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NHTSA opens safety investigations into Toyota, GM and Honda crossovers

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is evidently keeping itself very busy these days, as the federal agency has just announced it is launching or renewing investigations into Toyota, Honda and General Motors crossovers.
2006-2008 model year Toyota RAV4 crossovers are under review for allegations of rear tie-rod rust which can result in failure. NHTSA also said it is probing some 35 complaints about 2005 Honda Pilot models with inappropriate activation of the vehicles' stability control system. The alleged malfunction can cause the vehicles to slow down or stop in bad unsafe situations. At the moment, NHTSA is reviewing a petition regarding the Pilot issue, a move that will determine whether it needs to open a full-blown investigation.
In addition, Saturn Outlook and GMC Acadia three-row crossovers built in 2007-2009 are getting looked at for "loss of low beam headlamp" function. One complainant said the wiring in his Outlook overheated and melted. NHTSA says it has received 415 complaints about the problem and a GM spokesman confirmed that the automaker already started a "Customer Satisfaction Program" in December to address the issue.

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.

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.