The safety rating of a vehicle is a major influence of why a buyer will prefer one car manufacturer over the other or one vehicle model over the other.

But if you are buying vehicles from Japan, there is a good chance that the safety rating on the vehicle you end up buying might actually not be correct – at least going by a safety testing scandal that has shaken the Japanese auto industry.

According to Reuters, Japan auto makers Toyota, Honda, Mazda, and Yamaha have been caught up in a safety testing scandal.

Reuters reports that this scandal has widened to a point where Toyota Motor and Mazda have now stopped the shipments of some vehicle models.

“The world’s biggest automaker by volume said it temporarily halted shipments and sales of three car models made in Japan,” Reuters reported.

According to the report by Reuters, safety issues occurred during six different tests that were conducted in 2014, 2015, and 2020. Reuters reported that the affected Toyota vehicles included three production models [some of which are highly popular in the Kenyan market] the Corolla Fielder, Corolla Axio and Yaris Cross.

Also affected were four other popular models that included a model that was sold under the Lexus luxury brand.

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“[Toyota] had measured collision damage on one side of a model’s bonnet while it was required to do so on both sides. In other instances, it said it conducted certain tests through development testing under more strict conditions than those set out by the ministry that did not meet the government’s requirements,” Reuters reported.

Apart from Toyota, Mazda also suspended shipments of some of its brands. These included the Roadster RF sports car and the Mazda2 hatchback.

On the other end, Honda said that it had found instances of misreported issues including in noise and output tests over a period of more than eight years to October 2017. These affected two dozen Honda vehicle models that are no longer in production.