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NHTSA urges owners of recalled Takata airbag vehicles to take immediate action

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Department of Transportation are taking the unusual step of issuing a followup press release urging owners of certain recalled vehicles "to act immediately" to fix their cars and trucks. The problem in question concerns the repair campaigns for rupturing Takata airbag inflators issued in June and covers a long list of models from Toyota, Lexus, Honda, Acura, Mazda, BMW, Nissan, Infiniti, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Oldsmobile and Pontiac.
While NHSTA doesn't specifically say why the recall is vital in the new release, Toyota's own explanation in its newly announced renotification campaign earlier today sheds some new light on the topic. According to the Japanese automaker, in testing, Takata found a possible link between the rupturing airbag inflators and high humidity. NHTSA is advocating that all owners pursue repairs immediately if they haven't already done so already. This is especially crucial for those drivers especially in Florida, Puerto Rico, Guam, Saipan, American Samoa, Virgin Islands and Hawaii because of the humid conditions there.
We don't need to tell you how dangerous an inadvertent airbag deployment could be - even in a stationary vehicle - but adding to the Takata issue is fears that the deployment could lead to shrapnel being sprayed into the cabin.

Honda, Audi sweep European tin-top championships

Despite his win at the Japanese Grand Prix this weekend, Sebastian Vettel still has another race or two to go before he can claim his fourth consecutive World Championship in Formula 1. Back in Europe, however, this weekend saw several championship titles decided in a variety of tin-top racing series.
In the British Touring Car Championship, Gordon Shedden won the final round at Brands Hatch this weekend, but that wasn't enough to defend his title. Instead, the ultimate glory went to Andrew Jordan, also driving a Honda Civic, coming in ninth place to take a seven-point victory over Shedden in the final standings. Little wonder then that Honda took the constructors' championship and the Honda Yuasa Racing team took the teams' title. Four-time BTCC champion and Fifth Gear co-host Jason Plato, now driving for MG, landed third in the standings.
While Honda dominated the British championship, it was Audi that reigned supreme in mainland Europe. In the Superstars International Series - Italy's touring-car championship - Gianni Morbidelli drove the Audi RS5 to his fifth title, finishing the season's final race in a calculated third place behind the BMW racecars of Giovanni Berton and Max Mugelli. It's the second consecutive win for the RS5 in the Superstars series (Johan Kristoffersson won the title last year), and the second this year following Mike Rockenfeller's title in the RS5 DTM.

Japanese spark plug giant NGK pleads guilty to price fixing, to pay $52M fine

The ongoing investigation by the Department of Justice into price fixing in the automotive industry has nabbed one more company breaking the law. Japanese parts giant NGK Spark Plug Company agreed to plead guilty to a felony count of pricing fixing and bid rigging in the in the US District Court in Detroit. Its punishment is a $52.1 million criminal fine and to continue to cooperate with the DOJ's sleuthing into the problem.
According to the DOJ, NGK conspired to fix prices on spark plugs, standard oxygen sensors, and air fuel ratio sensors on vehicles from major automakers in the US, including the former DaimlerChrysler, Honda and Toyota, in a scheme that ran from at least January 2000 to July 2011. The charge claimed that the company and its co-conspirators held meetings where they agreed on bids and price quotes that were submitted to the automakers.
With the latest plea, the DOJ has caught 28 companies and 26 executives for price-fixing and bid rigging in the auto parts industry, and they have collected $2.4 billion in criminal fines. In 2013, the feds brought nine Japanese suppliers down at once, to collect $740 million. Scroll down to read the DOJ's complete announcement of the case.