Suzuki Motors Announces its Participation in the Ongoing Fuel-Emission Scandals

MANILA: Here’s a funny thing about trends, they will never stay forever and the same can be said about 2016 being the ‘Year of SUVs’. Although leading automotive brands have tried their best to make this plan a success, most of them ended up in various scandals related to fuel-economy and vehicular emission. We have heard the news about Volkswagen who was panned for its use of defeat devices in its diesel engines, causing a major dip in its sales and public image. If you think they’re the only one, then the Japanese aren’t far behind. The newest entrant in the list is a multiple times heavyweight veteran, Suzuki Motors.

In the recent reports, Suzuki has admitted to have flawed regulations for fuel-economy tests in their vehicles. The cars in question are said to be 16 models sold in the Japanese market, which include some famous names such as the Wagon R, Alto, Jimny, Suzuki Baleno and Swift etc.  If we look at the numbers, this might affect more than 2.1 million models across Japan and would certainly cause a bucket load of problems for the manufacturer. If coming out of the closet was a competition, Suzuki would’ve certainly scored a perfect 10.

The announcement was made by the brand’s official spokesperson, Hidehiro Hirano who also added that the problem will be reported to the Japanese officials personally by Suzuki’s President. The pristine Mitsubishi-Nissan Alliance was also damned from the start, after the former admitted to have presented exaggerated fuel consumption stats for 25 years. Adding to that, Nissan was also recently sued by the South Korean health ministry for use of cheat devices in their diesel engines, giving the Japanese their personal Dieselgate. As a result, Mitsubishi’s President and Executive Vice President have already announced their resignation from the company.

The year 2016 might have begun as the year of SUV’s but it has officially turned into a ‘Year of Scandals’ for the automotive industry. In Suzuki Motors’ defense, they are still not accused of manipulating any data or figures in their tests, so they still might not be as screwed as it looks right now. The Philippine buyers also need not worry as the said problem is only limited to the ones sold in Japan but looking at these recent revelations, you never know when crap hits the fan.

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