2010 Honda Civic Lx Sedan 4-door 1.8l on 2040-cars

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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

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."

Gladiators, Pilots, and Palisades, plus a couple boring crossovers | Autoblog Podcast #562

On this week's Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Consumer Editor Jeremy Korzeniewski. The duo discuss the leaked Jeep Gladiator, Ford's Baby Bronco, the Aston Martin DBX, and then touch on other reborn names like the Honda Pilot. They also discuss how boring crossovers have taken over as the family car of choice in the United States and debate the merits of turbocharged V6 engines versus the classic American V8. Finally, we spend your money.Autoblog Podcast #562 Get The Podcast iTunes – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator MP3 – Download the MP3 directly Rundown Jeep Gladiator leaked Hyundai Palisade and Honda Pilot teased Aston Martin DBX Ford Baby Bronco leaked Boring crossovers Ford F-150 2.7-liter EcoBoost Spend My Money Feedback Email – Podcast@Autoblog.com Review the show on iTunes Related Video: Podcasts LA Auto Show Aston Martin Ford GMC Honda Hyundai Jeep Truck Crossover SUV honda pilot jeep gladiator aston martin dbx hyundai palisade ford baby bronco