Tesla Motors is probably popping the bubbly after scoring a major hit against naysayers in North Carolina: The state’s House of Representatives recently struck down a bill that would have put the smackdown on direct-to-consumer sales of cars.That could make it as easy to order a personalized car as it is to buy a laptop online. [via Engadget] [More]
Transportation & Infrastructure
Soleus Air And Kenmore Dehumidifiers May Catch Fire, Pulled From Stores
By 7.2.13
Our venerable sibling publication Consumer Reports gave a dehumidifier from Soleus Air their “Best Buy” rating. Now it’s off the list and off store shelves after the manufacturer sent a stop-sale notice to retailers. There’s no consumer recall yet, but Amazon did reach out to customers and let them know about the issue. [More]
Ford Recalls 13,100 Vehicles Because Child Locks Don’t Keep Children Locked In
By 7.1.13
Some model year 2013 Explorer, Taurus and Lincoln MKS vehicles manufactured in late 2012 have a little problem: the child safety locks don’t always safely lock children inside. Child safety locks prevent passengers in the back seats from opening car doors from the inside. In the affected vehicles, these locks can turn themselves off. [More]
June Recall Roundup: Not Even Buff Baby Can Save Us Now
By 6.28.13 — Updated: 12.18.13
In this month’s recall roundup, we bring you a chicken dance that will hurt your ears, buff babies, toppling bath seats, and machetes so sharp that they slice through their own sheaths. [More]
DOT Fines Delta $750,000 For Breaking Rules On Passenger-Bumping
By 6.27.13
Delta isn’t great about letting passengers volunteer to be bumped off an oversold flight instead of just bumping them by force. The company just doesn’t have enough CEOs to go around and offer seats to people who need to get home. Don’t take our word for it: the U.S. Department of Transportation gave them a public reprimand and ordered the airline to pay a penalty of $750,000. [More]
1956 Porsche 356A Catch-22: I Can’t Sell A Car That I Can’t Register
By 6.24.13
There is surely someone out there who can give this 57-year-old Porsche a good home. It belonged to the current owner’s father, but is now in disrepair and no longer runs. The problem with finding it a new home is that it’s caught in a weird legal middle ground where it can’t be sold to someone who can fix it up and get it to run because it isn’t registered, but can’t be registered because it isn’t running. [More]
11 Tons Of Maybe Contaminated Ground Beef Recalled In Midwest And South
By 6.21.13
National Beef in Kansas shipped out 22,737 pounds of beef (about 11 tons) that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, a nasty strain that’s particularly dangerous to the elderly. Meat from the affected packages may have ended up at retailers and food service establishments in eleven different states. [More]
Ford Placates Customers, Brings Back Volume Knobs
By 6.20.13
Back in the day, kids, just about every electronic device had a knob on it. We even changed television channels by getting up and using knobs, which works better when you have only 4 channels instead of 400. Ford has learned the hard way that while their MyFord Touch stereo/climate control/infotainment system looks really cool, customers kind of hate it. [More]
If American Car Companies Are Doing Well, Why Aren’t They Hiring?
By 6.19.13
American auto manufacturers are selling cars and making profits again, so that means that our auto industry has recovered from its terrible collapse of just a few years ago. Right? The companies themselves have recovered, but that doesn’t mean that they’re going on a hiring spree just yet. [More]
Chrysler Finally Agrees To Recall 2.7 Million Jeeps, Insists Vehicles Are Safe
By 6.18.13
Earlier this month Chrysler responded with a big fat “No” to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s request that it formally recall 2.7 million older model Jeeps, over regulator concerns that the vehicles could catch on fire when hit from behind. Today the car company announced that it’s relenting, and will in fact, institute the recall the NHTSA wanted. [More]
June Food And Drug Recall Roundup – Sulfites, Plastic Fragments, And Salmonella
By 6.18.13
Our monthly Recall Roundups have grown so expansive that we’ve had to separate them into two separate roundups: one for consumer goods, and one for consumables. In this edition of the Food and Drug roundup, dangers lurk everywhere, from coconut candy bars to sugary cereals. [More]
Costco Offering Free Hepatitis Vaccines To Customers Who Purchased Recalled Berries
By 6.7.13
We told you earlier this week about a hepatitis A outbreak in several states that authorities had linked to a berry mix sold at Costco stores. Now comes news that the warehouse chain is offering free vaccines to those who have eaten the recalled berries. [More]
From The Shameless To The Egregious, We Grade The Product Placements In 12 Ad-Packed Movies
By 6.7.13
You’ve probably seen the 30-second TV ads promoting that new 2-hour commercial for Google starring those two actors from that other movie that people really liked eight years ago. We’d like to think product placement has sunk to a new low, but every time we’re convinced that advertisers have hit bottom, someone throws them a more powerful digging implement. [More]
Chrysler Says No To NHTSA Request To Recall 2.7 Million Jeeps
By 6.4.13
If you’ve read enough recall notices, you’ve probably seen that most of them say something like “Company X, in coordination with Regulator Y, have issued a voluntary recall of blah blah blah,” but sometimes regulators and manufacturers don’t agree about whether a product merits being recalled. Case in point: Chrysler’s decision to say no to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to recall 2.7 million vehicles over fuel tank concerns. [More]
GM May Recall Additional 400,000 Vehicles Over Airbag Concerns
By 6.4.13
In the last year, General Motors has issued two small airbag-related recalls affecting a total of around 7,000 vehicles. But the folks at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration think that recall may need to be expanded a little bit… by around 400,0000. [More]
Ford Recalls 465,000 Model Year 2013 Vehicles Over Fuel Leak, Fire Concerns
By 6.3.13
Ford has issued a recall of nearly half a million model year 2013 vehicles over concerns about possible fuel tank leaks that could result in a fire. [More]
Fred Meyer Recalls Stuffed Chicken That Plays Excessively Loud Chicken Dance Song
By 6.3.13
Did you know that there’s an upper volume limit for how loud a noise-making toy can be before it’s considered a hazard to your hearing? It’s true. Despite what some toddlers’ parents might think, most toys that beep, talk, or play music don’t come close to the standard. One Easter toy sold at Fred Meyer stores does, though, and the chain has issued a recall to save everyone’s ears. [More]
Tesla Tripling Its Supercharger Station Network, Making Cross-Country Road Trips Possible
By 5.30.13
Ah, the Great American Road Trip! An open highway, stretching before you across the states, giant balls of yarn and mystical sights awaiting the moment you drive up to see just how awesome that one cornfield in Iowa actually is. In an effort to woo drivers willing, ready and able to cruise the 2,000+ miles from New York City to Los Angeles, Tesla is tripling the number of its supercharger stations across the country. [More]
