Toyota Motor Corp affiliate Daihatsu rigged part of the door in side-collision safety tests carried out for some 88,000 small cars, most of which were sold under the Toyota brand, including Perodua Axias manufactured in Malaysia, the companies said yesterday.

They said the door trim on the affected vehicles had been modified with a "notch" to minimise the risk in testing that the door interior could break with a sharp edge and cause injury to an occupant when the side airbag deployed in an accident.

The modification for testing was...