2022 Daihatsu Hijet Dump Bed on 2040-cars

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Toyota says president, chairman of scandal-hit Daihatsu unit to step down

TOKYO — Toyota Motor Corp said on Tuesday both the president and chairman of Daihatsu Motor will step down almost a year after the small-car unit said it had rigged collision safety-tests. The departures are among the most drastic changes Daihatsu has made so far, as Toyota seeks to return the brand to its roots as one of Japan's most iconic compact car makers. Toyota faces a potential hit to its reputation from the safety certification lapses at Daihatsu, as well as separate governance issues at truck maker Hino Motors and affiliate Toyota Industries. The scandals at the three companies triggered a rare apology of Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda last month. In a statement, the world's top-selling automaker said its chief executive officer for the Latin America and Caribbean region, Masahiro Inoue, will replace Soichiro Okudaira as Daihatsu's president effective March 1. Daihatsu's chairman, Sunao Matsubayashi, will also step down and will not be replaced, Toyota added. The outgoing Okudaira had worked at Toyota for nearly four decades before becoming president of Daihatsu in 2017, a year after it became a wholly owned Toyota subsidiary. Toyota Chief Executive Koji Sato told reporters, however, that the organizational change at Daihatsu was not carried out as a punishment for the outgoing executives. In volume terms, Daihatsu accounted for 7% of Toyota's total group sales of 11.2 million vehicles in 2023, including those of the luxury Lexus brand and Hino Motors. Given the misconduct over the safety test certification applications, Daihatsu also will be removed from a commercial vehicle partnership known as the Commercial Japan Partnership Technologies (CJPT), the automaker said in a separate statement. The partnership was established in April 2021 by Toyota, Hino and Isuzu Motors to facilitate technology development for commercial vehicles. Suzuki Motor and Daihatsu joined in July the same year. Daihatsu's 10% equity stake in the partnership will be transferred to Toyota, the statement said. (Reporting by Daniel Leussink and Satoshi Sugiyama; Editing by Kim Coghill & Shri Navaratnam and Miral Fahmy) Government/Legal Hirings/Firings/Layoffs Plants/Manufacturing Toyota Daihatsu

Takata airbag recalls add another 5 million vehicles

The Takata airbag inflator recall expanded by about 6.5 million vehicles recently when Toyota and Nissan announced global expansions to replace the faulty parts. You can add another 5 million more as Honda and Daihatsu also broaden their replacement campaigns. Although in this latest case, none of the affected models are in the United States or Canada. Honda is recalling 4.89 million more vehicles globally, and Daihatsu has about 260,000 to repair in Japan, according to Automotive News. With these latest expansions, all of the affected automakers have needed to fix about 36 million vehicles globally for these faulty airbags since 2008. Some of the first instances of these problems were found in an Isuzu campaign in 2001. This latest round of recalls was sparked by a study from Takata that found the inflators' propellant could be affected by moisture over time. While the automakers received this information in March, it took time to determine the number of vehicles in need of repair and where they were located, according to Automotive News. To make sure all of the affected vehicles in the US are repaired in a timely fashion, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is reportedly considering a strategy to force things to speed up. Honda and Toyota are already using outside suppliers for the parts they need. Related Video: News Source: Automotive News - sub. req.Image Credit: Shizuo Kambayashi / AP Photo Recalls Honda Daihatsu Safety Takata airbag recall

Daihatsu Compagno concept makes us wish the company was still in America

Here at Autoblog, we frequently talk about cars we love that we just can't get here, and Daihatsu just revealed a car that will surely reignite those conversations. It's a new concept called the Compagno, and it's a revival of a vintage Daihatsu of the same name. It's also a little sedan that, because of its sleek shape, is called a coupe. Debate over naming conventions aside, the Compagno is a lovely little sedan to look at. It's very well proportioned, and it has a refreshingly clean and taut shape with long, simple curves and little adornment. It gets a little bit of flair and aggression from the shoulder created by a creased line that runs from the top of the headlights to the top of the taillights. The fast, sloping roofline and hidden rear door handle help sell the coupe look. It's also nice to see a retro-inspired design that isn't shamelessly so. You can see the retro elements in the shape of the grille and the way the fascia leans forward, but most of the rest of the car looks quite modern. We like this sedan a lot, and we really wish something similar would come here. It's not the only Daihatsu we'd like to see either. The company has a really cool little kei-class roadster called the Copen. It's available with different appearance options that will appeal to fans of modern and vintage cars alike, and it features a line of customizable body parts. Daihatsu also designed a thoroughly adorable kei-class van called the Move Canbus. It looks like a tiny VW Microbus. Bring over all three, and you'd have a really appealing lineup. But if we leave our wildest dreams and examine our cold hard reality, a lineup like this probably wouldn't survive here. All of those cars are extremely small. The Copen is about half a size smaller than a Miata, for reference. Even this Compagno concept is probably too small. The company says it has either a 1.0-liter turbocharged engine, or a 1.2-liter hybrid engine. That means there's no way it's any bigger than say, a Ford Fiesta sedan. And if that's one of the largest cars Daihatsu might sell, the company wouldn't have a prayer in a world where the F-150 is king. Oh well, even if we never get the Compagno, hopefully Japan will see a production version. And then in 25 years, crazy car enthusiasts such as ourselves might start bringing some over. Related Video: