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Poor headlights cause 40 cars to miss IIHS Top Safety Pick rating

Over the past few months, we've noticed a number of cars and SUVs that have come incredibly close to earning one of the IIHS's highest accolades, the Top Safety Pick rating. They have great crash test scores and solid automatic emergency braking and forward collision warning systems. What trips them up is headlights. That got us wondering, how many vehicles are there that are coming up short because they don't have headlights that meet the organization's criteria for an "Acceptable" or "Good" rating. This is a revision made after 2017, a year in which headlights weren't factored in for this specific award. This is also why why some vehicles, such as the Ford F-150, might have had the award last year, but have lost it for this year. We reached out to someone at IIHS to find out. He responded with the following car models. Depending on how you count, a whopping 40 models crash well enough to receive the rating, but don't get it because their headlights are either "Poor" or "Marginal." We say depending on how you count because the IIHS actual counts truck body styles differently, and the Infiniti Q70 is a special case. Apparently the version of the Q70 that has good headlights doesn't have adequate forward collision prevention technology. And the one that has good forward collision tech doesn't have good enough headlights. We've provided the entire list of vehicles below in alphabetical order. Interestingly, it seems the Volkswagen Group is having the most difficulty providing good headlights with its otherwise safe cars. It had the most models on the list at 9 split between Audi and Volkswagen. GM is next in line with 7 models. It is worth noting again that though these vehicles have subpar headlights and don't quite earn Top Safety Pick awards, that doesn't mean they're unsafe. They all score well enough in crash testing and forward collision prevention that they would get the coveted award if the lights were better.

Texas sues GM, saying it tricked customers into sharing driving data sold to insurers

Texas filed a lawsuit Tuesday against GM over years of alleged abuse of customers' data and trust. New car owners were presented with a "confusing and highly misleading" process that was implied to be for their safety, but "was no more than a deceptively designed sales flow" that surrendered their data for GM to sell. The suit contends that at no point was selling driving data ever even suggested as a possibility, putting GM in violation of the state's consumer protection laws. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is seeking a jury trial and at least $10,000 per offense (every GM car sold in the state since 2015) and a hefty add-on of $250,000 in cases where the victim was over 65. Texas seems to be flying high after a recent $1.4 billion settlement from Meta over other privacy concerns. This may well be a way to solve any pending budgetary issues in the Lone Star State.

GMC SIerra Denali is ready to live the high life

Between the information for the 2014 Chevrolet Silverado High Country and the accidently leaked picture on GMC's consumer site, it didn't take much imagination to envision what the 2014 GMC Sierra Denali would be like. But here it is. Going on sale this fall, the 2014 Sierra Denali will continue to be the most luxurious pickup truck in the General Motors portfolio, while getting more power and technology than ever before.
Like previous models, the 2014 Sierra Denali stands out from lower Sierra models with a big cheese-grater chrome grille, 20-inch chrome wheels and body-color bumpers. Inside, the Denali gets plenty of leather with contrasting stitching, but this is where GMC really steps up from the Silverado High Country with real aluminum trim and a new customizable eight-inch driver display in the gauge cluster. Standard features will include heated and cooled front bucket seats, the Intellilink infotainment system with Bose audio, while the options list offers a Driver Alert Package (with forward collision alert and lane departure warning), a rear-seat entertainment system and a Z71 Off-Road Package.
As for power, the standard engine will be the 5.3-liter EcoTec3 V8 with its 355 horsepower, and the optional engine will be the new 6.2-liter V8. Although official power figures for the bigger engine aren't in yet, GM is finally putting some estimates on paper expecting around 420 horsepower and 450 pound-feet of torque to go with a 12,000-pound towing capacity. The new Sierra Denali will be available in either two- or four-wheel drive. Scroll down for more details listed in the official press release.