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Toyota Expands Airbag Recall To 2.2 Million Vehicles Worldwide

Was your Toyota inspected under the company's recall campaign for faulty airbag inflators last year? You might have another trip ahead to have it repaired again. The automotive giant says that it found "the involved serial numbers provided by the supplier were incomplete, and did not include all of the potentially involved inflators," according to its official announcement. That means more replacements are needed. Toyota's April 2013 inflator recall covered the Corolla, Matrix and Tundra from the 2003 and 2004 model years, the Sequoia from 2002 to 2004 and the Lexus SC 430 from 2002 to 2004. At the time, the company said it would need to inspect about 510,000 vehicles in the US but only expected to replace around 170,000 inflators. However, the latest announcement increases that figure to about 766,300 vehicles in the US. Toyota spokesperson Cindy Knight told Autoblog that the new amount is the combination of owners who need to have their vehicle looked at again and those who didn't come in for the initial recall. The company learned about the problem when Takata, the supplier, provided it with an improved list of the faulty part's serial numbers. According to The Detroit Free Press, the latest recall affects about 2.27 million vehicles from them worldwide. Knight said owners would receive notification of the problem around the end of the month but repairs would come in phases because the automaker doesn't have all of the necessary parts at the moment. The original problem occurred because the front passenger airbag inflator from Takata could have an improper propellant that could cause it to burst in an accident and not allow the airbag to deploy properly. Toyota inspected all the vehicles listed but only changed the inflators with specific serial numbers. Now, it's replacing them all. This wasn't just a problem for Toyota, though. Honda, Nissan and Mazda also used the faulty inflators and issued recalls at the same time. Autoblog has contacted the other Japanese automakers about whether similar campaigns are necessary for them. We will update this story, if we hear back from them. Scroll down to read Toyota's announcement. UPDATE: Honda spokesperson Jessica Howell sent along the following statement: Honda is aware that Toyota recently announced a recall of front passenger's airbag inflators. Honda is not aware of any incidents in our vehicles related to Toyota's action. We are currently investigating the potential implications to Honda vehicles.

Foreign automakers pay from $38 to $65 per hour to non-union workers

As leaders for the United Auto Workers gather in Detroit for their Special Convention on Collective Bargaining to work out the negotiating stance for this year's new labor agreements with the Detroit 3 automakers, what they most want to do is figure out how to eliminate the two-tier wage scale. However, the lower Tier 2 wage has allowed the domestic automakers to reduce their labor costs, hire more workers, and compete better with their import competition. As it stands, per-hour labor rates including benefits are $58 at General Motors, $57 at Ford, and $48 at Fiat-Chrysler – a reflection of FCA's much greater number of Tier 2 workers. The Center for Automotive Research released a study of labor rates (including benefits) that put numbers to what the imports pay: Mercedes-Benz pays the most, at an average of $65 per hour, Volkswagen pays the least, at $38 per hour, and BMW is just a hair above that at $39 per hour. Among the Detroit competitors, Honda workers earn an average of $49 per hour, at Toyota it's $48 per hour, Nissan is $42 per hour, and Hyundai-Kia pays $41 per hour. The lower import wages are aided by their greater use of temporary workers compared to the domestics. Automotive News says the ten-dollar gap between those foreign camakers and the domestics turns out to about an extra $250 per car in labor, which adds up quickly when you're pumping out many millions of cars. That $250-per-car number is one that, come negotiating time, the Detroit 3 will want to reduce, as the UAW is trying to raise both Tier 1 and Tier 2 wages. Another wrinkle is that the domestic carmakers are considering the wide adoption of a third wage level lower than Tier 2. Some workers who do minor tasks like assembling parts trays kits and battery packs already make less than Tier 2, but the UAW will be quite wary about cementing yet another wage scale at the bottom of the system while it's trying to fight a bigger battle at the top. News Source: Automotive News - sub. req., BloombergImage Credit: AP Photo/Erik Schelzig Earnings/Financials UAW/Unions BMW Chevrolet Fiat Ford GM Honda Hyundai Kia Mercedes-Benz Nissan Toyota Volkswagen labor wages collective bargaining labor costs

Toyota RAV4 "Adventure" brings the butch

Just last week, your humble author had a 2013 Toyota RAV4 in his garage, and he couldn't help noting that even in mid-level XLE trim, its aesthetics lacked oomph, due in large part to its cheap-looking black bumpers and airy-looking wheel wells. Judging by the RAV4 "Adventure" on display at the Geneva Motor Show, someone at Toyota must've been thinking the same thing.
With Japan's biggest automaker understandably focused on bigger reveals, information on this butched-up softroader has proven to be hard to come by, with no press materials whatsoever. We don't even know if this is a pure concept or if it's actually being considered for production. Either way, we approve. The 20-inch dark-finish alloys probably don't do much for ride quality, but they certainly look nicely aggressive, as does the new lower fascia with its prominent lower lip. Other changes include beefier wheel arches, side rails, headlamps with integrated LEDs, twin-element fog lamps and mesh grille inserts. All of the changes are quite well integrated - enough so that the Adventure largely avoids looking like a SEMA refugee in person.