other markets, such as the North American markets, including Mexico, Canada and the United States of America. North American Nissan vehicle owners can breathe a sigh of relief, and rest assured that American Nissan vehicles were not affected. Still, this negative Nissan media stir is making Nissan sales and credibility in the United States of America take quite a hit. Sometimes investigations like these raise other questions and issues in other countries, but for now, everything seems to be alright.

GM Agrees to Pay $125 Million

Still, Nissan is not the only automaker that is in trouble with regulations. GM was involved in a scandal which is resulting in $125 million to be paid to the hundreds of people that died or were injured due to faulty ignition switches in vehicles including the Saturn Ion and the Chevy Cobalt. This huge issue resulted in the recall of over 2.7 million in 2014. This recall resulted in multiple lawsuits. A settlement was recently established between GM and state attorneys general. This settlement included forty-nine American states that dropped charges with the $125 million payment.

Daimler Upgrades 3 Million Vehicles

Despite a costly upgrade to 3 million vehicles, Daimler is still making a profit in their 3rd quarter of 2017 due to its Mercedes unit. Bloomberg featured a story where Daimler was required to upgrade three million of its vehicles due to a diesel problem. This upgrade set Daimler back $535 million, but it was not enough to create a negative balance due to the Mercedes unit’s quite admirable continued results. Some reporters and readers must be asking themselves if these kinds of issues were overlooked or just completely missed. Either way, it makes one question a number of things.

Bloomberg’s Scoop on Daimler

Bloomberg featured a story that talked about how solid many German premium vehicle brands have maintained themselves. Despite the questions raised from the Volkswagen diesel-emissions inspections that were not followed correctly, Daimler still managed to produce positive financial results. By using technology to reduce pollution, Daimler and other automakers have been able to use this feature to drive profits by increasing customer acceptance. The initial hit of being questioned about pollution has been reversed for Daimler. The bottom line is that Daimler is selling more diesel cars than before. This outcome has been much better for Daimler than for other players in the European car market. Daimler is also the largest commercial vehicle maker in the world and has worked to counter the 14% decline in results, but still has a 3.46 billion euro third quarter before taxes, which is better than other competitors.

Bentley is Choosing its New CEO

Bentley is going through a transitory period with its CEO Wolfgang Durheimer being replaced by Adrian Hallmark, who was the former strategy director for Jaguar and Land Rover. Durheimer was involved in the Bugatti Chiron, the Porsche Carrera GT, two generations of the Porsche 911 and the 918 Spyder. Durheimer will not be leaving Bentley but will be on the board for auto developments. Many speculate that Hallmark being brought on to replace Durheimer as CEO is a reflex to the Dieselgate scandal and take the company in a new direction.

American Dealers Take a Financial Hit Too

2017 has been a tough year for American dealers since many are having to come back on prices and thus reducing profit margins. Hurricane Harvey helped sales recover a bit after many cars were lost in the damage and resulted in cars being replaced. Moreover, dealers should see diminishing sales in the months that follow since the sales spike was caused by a natural disaster. This scenario almost always leads to fierce price competition and incentives that ultimately reduce dealers’ profits. The average number of new vehicles is virtually the same as in 2015 and 2016. Even vehicle prices have maintained the same levels, meaning that the consumer will not pay more for a vehicle.

A Glance into the Past with the Volvo PV

The Volvo PV was an old-fashioned car that resembled the Volkswagen Beetle. It was last produced in 1965 in Sweden and gave way to newer models. It had only two doors, a humpbacked rear and flip out vent-windows. This car was quite fast for its time and could be driven comfortably at 70mph and could reach 27mpg on the highway. The PV was considered a good compact family car. It featured a powerful motor and strong suspension. This was proven when two Kenyan brothers, Jaswant and Joginder Singh won a three-thousand-mile, East African Safari rally driving a PV544. The brothers handled their PV544 through the muddy roads, puddles, and wild animals such as giraffes and herds of buffalo, as well as other obstacles such as rocks and falling boulders.

Volvo PV Statistics

The Volvo PV was a beloved and popular Swedish car. It was a car that the Swedes liked so much that 280,000 of the 440,000 PVs built from 1947 to 1965 stayed in Sweden, while the rest were exported to other European countries, where they were also admired. In 1966, the Volvo 144o sedan took the PVs place and was the predecessor of the more modern and traditional boxy shaped Volvos that the world knows so well. Volvo is currently talking of making electric cars, which is quite a change from its earlier models cars.