Gov't sets fines for vehicle mileage cheats

300,000 yen should go to the people that purchased the cars.

Yes, I agree with gogogo, money to the people who were mis-led by Mitsubishi and not to the Ministry as they were sleeping at the wheel by allowing auto manufacturers to set their own economy/mileage tests.

I always love the , "From now!" punishments.

Now Mitsubishi has bought Lawson's, things can only get worse. The food is bad enough now heaven knows what Mitsubishi will cheat us on?

Only ¥300,000 per vehicle type for deliberate corporate fraud and false and misleading advertising? You have to be pooping me! That equals one corporate lunch! I think there should be at least three more zeros on that figure.

In all honesty I would rather have the Gov collect the fee and do the test themselves and give out the fuel economy numbers. All these fines are just giving fuel economy a bad name since there is probably no certain "correct" fuel economy number or test.

Gov should say: We tested this vehicle in our standard test(s) and these are the fuel economy numbers. No special oil, tires, fuel used etc.

How about 300,000 yen per vehicle of the type sold? That might start to do something.

New Mitsubishi released - Advertised at 100,000KM per liter. Price - 3,000,000YEN.

Actual fuel economy - 15KM/Liter. Fine - 10% of the car.

Needless to say, I won't make my new car a Mitsubishi!

No, not fines. A ban on sales.

A ban on sales.

None of it is necessary. The buyers are the final law when it comes to any business, and it is they who deal out the harshest punishment. Mitsubishi's shenanigans have already cost it billions of dollars, which is far more than 300,000 yen per car affected, as well as the resignation of it's CEO. Not only has Mitsubishi lost sales and market value, they ended up having to sell off more than one-third of their car manufacturing business to Nissan.

The government is not, and never will actually charge a company in Japan Inc any fine for problems with it's products; the law is another show. You notice that the article says "up to 300,000 yen", which means that any fine levied would likely be for a much lower amount, if a fine were levied at all, which would be very unlikely, unless Mitsubishi Motors were sold to a foreign firm, and would then be fair game.

What I want to know is under what criterea are vehicles to be tested under. Final mileage figures are dependent on the driver, road conditions and car condition.