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Mom Accidentally Steals Honda In Brooklyn

The owner of a 1993 Honda Accord that was accidentally stolen by a young Brooklyn woman's mother has the car back in her possession, after amusing posters popped up all over town. Cheryl Thorpe traveled to New York from her home in Houston to watch her daughter's dog while she and her roommates went on vacation, according to New York Magazine. Thorpe was also left the task of moving the three girls' cars to legal parking spots on a street-cleaning day. She dutifully moved the Fiat, Honda CR-V and Accord, but when the trio returned from their vacation something was wrong. The owner of the Accord found her car right where she left it, thankfully free of parking tickets. The Accord Thorpe had moved belonged to someone else. As it turns out, some older Hondas have interchangeable keys. Thorpe was able to use the girl's keys to move Emily Hickert's car while she ate brunch. Hickert spent an entire week thinking a professional car thief had made off with her 21-year-old ride. "In less than 40 seconds she gets in the car and goes," Hickert told The New York Post, after reviewing security footage from a nearby business. "I thought she was a professional." Hickert filed a police report, while Thorpe's daughter posted fliers all over Brooklyn looking for the Accord's owner. Hickert was eventually reunited with her Honda, which had been towed after sitting parked on the street. She says she bears no ill will towards the women involved in the mix up. "I'm not upset with her," Hickert told The Post. "I'm glad it wasn't a thief. I just didn't know why anyone would steal a 1993 Honda." Related Gallery Honda's Redone 2013 Civic Pulls Icon Out Of The Fire Weird Car News Honda

Florida woman says Takata airbag deployment left her paralyzed

A malfunctioning Takata airbag left a Florida woman paralyzed from the neck down following an otherwise minor car accident last year, a lawsuit filed last week alleges. Patricia Mincey says in court documents that, instead of deploying normally, the driver-side airbag in her 2001 Honda Civic deployed with such force that it injured her neck and rendered her a quadriplegic. The lawsuit accuses Takata and Honda of deliberately concealing information about the defect and taking belated action to protect Mincey and other motorists from airbags that may harm them instead of saving their lives. At least five deaths and 139 injuries have been linked to the flawed airbags in Honda vehicles. "There is a systemic failure of these companies to come clean with information they know very early on of problems," Ted Leopold, Mincey's attorney, tells Autoblog. "Instead of doing the right thing, they try to sweep the problems under the rug until there are so many deaths and injuries they're left with no choice. We saw it with General Motors ignition switches, we saw it with the Toyota unintended acceleration cases and now we see it here." Long History Of Takata-Related Recalls Four days after Mincey's accident, Honda recalled her car as part of a 5,394,000-vehicle recall that sought to repair vehicles in which the airbag inflators could rupture. Her accident took place in Jacksonville, Florida, a state in which manufacturers have said high humidity could cause a heightened risk of problems for Takata airbags. She was wearing her seat belt at the time of the crash, according to court documents, and her car was traveling approximately 22 miles per hour. Mincey remains hospitalized in a long-term care and rehabilitation facility near her Florida home, her attorney said. She is seeking compensation in excess of $15,000 for her injuries and punitive damages. Problems with the Takata airbags were discovered as early as 2001, when Isuzu issued the first recall related to high-pressure deployments. But the company continued to manufacture defective airbags, which have subsequently been flagged in dozens of recalls over the past 14 years. Approximately 21 million vehicles have been affected in the United States. Congress conducted hearings on the companies' delayed responses to the safety crisis last year.

Translogic 189: 2015 LA Auto Show

The LA Auto Show has become known for its green cars and concepts, and 2015 was no exception. Translogic host Jonathon Buckley gets all the details on BMW's 330e plug-in hybrid straight from BMW President of North America Ludwig Willisch. Then we get up-to-date on Honda's latest FCX Clarity hydrogen fuel cell car. We round out our tour with a stop at the Elio Motors booth for a look at their updated, three-wheel P5 concept and a chat with CEO Paul Elio. But first, we jump in a time machine at the Volvo booth to discuss Concept 26, an interpretation of how car interiors might evolve in the era of self-driving cars. "The reason why we talked about it as a time machine [is] because, really, Concept 26 is giving you back something that is so precious," explained Volvo senior director of design Tisha Johnson. "We're letting you delegate driving to the car, so that you can then have that time to yourself." Click here to learn more about our host, Jonathon Buckley.