Subaru has been caught with its hand in the cookie jar several times in 2018. After announcing a major recall for a faulty engine part just a few days ago, Subaru is now recalling an additional 100,000 vehicles for a handbrake issue. According to The Wall Street Journal, the recall is related to an issue stemming from improper brake testing and inspection procedures.

As we reported last month, Subaru testers would apply the brake pedal when testing the parking brake, thus throwing off the results of the test. Subaru said the issue would not impact US-market cars but will impact 100,000 cars in Japan.

Interestingly, Subaru has also recalled US-market Legacy and Outback models fitted with electronic parking brakes for a completely unrelated issue. Even without counting the Lecagy and Outback recall in the US, Subaru has now been forced to recall roughly 530,000 vehicles in Japan. This is expected to cost the company 6.5 billion yen (around $57.4 million), which comes at a terrible time for the Japanese automaker. Subaru will soon have to contend with US tariffs on Japanese auto imports and the company has already seen its profits decline in 2018.

Recalls were the main factor in Subaru's profit decline this year and even though the Japanese brand has seen strong sales in the US, the company still imports half of its US-market cars from Japan. Subaru does build several new models in US factories but the heavy dependence on Japan may take a heavy toll if tariffs are imposed. Hopefully, Subaru will solve its recall issues so it can focus on the more alarming issue of impending tariffs. We'd also tell Subaru to make sure it doesn't cheat on any more tests because it will probably hurt the company's bottom line.