Toyota admits its engines are overrated – by its own power testing software Toyota apologized on Wednesday for an incident involving the fraudulent certification of its diesel engines that resulted in a corrective order from Japan's transport ministry. The local Ministry of Land Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism revealed last week that results of on-site investigation determined test engine …
Not really a translation- if you say those characters aloud, the sounds ‘Dieselgate’ come out your mouth! That character set too is the one mainly used for foreign loan words.
Though as various -gate scandals have nothing to do with gates, and Watergate had nothing to do with water I’m not sure which way you would chose to translate this anyway. Perhaps Japan has another naming scheme for scandals entirely? If so, perhaps we could borrow it! I’m tired of -gate already…
Only one more use of -gate should be tolerated- when Mr Musk messes up we have to have an Elongate!
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I can see the legal vultures descending on this; another mis-selling compensation bandwagon.
Interestingly, this doesn’t seem to be a simple overstating of power figures like Ford etc have been found to have done, with cars like the Ford Mustang having a claimed 320 hp but independent testing finding it was closer to 290 hp.
Stating your 200hp engine emits x emissions when a real Toyota 200hp unit emits x+ emissions is under reporting emissions especially when the Toyota is claiming things that aren’t true and conning consumers & competitors.
No idea if Japan charges extra taxes on higher emission cars but customers may have gotten charged less tax on their Toyota than a rivals same hp vehicle because of this when in fact the Toyota engine had less power all along but the actual capable unit was in a higher band.
The regulations are easily meet-able, if you aren't competing on cost or performance.
Once Car co #1 cheats and appears to have a "more efficient" engine, they charge a premium. Car co #2 is now loosing market share and/or profits, unless they cheat.
What I do NOT get in that whole affair is why no other car co figured out what VW (etc.) were doing.
Regular commentard here, but AC for obvious reasons.
I work in a diesel engine test lab for a company you would have heard of. The lab I work in has dozens of engine test cells, of a range of capacities, and develops and certifies mostly diesel engines. I am responsible for the data quality of measurements, including engine power, which is calculated from measured torque and speed. I'm only one level removed from the guy whose name goes on the reports sent to the EPA, CARB, etc. I've participated in audits from those organisations (we passed with flying colours.) I've been doing this for well over a decade.
I've also helped with measurements on the end of line engine tests in two of our production facilities, where our engines are "power set" by having their max injector timings set so they all make the same peak torque within a percent or two.
I don't understand how the engine software comes into play here. Yes, it would be illegal for them to have production software on the ECM which differs from the software used during the certification test, but what are they gaining here from just "smoothing" it? In our lab, and all engine test labs I've visited, the power is calculated from the measurements made by test cell hardware, not the ECM. Those instruments are calibrated regularly and traceable to a national laboratory such as NIST in the US. The calibrations and linearity verifications are spelled out in legal requirements such as 40 CFR Part 1065 in the US.
I'm not an expert at all, so your mileage may vary (pun intended).
Reading this article https://apnews.com/article/toyota-cheating-tests-diesel-daihatsu-apology-02680eb9bab1a555ea43208d69a0c86e it seems like there was a systematic way that they were falsifying the tests and I think they had an agreed formula for how much they would improve the results with the component testing so that when the engine software also provided values, they would also match, so it wasn't caught out.
They appear to be clueless. Prius continues to do well with Uber self-employed but really not self-employed drivers.
In SUV, compact and saloon land just about everyone has gone German.
And then other brands they own have been savaged and steippednof identity. 30 years ago Subaru was the working mans hero car, and could be found on every street. Now they're bland near rebadges of Toybotas being shipped with poor engine choices. The 2.5 boxer turbo is as old as the hills, but will they invest? Lexus have virtually vanished.
The Hilux has the rep but if you have more than two brain cells a van is a much better option than the pickup.
And they're behind on pure EV too, if that's your thing.
Japanese company though so steering is literally a supertanker with a teaspoon. Someone with a bit of vision could turn it around.
I'm assuming you're being sarcastic with your response given how many vehicles Toyota sells per year. In case you hadn't heard the chairman doesn't give a fuck about EVs as he knows they're not really a solution, as the rest of the world's early adopters are gradually working out - many firms dropping production, resale values in the shitter and slower uptake once the fanboys are already onboard. The only countries they sell well and have market penetration are the Scandies, and that's because they massively subsidise them whilst penalising ICE cars which isn't really sustainable. As a wise man once said - you're not going to save the planet one great big 2.5 tonne EV shitter at a time.
I didn't realise that anyone expected them to be objective.
There used to be a thing called "SAE gross" horsepower, which was entirely fictional, and yet quoted by almost all manufacturers.
Reputable reviewers put examples of the machines actually offered to the public on a rolling road brake and measure the power really delivered. Manufacturers' claims have always been meaningless.
-A.
Toyota also got banned from WRC for 1 year, for cheating. When the WRC teams (in the early 1980s) began moving from carbuertors (where there had to be some compromises in airflow to maintain any kind of driveability) to turbocharged fuel injected engines, they went up from like 150HP to like 700 in a few years, and there were lots of fatalities. So from sometime in the early or mid 1980s to present they have a restricter plate (and I assume a limit on boost as well) in there to limit them to like 300HP. They run on often not that smooth tarmac, gravel, and ice and snow, and roads that are curvy as all hell (one of the rules is if they get over some certain peak speed, the route is curvier the next year, even if it's by sticking some bollards in a straightaway they must drive around) so it's more about driver reflexes, handling, and brakes anyway than about all-out horsepower. (If they were just holding the pedal down and steering left they could run those 700HP+ setups, but then it'd be NASCAR. Side note, here in the US (that have any interest in motor sports) generally have a hard time even wrapping their heads around my being into car racing, but not interested in NASCAR. It's very hard to get WRC races here, they are not on any channel even if I got cable, dish, or streaming. )
1995 Toyota was doing very well, and the cheat they used was ingenious; there was a vacuum-operated flap inside the air intake. These cars are inspected! They'd look at the intake on the car, it looked restricted. You'd have the part off on the bench looking at it, it looked restricted. When air flow went through or enough engine vacuum built up or something, this huge flap would flap up in there and voila, no more restriction, the car was making like 400-450HP. Apparently it was only actually discovered because someone on the team got remorse, or perhaps felt slighted and got revenge, by suggesting one of the inspectors take a closer look at this thing, like run some vacuum on it or take a look at it while someone blips the throttle or whatever. They got all points the team and team drivers had gotten so far through the 1995 race year revoked, and banned outright from WRC for the 1996 race year.
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