Japanese Transport Authority Raids Mitsubishi’s Headquarters

The Mitsubishi fuel-economy scandal continues to explode. The latest news is that the automaker’s home office (along with a manufacturing plant) in Nagoya were raided by the Japanese Transport Ministry at the end of week.

The Japanese government appears intent to cut this thing off if possible, making an instance of the company and its fraud rather than letting Mitsubishi get off easy.

The news follows closely on the discovery that some of Mitsubishi’s most popular SUV models had actually deceptive specified fuel-economy ratings– including the Outlander and the Outlander Sport (offered under a different name in the US market). After this news, the Japanese government put a stop on the sale of these models.

Owing to the halting of sales, and just the usually extremely negative PR, the automaker has observed its sales take a nosedive in Japan– resulting in what’s anticipated to be the company’s very first significant losses in over 8 years. Nissan has taken advantage of this and just recently obtained about 30% stake in the rival.