It’s been a bad spring for the Ford F-150 pickup truck brand. First, there was the recall of around 1.3 million vehicles for faulty airbags. Now comes news that NHTSA is investigating a problem with rusting fuel tank straps that could impact 2.7 million F-150 trucks. [More]
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NHTSA Looking Into 865,000 GM SUVs Over Screwy Fuel Gauges
By 4.29.11
Given the price of gas these days, it really helps to have an accurate fuel gauge on your vehicle. It certainly doesn’t help to have a gauge that gives inaccurate or completely random readings. But enough GM drivers have complained to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration about this problem for the agency to open an investigation. [More]
Ford Adds Another 1.2 Million Trucks To F-150 Airbag Recall
By 4.14.11
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]
Toyota Recalls 2.17 Million Cars, NHTSA Closes Investigation
By 2.24.11
At the request of regulators, Toyota is recalling an additional 2.17 million cars dating back to 2003 to deal with concerns over stuck gas pedals that could lead to out-of-control acceleration. And with that, it looks like NHTSA, the National Highway Transportation Administration, has shut the books on the unintended acceleration issue. [More]
Ford Recalls 150,000 F-150 Trucks Over Airbag Concerns
By 2.23.11
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]
Evenflo Recalls Maestro Car Seat After Failing Consumer Reports Test
By 10.15.10
After a crash test commissioned by our test-happy kin at Consumer Reports on the Evenflo Maestro Combination Booster Seat showed the product could experience a failure that could lead to severe injury for a child passenger, the company has announced a voluntary recall. [More]
139,500 Hyundai Sonatas Recalled
By 9.28.10
Hyundai recalled 139,500 model year 2011 Sonatas this Sunday because of a steering issue. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NTHSA) said that on some of the cars, the steering column intermediate shaft universal joint connections were not put together correctly, or were too loose, which could make the car hard or impossible to steer. [More]
Should Seat Belts Be Required On The Bus?
By 8.17.10
Riding the bus is a relatively safe way to get from point A to B, but a new proposal under consideration by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration would seek to make it even safer by requiring new motorcoaches — as opposed to municipal or school buses — to provide seat belts for all passengers on board. [More]
More Subpoenas For Toyota! This Time It's Steering Rods
By 7.20.10
Five years ago Toyota had a problem with their steering rods. Now a federal grand jury would like to see records relating to whether or not the company notified the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of the problem in a timely fashion, says the WSJ. [More]
Early Tests Show Some Runaway Toyotas Caused By Driver Error
By 7.15.10
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that, according to an anonymous source, preliminary analysis at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) shows that most unintended acceleration incidents involving now-recalled Toyota vehicles were due to driver error. [More]
NHTSA Warns Of Possible Stuck Accelerators In 2010 Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan Vehicles
By 6.1.10
Over the weekend, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced that it had opened a formal investigation to examine allegations of accelerator pedals in model year 2010 Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan vehicles “becoming trapped in the depressed position after the driver releases the pedal to decelerate.” [More]
Toyota Waited Months To Recall Trucks For Defect Linked To 3 Deaths
By 5.10.10
An AP investigation has found that Toyota waited nearly a year after a 2004 recall in Japan to issue the same recall in the U.S.– claiming that it had little evidence of a U.S. problem. The AP says, however, that the automaker had received at least 52 reports from U.S. drivers about a steering defect in trucks and SUVs. [More]
Why Did Toyota Wait 6 Weeks To Recall Venzas In The U.S.?
By 4.16.10
While we in the U.S. have become accustomed to getting things before the rest of the world, that doesn’t seem to hold true for Toyota recalls. Documents show that the car maker issued a recall for their Venza vehicle in December, but decided to wait six weeks to make the same decision stateside. [More]
Police Report Supports Runaway Prius Driver's Story
By 3.17.10
The Associated Press is reporting that a newly released police report confirms details given by the driver of the runaway Prius, but does not address inconsistencies between the driver’s story and information provided by Toyota. [More]
Transportation Secretary LaHood & Toyota's Lentz Defend Themselves To Congress
By 2.23.10
Both Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Toyota U.S. President James Lentz are scheduled to appear before the House Committee on Energy & Commerce this morning, but in prepared remarks released before the hearing, these two fine chaps attempt to shrug off many of the accusations hurled at both sides of the Toyota recall debacle. [More]
Congress Rips NHTSA A New One Over Toyota Debacle
By 2.22.10
Following this weekend’s revelation that Toyota bigwigs were bragging to each other about saving $100 million by convincing the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to drop an investigation into a recall of the company’s Camry and Lexis vehicles, Congressmen Henry Waxman, Chair of the House Committee on Energy & Commerce and Bart Stupak, Chair of the Subcommittee on Oversight & Investigations, broke out their typewriters to voice their opinions in no uncertain terms to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. [More]
Great, Now People Are Complaining About Toyota's Brakes
By 2.3.10
Toyota is having a hell of a time lately. According to CNNMoney, “more than 100 complaints alleging poor brake performance have been lodged with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration against the 2010 Prius.” In addition, there have been 14 complaints in Japan. Ouch, if it’s not one pedal it’s another, eh? [More]
Memo Reveals Tragic Details Of Stuck Pedal Lexus Crash (Pics)
By 10.30.09
Tragic details are revealed in NHTSA memo about the Lexus that crashed at almost 100 MPH after the gas pedal became stuck on the floormat, leading to the immolation and death of the four family-members inside, and Toyota’s 3.8 million vehicle recall.
