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Honda settles class-action lawsuit over oil-burning V6s

Although we hadn't heard of this issue before, Automotive News reports that Honda has agreed to settle a massive class-action lawsuit brought against it for engine trouble potentially affecting nearly 1.6 million vehicles. The lawsuit includes Accord (2008-12), Odyssey (2008-13), Pilot (2009-13) and Crosstour (2010-13) models equipped with the 3.5-liter V6 with Variable Cylinder Management, which might experience engine misfire, excessive oil burning and premature spark plug fouling issues.
As part of the settlement, Honda will extend the powertrain warranty on these models for eight years (from time of purchase or lease) with no mileage limitation, and it will also reimburse customers who had to pay out-of-pocket expenses for related repairs such as spark plugs, pistons or, in some cases, apparently, an entirely new engine. (Of course, the repairs had to be related to certain trouble codes.) Lawyers will get no more than $800,000 from Honda and the guy who originally started the case, Vince Eagen, will get $1,000 for his "time and effort."
The final ruling on the matter will take place on March 21, 2014, and if you want to see if you're affected and what options you have in the settlement, check out this .pdf document with all the details.

Honda helps Santa take his sled into the 21st century

If you had put nearly 75 billion miles on your only company car, it would most likely be pleading for retirement in every rickety way it knew how. That's Santa's situation, so St. Nick heads to his not-exactly-local-at-all Honda dealer for a new sled, and the company obliges with a red rider fit for the new millennium. But Honda doesn't try to shoehorn he of the white beard into an Civic on rails. Working from Crayon sketches of safe sleighs and wanting to insure a lengthy stint on Santa's "Nice" list, the Honda reps work up a bespoke offering from a block of clay, but still give it features like a rear-view camera and a cargo bay ejector platform fitted with a parachute. You can see their gift to Santa in the video above. And for some even more far out holiday offerings from Honda, check out their Honda Days videos featuring Skeletor singing a bro hymn to He-Man, G.I. Joe serenading Gem, and Gumby and Pokey singing whatever they can think of. News Source: Honda via YouTube Honda Videos

April 2014: The ramping-up-for-summer edition

Americans appear to be gearing up for further increases in US gas prices, as green-car sales last month had their largest year-over-year gains of 2014. Domestic customers bought almost 56,000 hybrids, plug-ins and diesels in April, marking a 2.6 percent increase from April 2013. Plug-in sales were particularly strong, jumping 41 percent from a year earlier, as sales of the Chevrolet Volt extended-range plug-in and Nissan Leaf and Tesla Model S battery-electric vehicles all showed gains. April's big winner among the automakers was Honda, moving 1,442 units of its newer Accord Hybrid And April's big winner among the automakers was...Honda? Yes, Honda, which has long operated in the advanced-powertrain shadow of fellow Japanese automakers Toyota and Nissan, came up big by moving 1,442 units of its newer Accord Hybrid. And while sales of the Civic Hybrid, CR-Z and Insight all fell, the Accord Hybrid drove Honda to boost its green-car sales by 78 percent from a year earlier to 2,839 units. Per usual, Nissan and Tesla also showed year-over-year gains. Nissan boosted Leaf sales by 7.8 percent to 2,088 units. And while Tesla won't release its first-quarter results until May 7, the California-based automaker would've increased Model S sales by 34 percent to 2,300 just by maintaining its fourth-quarter 2013 sales pace. Volkswagen and low-volume advanced-powertrain vehicle makers like Audi, Porsche and Daimler AG's Smart division also fared well in April. VW increased its diesel and Jetta Hybrid sales by 25 percent to 9,583 units. Audi's diesel sales quadrupled to 2,088 units. Smart sold 203 units of its newer Smart ED battery-electric vehicle. Such gains more than offset sales declines from General Motors, Ford and Toyota, though Toyota's April was less painful than previous months. GM's big mild-hybrid sales declines more than offset the 19 percent increase in Chevy Volt sales to 1,548 units and the sales of 491 Chevrolet Cruze Diesel vehicles. All told, GM's green-car sales declined 25 percent to 3,103 units. Fusion Energi Plug-in Hybrid sales doubled and C-Max Energi PHEV sales jumped 28 percent. Ford's green-car sales were down 12 percent to 7,554 vehicles. While Fusion Energi Plug-in Hybrid sales doubled and C-Max Energi PHEV sales jumped 28 percent, Fusion Hybrid sales were little-changed while C-Max Hybrid sales tumbled 50 percent to 1,586 units.