Mitsubishi cars in RI won't be recalled

JAKARTA (JP): Mitsubishi cars' sole distributor PT Krama Yudha said on Wednesday that Mitsubishi Motors Corp.'s decision to recall some 200,000 units sold overseas for repairs does not include those sold in Indonesia.

Kramat's marketing and promotion manager Yogi Indradjit said the company had been notified by Mitsubishi Motors that Indonesia was not among the countries where Mitsubishi cars were being recalled.

"We can guarantee that our market here is safe; customers do not need to worry," Yogi told The Jakarta Post.

Reuters reported on Tuesday that Mitsubishi Motors would recall 88,000 vehicles at home and some 200,000 vehicles in the overseas markets to conduct repairs that would cost the company some 7.5 billion yen (US$69.09 million).

Yogi said his company imported only Completely Knocked Down (CKD) Mitsubishi cars, which were then assembled here.

Whereas other countries, he said, often imported Completely Built Up (CBU) cars that were fully manufactured in Japan.

"Mitsubishi cars here have different specifications than elsewhere," he explained.

Furthermore, he said models sold in Indonesia were not among the models that Mitsubishi Motors planned to recall.

According to the news agency, Mitsubishi Motors admitted to have covered-up customers' complaints for over 20 years.

"I have no option but to admit the report reflects a truly regrettable state of affairs. That state of affairs is the result of a lack of respect for rules and regulations on the part of the company officers and employees involved," the company's president Katsuhiko Kawasoe said on Tuesday at a news conference.

Mitsubishi Motors said an internal inquiry found the firm had been hiding complaints since 1977, while a transport ministry official said 64,000 of 88,000 complaints filed since April 1998 had been kept secret.

On July 18, Mitsubishi Motors said it would offer to recall or check 692,000 cars and trucks in Japan, after saying it hid complaints for eight years.

AFP reported that Kawasoe submitted a report to the Transport Ministry on the scandal, which first surfaced in press reports last month, acknowledging for the first time the extent of the cover-up.

"Illegal acts have been going on for a long time," he said.

He said that executives, including himself, would take pay cuts and some senior managers would be demoted.(bkm)