Honda Recalls 2012 Accord, 2012 Crosstour, 2011-2012 Ridgeline
Honda has issued two recalls today -- one for the 2012 Accord and 2012 Crosstour, and another for the 2011-2012 Ridgeline.
The 2012 Accord and Crosstour recall is the most worrisome of the two. According to a bulletin from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Accords and Crosstours from the 2012 model year may have been built with a faulty inflator for the side-curtain airbag on the passenger's side. As a result, those airbags may not deploy during a crash, seriously increasing the risk of injury to vehicle occupants.
Thankfully, the size of this recall is fairly small, including only 347 units to date. (Given the popularity of the Accord, the recall could've been much larger a few months down the road.) Honda expects to notify owners of affected vehicles about the recall by next Friday, February 10. At that time, they'll be able to take their vehicles to a Honda dealer, who will inspect the airbag system and replace inflators as necessary, free of charge.
If you have questions about the 2012 Accord and Crosstour recall, we encourage you to ring Honda Customer Service at 800-999-1009, or call the NHTSA at 888-327-4236 and ask about recall campaign #12V030000.
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The 2011-2012 Ridgeline recall centers around the Ridgeline's spare tire, which has come with inaccurate inflation information on the attached placard. If owners use the spare tire and it's improperly inflated, the tire could fail, leading to an accident. Approximately 206 Ridgelines are included in this recall.
Honda has already begun sending out notices to Ridgeline owners, so if you have one of the recalled vehicles in your garage, you should receive something in the mail very soon. At that time, you can take your Ridgeline to a Honda dealer, who will amend or replace the tire information placard free of charge.
Should you have additional questions about the Ridgeline recall, call Honda Customer Service at 800-999-1009, or ring up the NHTSA at 888-327-4236 and ask about recall campaign #12V025000.
This story originally appeared at The Car Connection
As Car Sales Increase, Bargains Will Likely Be Harder To Find
Thanks in part to record incentives, car sales in the United States are up, but that brings with it both good news and bad news. First the good news: consumers don’t spend money on things like automobiles unless they have confidence in the economy, which could mean that the worst of the recession is behind us.
Now the bad news: more car sales mean less incentives and discounts from manufacturers, especially since the excess inventory that’s plagued the industry in recent years has been all but eliminated.
Japanese manufacturers are still recovering from the March disasters in Japan, so inventory levels at most Japanese brands are just beginning to normalize. Flooding in Thailand has disrupted production of certain Japanese car brands (most notably Honda), but we’re still a month or so away from seeing this in dealer showrooms.
With foreign cars in short supply and domestic quality on the rise, consumers embraced U.S. automakers this year, lowering inventory levels at GM, Ford and Chrysler dealerships. Smartmoney tells us that Ford has reduced available incentives by 13 percent in October, and it’s cutting rebates even further in November.
Thanks to record low interest rates, buyers with exceptional credit can still find good deals on auto financing, and some manufacturers (like Audi, for example) are actively promoting low interest financing.
If you’re in the market for a new car, it may pay to put off a buying decision until December. Inventory levels aren’t likely to improve, but manufacturers may be more inclined to deal in order to make year-end targets.
This story originally appeared at The Car Connection
Filling Up Your Car May Make You Sick
If filling the gas tank on your car these days leaves you hunched over and nauseous, it may not be just the price of gas that’s causing your symptoms. Gas pump handles, it seems, are among the dirtiest surfaces you touch on a regular basis.
A recent study by Kimberly-Clark Professional found that gas pump handles are breeding grounds for both bacteria and viruses. In fact, gas pumps are worse than handles on public mailboxes, escalator rails, parking meters and crosswalk buttons.
Why are gas pumps so unsanitary? According to the study’s head, Dr. Kelly Arehart, the answer is relatively obvious: no one ever cleans the thing you touch on a daily basis.
Reuters reports that the study examined gas pumps in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami and Philadelphia, and all tested high for levels of adenosine triphosphate. While that itself won’t make you sick, it does indicate the presence of animal, vegetable, bacteria, yeast or mold cells, some of which can transmit serious illness.
If you’re really worried about the germs on your self-service gas pump handle, you can wear a disposable vinyl glove or use hand sanitizer when you finish. If that’s still not enough to assuage your paranoia, take solace in knowing that New Jersey and Oregon both permit only full-service gas stations. Move there, and the cleanliness of gas pump handles becomes someone else’s problem.
This story originally appeared at The Car Connection
2011 Ford Explorer Hits 100,000 Sales In 2011
When Ford introduced the new 2011 Explorer in July 2010, the automaker knew it had a potential sales hit on its hands. What Ford didn’t know was how many customers would quickly take to the completely revised mid-size SUV.
The answer is in, and it turns out that over 100,000 Explorers have been sold from January through early October of 2011. Compared to the same period in 2010, that’s sales growth of 290 percent, giving Ford a 6.3-percent share of mid-size utility market.
The numbers also qualify the 2011 Ford Explorer as the fastest-growing mid-size SUV in the United States, with sales either tripled or quadrupled in all regions compared to last year. In fact, 2011 is the first time that Ford has breached the 100,000-sales barrier with the Explorer since 2007.
Ford conducted extensive consumer research prior to the development of the 2011 Explorer, but critics still took issue it for its unibody construction, reduced towing capacity and (somewhat) limited off-road capability. Sales seem to prove that opponents of the new Explorer are in the minority, and we’d make the case that the new Explorer is a vastly improved product for consumers who spend the bulk of their time driving in the wilds of suburbia.
This story originally appeared at The Car Connection
The 6 Things To Know About Star Safety Ratings
While you might be perfectly happy with a two-star hotel or restaurant choice, you shouldn't ever settle for anything but five stars in a vehicle.
As before, you'll find federal star ratings printed on the window sticker of all new vehicles. But this year, they're different. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has revamped its New-Car Assessment Program (NCAP) for 2011—and now those star ratings are more likely to show, at a glance, the differences in protection from one model to another.
That was the intent, at least, with a new system that rates vehicles based on three stars as average, versus the star ratings corresponding to actual likelihood of injury. Already, there have been plenty of three-star ratings, and some two-star results, dealt out in a field that, last year, was packed with five-star results.
Yet there haven't been as many one- and two-star ratings as you might think.
"It's a good step forward," says Russ Rader, a spokesman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), the other organization that crash-tests and rates U.S.-market vehicles for safety. "But it's not resulting in as much differentiation as NHTSA anticipated earlier."
The IIHS rates vehicles on a good/acceptable/marginal/poor scale, with vehicles that rate 'good' in all categories and include electronic stability control given Top Safety Pick status. At this point there are about 75 Top Safety Picks for 2011.
Crash tests and safety ratings have made cars much safer, especially over the past ten to fifteen years while we've had two active testing organizations ramping up requirements. Yet the IIHS's Rader concedes that there are still people being killed in vehicles that perform well by all existing crash-test ratings, and it's up for his organization and the federal government to raise the bar, not by introducing tougher versions of existing frontal and side impact tests, but with new tests that will target those scenarios—including crash structures that don't match.
How do you choose the safest vehicle possible? For starters, look at IIHS ratings in addition to these new federal star ratings.
And read on for how to best keep your family the safest and get the most out of these ratings.
Traffic Fatalities At Record Lows–Though Not In All Regions
Despite having driven 21 billion additional miles in 2010, versus 2009, Americans were safer yet on the roadways.
Freshly released numbers from the federal government showing highway fatalities at their lowest rate since 1949—and, technically, "the lowest level in recorded history," as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration puts it here.
That's particularly impressive as Americans drove an additional 21 million miles in 2010 versus 2009.
Nationally, fatalities were down three percent, to a total of 32,788 in 2010, based on early figures released this week. Adjusted, that's 1.09 deaths per million miles traveled in 2010, versus 1.13 in 2009. And it's a 25-percent drop in fatalities in just five years.
Although it does depend on what region of the U.S. you're talking about. In a single year, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Idaho, and Alaska posted the greatest drops in fatalities—all of them were down by 12 percent—while Arizona, California, and Hawaii were all down by 11 percent from 2009. Much of the South and Southeast posted significant improvements, too. Fatalities were up about 18 percent in Maine and New England; up nearly four percent in the Midwest region (stretching from Ohio and Michigan through to Minnesota), and up about two percent in the region that includes New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.
During 2009, fatalities also dropped to record lows, with last year's numbers the lowest since 1954.
Safety officials will no doubt be watching the 2011 numbers, as fatality rates again started rising for the last half of 2010, as drivers again started covering more miles in their vehicles.
"Still, too many of our friends and neighbors are killed in preventable roadway tragedies every day," U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in an official release. "We will continue doing everything possible to make cars safer, increase seat belt use, put a stop to drunk driving and distracted driving and encourage drivers to put safety first."
In a blog post on the news, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood emphasized that the agency will continue its enforcement programs for seatbelt use, driving under the influence, and distracted driving. For the latter, LaHood pointed to federal government's distracted-driving campaign, the Faces of Distracted Driving.
Newer, safer vehicles have also contributed to the gains, of course; in official NHTSA new-vehicle crash-test conditions, the average probability of injury for drivers was halved from 1995 to 2008.
LaHood also pointed to several measures including Safety Edge roadway surfaces—which lessen the chances of loss of control and or rollover if a motorists swerves off (and back onto) the roadway—and highway rumble strips and cable barriers as increasing safety for U.S. motorists.
[NHTSA]
This story originally appeared at The Car Connection
HID Headlamps: Brighter, But Failing To Shine In The Mass Market
For some, the blueish, whitish beams of xenon high-intensity discharge (HID) headlamps are bothersome—or even blinding. But for most of us who have driven vehicles with them, it's hard to argue with their significantly improved visibility.
That opening line sounds, unfortunately, like it could have been written ten years ago. While it could be argued that HID lamps offer improved safety, their adoption rate has risen very slowly compared to other safety-tech features. According to HID supplier Osram Sylvania, in a press release from earlier this week, only about 22 percent of new vehicles in 2007 came with HID headlamps as standard equipment, and even by 2015 only 38 percent of vehicles are expected to offer it as either standard or optional. Demand, in cases where it's optional, is only expected to increase slightly.
Why? Part of the issue, as we see it, is that automakers have only offered HID headlamps as part of expensive option packages. And oddly, HID lamps seem to cost more in less-expensive vehicles. For instance, on the BMW 3-Series, they're a $900 standalone option, but on the 2011 Mazda3 they're only offered on the top Grand Touring model, as part of a $1,835 Technology Package, and on the 2011 Volkswagen GTI they're only included in the Autobahn model, which costs thousands more.
The other issue, of course, is that HID headlights got off to a rough start in the U.S. Initially their efficacy was questioned, and there was a lot of controversy over their glare—which can be made worse with a coating of road grime on lenses. Years ago, the National Highway Traffic Safety administration logged thousands of complaints from motorists who were momentarily blinded by HID headlamps.
But it turns out, the positives of xenon lamps far outweigh the negatives. Safety studies failed to find any danger from the glare—just annoyance—and HID lamps produce three times the light output of halogen lamps, with better down-the-road illumination, a beam pattern that allows better peripheral vision while driving—something we've certainly noted over hundreds of test-drives—and whiter light that's better with the reflective paint used for road signs and lane markings.
Research has indicated that thanks to the higher illumination and the quality of the light, drivers of vehicles with HID lamps will see potential dangers 30 to 50 yards before drivers with halogen lamps.
Xenon HID lamps also use less power while putting out more light, and the lamps themselves last about 3,000 hours—three times that of halogens.
Meanwhile, Osram Sylvania has also advocated LED lighting in vehicles as a way to reduce electrical loads—especially for hybrids and electric vehicles. For the same light output as 240 watts of halogen high beams, the company's LED lamps draw 56 watts. Overall, according to a University of Michigan study from 2008, LED lights could save 50 percent of power in nighttime driving or 75 percent during daytime compared to traditional lamps.
This story originally appeared at The Car Connection
IIHS Petitions Feds For Better Underride Guards On Big Rigs
When cars rear-end semi tractor-trailers—on an icy road, for instance, where traffic ahead is stopped—the consequences can be quite deadly.
According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), that's because the underride guards—those cheap-looking bars that hand below the load floor at the back of the trailers—often fail in crashes and allow the vehicle to keep going under the trailer.
And when those underride guards fail, death (even by decapitation) or serious injury is significantly more likely, since typically the upper part of the cabin crushes.
Just in 2009, 70 percent of the 3,163 who died in all crashes involving large trucks were the occupants of cars or other passenger vehicles, the IIHS says; and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that there are 5,000 injuries and about 423 deaths annually due to cars striking trucks from the back.
Furthermore, the Institute looked at 1,000 real-world crashes in 2001 through 2003 and found that of the 115 involving a car striking the back of a large truck or semi-trailer, 28 involved an occupant death, and 23 of those involved catastrophic underride—while only 25 didn't involve underride.
The IIHS proved—with its own recent tests—that while current Canadian standards are stronger than those in the U.S., with either standard the guards can fail in a collision. The issue? Under current certification standards, the trailer and guard system aren't ever evaluated together. There are also types of trucks that remain exempt altogether, the IIHS says, emphasizing that it's up to NHTSA to make some changes based on a petition the Institute is filing.
"Hitting the back of a large truck is a game changer," said Institute president Adrian Lund, in a release. "You might be riding in a vehicle that earns top marks in frontal crash tests, but if the truck's underride guard fails — or isn't there at all — your chances of walking away from even a relatively low-speed crash aren't good."
[IIHS]
This story originally appeared at The Car Connection
2005-2007 Cadillac CTS Recalled For Airbag Seat-Sensor Issue
Due to concerns that front-passenger airbags might not deploy when needed, General Motors is recalling about 109,000 Cadillac CTS models from the 2005-2007 model years.
A kink or fold in the 'front passenger presence system mat'—a sensor pad in the seat that detects when someone is seated there—can cause the part to malfunction, potentially leading to a passenger airbag that does not deploy in a crash.
According to GM, there are no known injuries or fatalities linked to the issue, and if the passenger-side airbag does become disabled the passenger airbag status indicator in the rearview mirror sill show the airbag as being off, the 'air bag' indicator will illuminate, and a 'service air bag' error will show in the Driver Information Center.
Owners of affected 2005-2007 Cadillac CTS models will be receiving individual notification about the issue this winter, with the mailing effort to begin in February; the mat will be replaced free of charge in affected vehicles.
Those with any questions should contact Cadillac at 866-982-2339, or check with NHTSA's Vehicle Safety Hotline at 888-327-4236.
This story originally appeared at The Car Connection
Safety Watch: Nine 2011 Vehicles That Still Lack Stability Control
If you could check the box for a safety feature that's been shown to dramatically decrease the chances of an accident, you would, right?
That's the case with electronic stability control (ESC); it's been shown to reduce accidents, fatal crashes, and rollovers, and with economies of scale doesn't cost as much as you might think. NHTSA had estimated that its mandate for stability control to be standard by 2012 will cost an average of $111 per vehicle but save nearly 10,000 fatalities annually—along with, potentially, hundreds of thousands of injuries and accidents. Including related components, some automakers have placed the total cost of ESC to be $400 or more.
The idea behind electronic stability control is simple: the brakes are applied individually at one or more of the wheels to help restore a traction and/or a vehicle imbalance in an extreme maneuver—perhaps allowing you to avoid an accident.
But while stability control systems for some SUVs and luxury vehicles are already into their second or third generations of this technology, some of the least expensive models on the market still haven't received the lifesaving technology.
The need is especially dire for small cars because of their weight disadvantage in multiple-vehicle accidents.
According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), electronic stability control was standard on 85 percent of all vehicles for the 2010 model year—including 100 percent of SUVs but 88 percent of cars and just 62 percent of pickups.
Automakers have just over the past couple of years moved quickly to get stability control into compact pickups. The 2011 Chevrolet Colorado, 2011 GMC Canyon, and 2011 Ford Ranger all now come with it standard, and larger pickups have all come with it for several model years.
What remains for 2011—aside from a few wildcards like the four-cylinder Nissan Frontier and the Mazda RX-8—is a surprisingly long list of cheap, small cars that still don't get the feature, or don't have it standard.
A number of the smallest, least-expensive cars, including the 2011 Ford Fiesta, 2011 Toyota Yaris, 2011 Scion xB, 2011 Kia Soul and 2011 Mazda2, now include standard stability control, while a class up, vehicles such as the Toyota Corolla, Ford Focus, Kia Forte, Hyundai Elantra, and Mitsubishi Lancer all have it standard.
If price-conscious new-car shopping is on order for you or your family, scroll to the next page to take a look through this list of models that even, for 2011, don't include ESC:
