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Five automakers now being investigated by NHTSA for airbag woes

It appears that Toyota's renotification to owners of recalled vehicles from last year is just the tip of the iceberg for what could potentially be a much larger industry-wide recall. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is opening a preliminary evaluation investigation into roughly 1.1 million vehicles from Chrysler, Honda, Mazda, Nissan, Toyota and parts supplier Takata regarding faulty airbag inflators in several models.
NHTSA has received six reports - three directly, two from Takata and one from Toyota - of vehicles with ruptured airbag inflators from 2002-2006, which resulted in three injuries. So far, all six incidents have occurred in high humidity areas like Florida and Puerto Rico. According to Toyota's latest recall announcement, the inflators may have an improper propellant that could cause it to rupture in a crash and the bag to deploy abnormally.
This new investigation follows a previous recall from April 2013 of about 3.4 million vehicles worldwide for the airbag inflators from Takata. As Autoblog reported, Toyota jumpstarted the new situation when it found that the original list of serial numbers for the faulty part was incomplete and discovered more cars in need of replacement. Honda and Nissan told us that they were investigating whether further models would need called in again as well. Mazda told Autoblog: "Regarding the current Takata situation, we're working closely with NHTSA and investigating the situation, but nothing else to report at this time." Chrysler Group responded to us with the statement: "Chrysler Group engineers are conducting the appropriate analysis. The Company will cooperate fully with the National Highway Traffic Administration."

Honda CR-V spot delights with 'impossible' illusions

Mind-blowing car commercials that employ optical illusions and jaw-clenching stunts instead of computer animation are becoming the norm these days, and everybody from Volvo Trucks to Forza Motorsport 5/McLaren are regular contributors to the growing trend. Honda joins the crowd in its latest European commercial for the CR-V 1.6 i-DTEC Diesel, and uses well-placed props and well-drawn imagery to trick viewers into seeing the "impossible."
The old-fashioned optical illusion is alive and well in Honda's "An Impossible, Made Possible" spot, so go ahead and watch it and the making-of video below.

Honda is spending $124 million on a new wind tunnel facility in Ohio

Ford isn't the only company building a multi-million dollar wind tunnel this year. Honda is also getting in on the action. Its new facility will cost less than Ford's at $124 million, and construction begins this summer. It will be built at the Transportation Research Center in Ohio, which is where Honda's NSX proving grounds are located. Honda will install a five-belt rolling road in the tunnel for testing of more pedestrian vehicles, and a wide, high-speed, single belt version for testing of sports cars and race cars. However, it seems the Honda facility will only be capable of testing wind speeds of up to 192 mph, whereas Ford claims a top speed of 200 mph. Cameras and microphones will also be set up inside the testing area at the Honda tunnel to help find wind noise trouble spots. Honda won't necessarily be the only company using the new wind tunnel either. The facility will be available for other groups and companies to use. There are even secure bays those groups can use for their work. Related Video: