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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."

2016 Acura NSX aimed at Ferrari 458 for the price of Audi R8

Acura has done a good job of keeping the next-generation NSX under the wraps for the past few months, especially after a fiery little incident during testing at the Nürburgring earlier this year. But UK's What Car? recently got a chance to speak with development boss Ted Klaus, and he unleashed a few new details about the much-anticipated supercar to make it even harder for us to wait.
Among the info was a strong estimate of the NSX's performance potential. "We have to achieve the type of acceleration that the customer is achieving with the Ferrari," said Klaus to What Car?. "More importantly we have to achieve this every day and also at the Nürburgring." Assuming Acura's supercar is as actually quick as a 458 Italia, then it could hit 60 miles per hour in around 3.5 seconds.
Klaus also claims that the wickedly fast performance could come at a relative bargain for the class. The price is reportedly being benchmarked against the Audi R8, which would put the NSX around $130,000 in the US. While hardly cheap, it would still be a healthy discount off a 458.

Honda Smart Home, NJ dealer show the power of solar

Car dealerships are not usually thought of as "green" enterprises. They sell, after all, the fossil fuel-powered vehicles that account for about 18 percent of the CO2 emissions created in the US each year. As demonstrated by Rossi Honda in Vineland, NJ though, it doesn't have to be that way. Sure, the franchise still sells cars - lots of them - but they power the entire operation with sunlight in a way that provides ancillary benefits. The franchise has installed over 900 solar panels to become electric-grid neutral. Owned and operated by the seemingly indefatigable Ron Rossi, the franchise has installed over 900 solar panels to become electric-grid neutral. They aren't plastered across the roof of the showroom and service center, though. Instead, the array is mounted on canopies over his inventory, protecting them from sun, snow, and hail. Costing about $1.3 million to install, Rossi expects the system to save twice that amount in electricity bills over its 25-year life expectancy. Not bad, right? It makes us wonder why all dealerships don't do this. Honda itself recently completed its own solar project. The super-efficient Honda Smart Home is equipped, not only with its own beefy 9.5-kW solar array, but also with a 10-kWh lithium battery-based stationary storage system to buffer the building's electricity. Amongst its many party tricks, the home incorporates a DC-to-DC charging set up that allows the complimentary Fit EV to charge with half the efficiency losses of a typical home charging unit. While the installation is quite impressive and will serve as a "laboratory" of sorts for different groups involved with the project at the University of California, Davis, we can't help but wonder if the Japanese automaker couldn't get a bigger bang for its environmental buck elsewhere. A program, perhaps, to help its many franchise dealers to take up the Rossi challenge and go grid neutral. You can watch Rossi show off his array and other increased efficiency efforts by scrolling below for a pair of videos: one from Honda and one produced by Automotive News. As a bonus, we have time-lapse footage of the Honda Smart Home going up accompanied by press releases discussing both efforts. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. This content is hosted by a third party.