2006 Nissan Maxima Se Sedan 4-door 3.5l on 2040-cars

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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.

A realistic approach to fixing Mitsubishi

There are going to be a lot of words written about what Nissan needs to do with Mitsubishi in the coming months and years in the interest of turning the brand around. After Nissan's purchase of a controlling stake in the diamond star brand, there's been more interest in Mitsubishi thanks to the potential of platform sharing and plenty of cash from Nissan-Renault to get the juices flowing again. But, while some have been doing their best to advocate for the return of the 3000GT, Evolution, and even the Starion - Many of these posts forget the reality of the market we live in today. As much as we like to look back fondly at the sports coupes of the '90s, a byproduct of the insane cash flows all the Japanese manufacturers had at the time, the reality of today puts a much greater emphasis on what is most-boring; Crossover SUVs, alongside mid-size and compact sedans. We do need to ask a fundamental question, how much Mitsubishi is enough to be able to continue to call the cars Mitsubishis? Aside from slight product revisions and reconfigurations, Mitsubishi (at least in North America) has been largely dependent on the same GS platform and 4B1 engines that date back to their long-time partnership with Chrysler (and Hyundai) in the mid '00s. Admittedly, the chassis and engines have served the company well, underpinning a wide variety of vehicles sold around the world, and seeing quite a few revisions to at least attempt to keep products competitive. But, the GS chassis is old, heavy, and severely out of date - and when matched to the underpowered 4B1 series engines - make for largely uncompetitive offerings in the market. While something like the Outlander Sport is indeed interesting compared to a Honda CR-V, it is by no means the smart choice in the segment. So, going forward, unless Mitsubishi has had a skunkworks of sorts developing their chassis and engine replacements over the past few years, what exactly are they planning to do for their bread-and-butter models? I think the straightforward answer is without a doubt the Nissan North America parts bin. With so many of their models selling well, and for the most part, are reasonably well-reviewed, it would be quite simple to adapt the chassis and powertrain to Mitsubishi's liking to create a high-volume alternative to what is currently available now.

Chinese Nissan Leaf goes on sale in September as Venucia e30

The upcoming Chinese version of the Nissan Leaf, the Venucia e30, was not the highlight of the Dongfeng Nissan stand at this year's Beijing Motor Show. That honor goes to the R30, a compact car with "segment-competitive fuel economy" and a starting price of under RMB 50,000 ($8,033 US). But that doesn't mean Dongfeng didn't make some news about the debut of the world's most popular electric vehicle in the world's most populous country. Dongfeng Nissan will start selling the e30 in the Chinese retail market this September. In a world where EV promises are not always worth the paper they're printed on, it's nice to see this target date is actually ahead of schedule. The sales launch follows EV pilot programs that saw 300 of the EVs rack up a total of one million kilometers (621,000 miles) in Guangzhou, Xiangyang and Dalian since December 2013. The e30 might just be the first or many EVs, since Donfeng-Nissan showed off the Viwa Concept EV last year. There are a few more details in the press release below. Dongfeng Nissan Unveils VENUCIA R30 at Auto China 2014 BEIJING, April 20, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle Company ("Dongfeng Nissan"), the passenger vehicle business unit of Nissan's joint venture in China, today unveiled R30 at Auto China 2014. R30 is the 4th production model for the company's new VENUCIA brand. The compact R30 delivers segment-competitive fuel economy with the strongest engine in class through a 1.2-liter gasoline engine, features a spacious interior, and offers easy handling for drivers to provide a high quality yet competitively priced car to Chinese consumers. The price of the main grade will be less than RMB 50,000. "Very competitively priced, R30 is the perfect entry car for Chinese consumers," said Ren Yong, Deputy Managing Director of Dongfeng Nissan. "I believe many Chinese consumers will choose R30 as their first car in the continuing motorization of China." Bookings for R30 will start within the next two months. Dongfeng Nissan also announced that e30, Venucia's electric vehicle, will be sold in the retail market starting in September. The company has already commenced EV pilot programs in the cities of Guangzhou, Xiangyang and Dalian, with a total of 300 e30s recording a total mileage of one million km since the programs started in December 2013. Venucia recorded sales of more than 100,000 units in 2013 and is targeting a 50 percent increase in sales this year.