air-bags

Honda's Airbag Recall Continues To Inflate, Adds Another 273,000 Cars
Back in 2008, Honda issued a recall of a measly 3,940 vehicles over potentially faulty airbags. In 2009, that number ballooned up to 440,000 cars, and then added another 438,000 in 2010. But like a big white bag that inflates unexpectedly in your face, it just got larger, adding another 273,000 cars. More »

GM Introduces First Front-Center Air Bag
In an effort to protect folks in the front seat during side impact crashes, General Motors announced earlier today that it plans to introduce the industry's first front-center air bag in three of its vehicles starting with model year 2013. More »

300,000 Dodge & Chrysler Minivans Recalled For Possible Airbag Problems
Chrysler has recalled 300,000 model year 2008 Dodge Caravan, Chrsyler Grand Voyager and Town & Country minivans in the U.S. over concerns that the airbags on these vehicles could inadvertently deploy, which is hilarious in slapstick comedies but potentially deadly in real life. More »

Toyota Recalls Over 200,000 RAV4 & 90,000 Highlander Vehicles Over Airbag Concerns
The Toyota recall parade continues with the announcement of a recall of approximately 214,000 of its 2007 and 2008 model year RAV4 and 94,000 of its 2008 model year Highlander and Highlander Hybrid vehicles due to faulty roll-over sensors in their side airbag systems. More »

Ford Adds Another 1.2 Million Trucks To F-150 Airbag Recall
Remember when NHTSA suggested that Ford should recall 1.3 million F-150 trucks over airbag concerns? Probably not, because the car company only chose to recall around 150,000 of them. Well after further conversations with regulators, it appears that all those trucks Ford had originally decided didn't merit a recall... they do now. More »

Ford Recalls 150,000 F-150 Trucks Over Airbag Concerns
Denis Leary may shout about how crazy smart the engineers at Ford are in those irritating TV ads, but those engineers apparently weren't smart enough to include an airbag that might not deploy without warning in the F-150 pickup. More »

Newer Air Bags Could Be Doing More Harm To Belted Drivers Than Good
Buckling up is the law, but a new study is raising an important question — is the very act of clicking the seat belt in place putting drivers and front seat passengers at more risk from their air bags in a crash? More »

Mercedes Shows Off New Safety Feature For Cars
Last week, Mercedes showed a bunch of journalists some new safety features it's working on to prevent deaths in the event of a car crash, and BNET describes them. I hope you like air bags going off all around you—the demo even has air bags for the car. Sadly, the people-scooper feature—something about when you hit a pedestrian, the car "scoops" the body onto the hood and keeps the person there, probably so that his screaming can alert you that you've been in an accident—will only be available in Europe. More »

Enterprise Removed Air Bags From Cars, Sold Cars, Forgot To Tell Customers

—>New safety innovations for automobiles can be impressive. Side-curtain airbags are a great development for protecting people in a side-impact crash, and are standard on many models, including the Chevrolet Impala. Unless you're driving an Impala in the Enterprise Rent-A-Car fleet, in which case the airbags were never installed in order to save Enterprise $175 per car. This wasn't really a problem until Enterprise went to sell their used Impalas, and sort of forgot to tell people that the airbags had been removed.  More »

Airbag Defect Prompts Honda To Recall 440,000 Cars

—>If you own a Honda and don't like getting shot in the face with jagged metal fragments, you may want to keep an eye out for a recall notice. The automaker announced yesterday that it would recall 440,000 Civics, Accords, and Acura TL sedans sold between 2001 and 2003.  More »

Chrysler Recalls 400,000 Minivans With Corroded Airbag Sensors

—>Chrysler is recalling 400,000 Dodge Caravans and Chrysler Town & Country minivans over concerns that road salt may corrode sensors, preventing air bags from properly deploying. Chrysler told the government, "brass brushings on the sensors could corrode and crack on the front air bags, allowing water to enter the sensor and causing it to fail." Were that to happen, the air bag warning light would illuminate, meaning you should try really hard not to crash.  More »

Consumerist Ask Metafilter Round-Up

I recently received a bill from my local utilities company stating that they had accidentally undercharged me for the last year. Now they want me to pay 438.53. Here's the letter, is there a way out of this? [Link]  More »

Blogobitchin'!
• Buying a wedding dress on Craiglist is cheap, but you also have to factor in the cost of removing the boob padding. [Another Fucking Wedding] "Wedding dress redux"  More »