TOKYO Japan's Mitsubishi Motors hid 26 defects in its cars from regulators for years in addition to four problems it publicized in 2000 to avoid issuing recalls for the vehicles, the company said Wednesday.
The automaker said it would immediately start recalling the affected cars, estimated at over 160,000 and most of them sold in Japan.
The newly discovered problems are the latest to taint Mitsubishi since it acknowledged in 2000 that it had systematically covered up auto defects for more than two decades and issued massive recalls for the vehicles affected.
In 2000, however, Mitsubishi Motors only made public and issued recalls for four of the defects even though it had discovered about 30 of them.
The company said none of the defects had caused any accidents that resulted in death or property damage.