TOKYO—Toyota Motor Corp. affiliate Daihatsu rigged part of the door in side-collision safety tests carried out for some 88,000 small cars, most of which were sold under the Toyota brand, the companies said on Friday.
They said the door trim on the affected vehicles had been modified with a “notch” to minimize the risk in testing that the door interior could break with a sharp edge and cause injury to an occupant when the side airbag deployed in an accident.
The modification for testing was not part of the production vehicle, the companies said.
Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda said the companies were investigating how the side-panel of Yaris and other models had been changed for safety testing and apologized for what he called an “unacceptable” violation of consumer trust….