A new scandal is brewing in the auto industry: Nokian has just been found guilty of rigging tire tests by using specially designed tires that offer better performance than the ones they sell, according to Finnish website yle.fi.
Simply put, they lied to their customers.
On Monday, Nokian CEO Ari Lehtoranta apologized for past malpractices, which apparently date back to 2006, sources told the Finland Times. He also claimed that it’s commonplace in the industry, something other leading tire manufacturers were quick to deny, and that the tires submitted for the tests and the ones purchased at retailers “were different in terms of characteristics, not quality.”
For the time being, Nokian believes that no grounds for compensation to consumers exist.
Of course, this type of cheating is a lot like Volkswagen fitting its diesel engines with special software to pass emissions tests in the U.S. We all know how that turned out…