2014 Honda Accord Ex-l on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Some Hondas and an Acura can now take delivery of your Amazon packages

Some new Honda and Acura owners will now be able to have their Amazon packages delivered directly to their cars starting today. The company just announced a slew of compatible vehicles from the 2018 and 2019 model years that will be compatible with the service. Several other manufacturers offer the same thing — itÂ’s mostly GM and Ford vehicles, but some Volvos will also work. YouÂ’ll need to be a HondaLink or AcuraLink subscriber for the service to function. That subscription costs $110/year, so itÂ’s not exactly cheap. The compatible Hondas include the 2018-19 Accord (including the Hybrid), 2018-19 Insight, 2018-19 Odyssey, 2019 Passport and 2019 Pilot. The caveat here is that you'll need to have the Touring or Elite trim of any of those vehicles. As of now, the Acura RDX in any trim is the only compatible Acura. This system works just the same as it does in other vehicles. YouÂ’ll need to be parked within two blocks of your delivery address. Then the driver will locate your car, scan your package and unlock your vehicle. After placing the package in your car, the delivery person “requests” for the vehicle to be locked, which sends a notification to your phone confirming that your car is now locked with the package inside. ThereÂ’s a certain level of trust thatÂ’s necessary to let a total stranger gain access to your car, but you donÂ’t have to use the service if you donÂ’t want to. That $110 for HondaLink gets you a bunch of other useful stuff like remote vehicle start, remote lock/unlock, stolen vehicle locator and speed alerts and geofencing for parents. All of that can be set from an app on your smartphone.

Brand new cars are being sold with defective Takata airbags

If you just bought a 2016 Audi TT, 2017 Audi R8, 2016–17 Mitsubishi i-MiEV, or 2016 Volkswagen CC, we have some unsettling news for you. A report provided to a US Senate committee that oversees the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and reported on by Automotive News claims these vehicles were sold with defective Takata airbags. And it gets worse. Toyota and FCA are called out in the report for continuing to build vehicles that will need to be recalled down the line for the same issue. That's not all. The report also states that of the airbags that have been replaced already in the Takata recall campaign, 2.1 million will need to eventually be replaced again. They don't have the drying agent that prevents the degradation of the ammonium nitrate, which can lead to explosions that can destroy the airbag housing and propel metal fragments at occupants. So these airbags are out there already. We're not done yet. There's also a stockpile of about 580,000 airbags waiting to be installed in cars coming in to have their defective airbags replaced. These 580k airbags also don't have the drying agent. They'll need to be replaced down the road, too. A new vehicle with a defective Takata airbag should be safe to drive, but that margin of safety decreases with time. If all this has you spinning around in a frustrated, agitated mess, there's a silver lining that is better than it sounds. So take a breath, run your fingers through your hair, and read on. Our best evidence right now demonstrates that defective Takata airbags – those without the drying agent that prevents humidity from degrading the ammonium nitrate propellant – aren't dangerous yet. It takes a long period of time combined with high humidity for them to reach the point where they can rupture their housing and cause serious injury. It's a matter of years, not days. So a new vehicle with a defective Takata airbag should be safe to drive, but that margin of safety decreases with time – and six years seems to be about as early as the degradation happens in the worst possible scenario. All this is small comfort for the millions of people who just realized their brand-new car has a time bomb installed in the wheel or dashboard, or the owners who waited patiently to have their airbags replaced only to discover that the new airbag is probably defective in the same way (although newer and safer!) as the old one.

Honda Super Cub first vehicle to receive 3D trademark in Japan

The term "iconic" gets thrown around a lot, but if there was ever a design worthy of the honorific, surely it's the Honda Super Cub. That's not just our opinion, though: it's the official word from the Japanese Patent Office, which has recognized the classic scooter's shape with a three-dimensional trademark.
The category was introduced in Japan back in 1997 to immortalize distinctive designs, and is subject to very strict criteria. In fact, this marks the first time it has been applied to a vehicle - and one of the few industrial products to be awarded the recognition.
Little wonder it was applied to this little wonder, too. With over 87 million units made since its introduction in 1958, Honda claims the Super Cub to be "the world's largest selling vehicle," with production taking place at 15 factories in 14 countries and sales in 160 markets around the world.