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Weekly Recap: GM plans massive new paint shop at Chevy Corvette factory

General Motors is laying out some serious green to maintain the Chevy Corvette's expansive color palette. The automaker is breaking ground on a new paint shop this summer that's part of a $439-million investment to upgrade the 34-year-old Bowling Green, KY, factory that builds the Stingray. The massive new structure will total 450,000 square feet, nearly half the size of the current 1-million square-foot facility. Construction is expected to take two years and won't impact Corvette production. The upgrades include new robots that save paint and create a better finish, longer, more efficient ovens to bake in the finish, and LED lighting. There's also a dry scrubbing booth technology with a limestone handling system that eliminates waste. GM has invested $135 million in the factory in last four years for the changeover to build the C7 and to relocate its Performance Build Center to Bowling Green. The improvements continue to modernize the Kentucky factory, which has become a tourist attraction in its own right, as more than 56,000 enthusiasts visited it last year. The upgrades are part of a $5.4-billion investment GM confirmed in April that will remake its US footprint in the next three years. The Bowling Green expansion underscores GM's continued commitment to the Corvette, which sold nearly 38,000 copies around the world last year, an eight-year high. "With this major technology investment, we can continue to exceed the expectations of sports car buyers for years to come," North American manufacturing manager Arvin Jones said in a statement. OTHER NEWS & NOTES Takata recall hits 34 million vehicles The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration expanded the Takata airbag recall to an almost unthinkable 34 million vehicles on Tuesday. The recall is part of an agreement reached by the two sides where Takata admitted some of its airbag inflators have a defect, and the deal compels the company to comply with all future regulatory actions and investigations. Takata's airbag inflators were produced with "a propellant that can degrade over time" and lead to ruptures, NHTSA said. Six deaths have been attributed to the flaw worldwide. Investigations conducted by Takata, automakers, and others have not determined the exact cause of the inflator problem, but NHTSA said moisture appears to alter the propellant's chemical structure. It then ignites too rapidly, creates too much pressure that ruptures the inflator, and blasts shards of metal at passengers.

2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata configurator fulfills your droptop dreams

The first batch of 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miatas are already at dealers, but Mazda is finally launching a configurator for its completely revised sports car. Even if pricing doesn't come as a surprise, you can still have some fun creating one to your own specific tastes. The major equipment changes on the Miata happen between the Sport, Club, and Grand Touring trims, and options are generally kept light. The real standout is the Brembo/BBS package for $3,400 that's exclusive to the Club version. It adds Gunmetal 17-inch BBS wheels, Brembo front brakes with red calipers, side sill extensions, a rear bumper skirt, and keyless entry. On the Sport and Grand Touring, $1,200 buys the Appearance Package with a front air dam, side sill extensions and rear bumper skirt. There's also keyless tech for $130 on them. Mazda also offers a few items to dress up the convertible's looks. There's a choice of a black or body color rear lip spoiler for $350, and Soul Red Metallic paint adds $300. For protection, clear film for the front and rear paint is $125, all-weather floor mats go for $90, and wheel locks cost $55. Finally, a cargo net is $50. We ticked every applicable box on the Club trim above to make its $28,600 base price leap to $33,790, after the $820 destination charge on all models. Happy building. Related Video:

Honda may recall up to 1M vehicles for airbag issue, following Toyota's lead

It seems Toyota won't be the only one recalling the faulty Takata airbag inflators for long. Honda insiders in Japan claim that the company is getting close to announcing its own worldwide campaign that would begin before the end of June.
Unnamed sources close to Honda in Japan tell Automotive News that the company is pursuing an internal investigation into possibly affected models and is working with Takata to gather more information. They claim that it could involve even more than the 1.14 million cars worldwide that the automaker covered under the first recall for the problem in April 2013, including 561,000 vehicles in the US.
Toyota jumpstarted this process last week when it recalled over 2 million cars worldwide, including 844,277 in the US. Soon after, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began a preliminary evaluation into the issue following six reported incidents, and started assembling data about potentially affected models from Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Nissan, Chrysler. NHTSA also began investigating Takata itself.