The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is having a busy summer: The regulators on Wednesday opened two investigations into alleged ignition switch defects, this time related to several Fiat Chrysler minivans and sport utility vehicles. [More]
Transportation & Infrastructure
4 Popular Cars That Aren’t Worth Your Money
By 6.18.14
While you’d like to think you can’t go wrong with a middle-of-the-road vehicle from a well-known car company, sometimes you’re still not getting the most for your car-buying dollar. [More]
Lawmakers Not Exactly Thrilled By GM CEO Mary Barra
By 6.18.14
A lot has happened since General Motors CEO Mary Barra first appeared before lawmakers looking into the massive GM ignition switch recall tied to at least 13 deaths. The company has admitted a culture of incompetence while denying a cover-up, recalled another 3 million vehicles, and faces concerns that the total death count may be significantly higher than 13. So this morning’s hearing before a Congressional subcommittee was less friendly than Barra’s previous visit. [More]
CDC Concerned That We’re All Ignoring Chia Seed Recall
By 6.17.14
While Consumerist readers are generally up-to-date on the latest recalls, most Americans aren’t. Yet we hadn’t even shared the current recall of potentially salmonella-contaminated chia seeds that have sickened at least 65 people across the United States and Canada. [More]
GM To Start Process Of Compensating Families Of Ignition Switch Victims In August
By 6.17.14
General Motors has been promising for weeks that it will come up with some sort of compensation for people who bought any of the car company’s millions of vehicles with defective ignition switches. GM now says the plan is coming together, but don’t hold your breath waiting for specifics. [More]
New Jersey Assembly Passes Bill That Would Allow Sale Of Tesla Vehicles
By 6.17.14
Can you feel it? The slight wind that passes over the hands of Tesla CEO Elon Musk as he rubs his hands together in anticipation of a greater glee down the road? The automaker is one step closer to getting the stamp of approval to sell its cars in New Jersey, after a bill saying as much easily passed the state Assembly. [More]
Regulators, Manufacturers, Dealers, And Mechanics Get To Read About Car Defects — But Not Consumers
By 6.17.14
The thirteen-year-long mess of the GM ignition switch recall was, in part, a failure to see and identify patterns in the data. Over the course of a decade, individual consumers lodged complaints that, put together, could have revealed the whole problem sooner. But nobody got to look at the whole, because all of the service bulletins that carmakers like GM send to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration go into its database… and never come back out. Too bad so sad, says NHTSA, but lawmakers and auto-safety advocates are hoping to change that. [More]
GM Recalls Another 3.2 Million Cars For Ignition Switch Problems
By 6.16.14
At this point it might be easier for the owners of General Motors cars if the company just recalled all of its vehicles. [More]
There Are So Many Auto Recalls, People Tune Them Out
By 6.16.14
So far, 2014 has been a year of automotive recalls, beginning with the General Motors ignition recall. After just one company recalled 11 million vehicles, any other recalls just feel like piling on. Experts worry that consumers are starting to tune out and not pay attention to any recall announcements in the media at all. [More]
GM Recalls Another Half-Million Cars For Ignition Switch Problems, But Different Ones This Time
By 6.13.14
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: General Motors has issued a recall of a half-million of its cars because if the driver’s knee hits the keys while they’re in the ignition, the key can pop out, causing the car to lose power and potentially crash. [More]
Ford To Reimburse 200,000 Drivers For Another Batch Of Bad MPG Ratings
By 6.13.14
Less than a year after being slapped on the wrists for posting inaccurate MPG info on its cars, Ford could be on the hook for more than $100 million in payments to around 200,000 drivers of several additional vehicle models that were sold with overstated fuel economy ratings. [More]
Tesla Opens Patents For Rivals To Use In Attempt To Speed Up Electric Car Adoption
By 6.12.14
For the most part inventors hold their patents near and dear to their hearts, not allowing others to cash in on their ideas. That’s not the case for Tesla CEO Elon Musk. [More]
NHTSA Opens Investigation Into Defective Airbags Following Numerous Recalls
By 6.12.14
Just a day after Toyota re-issued a 2013 recall because shrapnel could fly toward passengers when the airbag deploys, federal regulators opened an investigation into whether the airbags used by five automakers could hurt people in the event of a crash. [More]
Wegmans Recalls Bagged Ice Because Metal Machine Fragments Aren’t Great For Cooling Beverages
By 6.12.14
In what may be a first for us, we bring you the news of a supermarket chain — specifically Alec Baldwin fave Wegmans — recalling thousands of pounds of bagged ice that may contain little bits of metal from the machine that produces the frozen water. [More]
Taxi Drivers Muck Up Traffic In European Streets To Protest Uber
By 6.11.14
Traditional taxi cab drivers in Europe have apparently found a natural enemy in Uber, the seem to have found a natural enemy in Uber, the on-demand car service connected to a smartphone app. In protest against their rivals, hundreds of taxi drivers clogged up traffic in the streets of London, Paris, Berlin and more. [More]
Toyota Reissues Recall Because No One Wants Shrapnel Flying Out Of Their Airbags
By 6.11.14
No driver wants to encounter a piece of metal flying toward their heads, especially if that shrapnel is coming from a device meant to save your life. To cut down on that risk, Toyota is reissuing a 2013 recall of more than 700,000 vehicles. [More]
Ford, Heinz Working To Make Car Parts From Tomatoes
By 6.10.14
The last thing you want when you buy a car is a lemon. But the folks at Ford and Heinz think you may someday want a tomato; or at least a car made with tomato-based parts. [More]
Victims Of Saturn Ion Crash Accuse GM Of Letting Driver Plead Guilty To Accident She Didn’t Cause
By 6.10.14
The driver of a Saturn Ion who pled guilty to criminally negligent homicide, and the family of her boyfriend who was killed in the 2004 crash, have sued General Motors in federal court, alleging the car maker knew of the ignition problem that caused the crash but sat and watched while the driver was prosecuted. [More]
