2014 Honda Accord Sport on 2040-cars

Auto blog

530,000 Hondas, Acuras under expanded NHTSA investigation for steering problem

Earlier this year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into the 2022 and 2023 Honda Civic. The agency had received 145 complaints from owners stating that the car suddenly exhibited “sticky steering” and increased steering effort. WeÂ’re now learning that the investigation is expanding to include hundreds of thousands more cars. The original probe included around 238,000 Civics, but the NHTSAÂ’s latest report, issued Friday, noted that the investigation is expanding to include more than 530,000 Hondas and Acura vehicles. The 2022 and 2023 Honda Civic, 2023 Honda CR-V, and 2023 Acura Integra are affected. A drastic increase in complaints drove the expansion, as the NHTSA said it had received 1,300 reports and was aware of at least 14 crashes related to the problem. An alarming 11 of those crashes involved a roadway departure due to loss of steering control. Two of them came after the driver allegedly overcorrected, and there are three known injuries from the crashes. NHTSAÂ’s report found that the problem happened primarily in the winter months and after the car had been driven in a straight line for an extended period to warm up the vehicle and gear. Though alarming, itÂ’s worth noting that this investigation has not yet reached the recall stage. Honda acknowledged the problem, noting that it was a manufacturing issue for the steering gear unit. The manufacturing process created conditions that could cause greater internal stress, which can wear and deform the gears inside the steering component. The NHTSA also found that the factory did not guarantee consistent lubrication throughout the gear, which could be the cause of the temporary increase in steering effort. The automaker directed its dealers to replace the electronic power steering gearbox to correct a manufacturing defect, but NHTSA will continue its process, moving to an engineering analysis. If that study finds a defect, it could request a recall. Government/Legal Acura Honda Safety

Inside Honda's ghost town for testing autonomous cars

On the edge of the San Francisco suburb of Concord, California sits a ghost town. Dilapidated buildings and cracked roads are framed by overgrowth and slightly askew street signs. The decommissioned five acre portion of the Concord Naval Weapons Station that once housed military personnel and their families is now home to squirrels, jack rabbits, wild turkeys and Honda's mysterious testing lab for autonomous vehicles. This former town within a Naval base – now dubbed "GoMentum Station" – is the perfect testing ground for Honda's self-driving cars. An almost turn-key solution to the problem of finding somewhere to experiment with autonomous vehicle inside an urban area. Thanks to the GoMentum Station, the automaker has access to 20 miles of various road types, intersections and infrastructure exactly like those found in the real world. Just, you know, without all the people getting in the way. While the faded lane markers and cracked asphalt might initially make it difficult for the car to figure out what's going on around it, that's exactly what you want when training a self-driving system. Many roads in the real world are also in dire need of upkeep. Just because autonomous vehicles are hitting the streets doesn't mean the funding needed to fix all the potholes and faded lane markers will magically appear. The real world doesn't work that way and the robot cars that will eventually make our commutes less of a headache will need to be aware of that. Plus, it's tougher to train a car to drive downtown than to barrel down the highway at 80 miles per hour. A company is going to want to get as much practice as possible. While semi-autonomous driving on the everyone-going-the-same-way-at-a-constant-speed freeway is already a reality, navigating in an urban environment is far more complex. If you've driven on the streets of Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago or Seattle you know that driving downtown takes far more concentration than cruising down the interstate. With all that in mind, Honda's tricked out Acura RLX did a good job during an (admittedly very controlled) hands-free demo. It didn't hit either of the pedestrians walking across its path. It stopped at stop signs and even maneuvered around a mannequin situated in the middle of the road. The reality is, watching a car drive around the block and safely avoid stuff is boring. Not to metion, Google has been doing this for a while in the real world.

2017 Honda Accord Hybrid First Drive

Honda waited until the Accord Hybrid was on sale for an entire month before inviting journalists out for a test drive. Usually, these events are previews, a chance for those in the industry to get an advance feel for what's about to go on sale. Not this time. The new 2017 Honda Accord Hybrid has been available at your local dealer for a month now. It's high time we got caught up. We were able to do just that at a drive event in Napa Valley last week. We can't say that the new Accord was a hoot to drive, but an Accord isn't supposed to be thrilling. It's supposed to sell boatloads of units a year, and that's why a hybrid version is so important. With ever-increasing fuel-efficiency standards coming around the world and an uncertain future when it comes to gas prices, having a car like this in the stable is obviously important. Of course, the future is only one side of the coin. As we said, the Accord Hybrid is on sale now, in a time of relatively low gas prices in the US, where sedan sales are being outpaced by CUV and SUV sales. This is the reality that the Accord Hybrid is facing. Honda, though, is confident. Just how good does the automaker think the new Accord Hybrid is? We'll guess about twice as good. That's because Honda execs said they expect to sell about 30,000 units a year, about double the volume of the 2014 Accord Hybrid. That's the official sales plan, anyway. The car went on sale June 15, 2016, so we're already off to the races. Sure, only 31 Accord Hybrids were sold in the second half of June, but we can't draw any conclusions this early in the process. Without a doubt, 30,000 sales is respectable for a hybrid (Toyota sold 30,640 Camry Hybrids in 2015), but let's just note for the record that Honda sold 355,557 Accords last year. If it manages to sell 30,000 Hybrids a year, and Accord sales numbers remain stable, that'll be just 8.4 percent of the overall total. The car should easily appeal to 30,000 buyers a year. The car should easily appeal to 30,000 buyers a year. The clean and attractive exterior design hasn't been massively overhauled from the 2014 Accord Hybrid, but why change what isn't broken? The headlights are updated, the front fascia has sharper lines, the taillights are more impressive – and that's about it.