Mitsubishi Fuso

Recall filing on the hubs of heavy duty trucks and buses

Tokyo, March 24, 2004. Mitsubishi Fuso today filed a recall of its heavy-duty front hubs to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT). The number of vehicles subject to this recall are approximately 220.000 units, of which roughly 112.000 units are still registered, all heavy-duty trucks and buses of model year 1996 and before.

This recall is based on our findings that insufficient strength of the front hub may cause a crack near the root of the hub flange when the vehicle is operated under driving conditions such as a high frequency of turning. Coupled with other factors like maintenance and loading conditions, there is a possibility that this crack may occur earlier. If the vehicle use is continued under these conditions, the crack may expand, and in the worst case, lead to breakage of relevant parts and therefore wheel detachment.

In the process of the root cause investigation, we examined the technical data, design and testing criteria against the DaimlerChrysler criteria. This lead to the findings, that from the design perspective, the hubs for certain types of vehicles does not have a sufficient safety margin, as well as to the decision to file this recall.

As the certification and supply of replacement parts requires some time, all temporary measures will be carried out first. Once the counter measure parts can be supplied, the permanent measure will be implemented.

Quality management has top priority among the top management issues. Based on the experience we will acquire from this hub quality issue, we will implement improvement measures as soon as possible. In order to do so, we will install an independent advisory council including external experts. Additionally, we will thoroughly investigate how we arrived at the current situation, and if necessary, we are planning to impose appropriate consequences based on the results of our investigation.

Mitsubishi Fuso takes the development of this recall very seriously. Road safety being our primary concern, we will continue to put great efforts into taking fast appropriate counter measures on field failures.

President and CEO Wilfried Porth is planning to directly visit the family of the victim of the Accident, which occurred in Seya, Yokohama in January 2002, as soon as possible in order to offer our most sincere condolences to the victim as well as our heartfelt apologies to the family.