2011 Honda Accord Ex-l Sedan 4-door 2.4l on 2040-cars

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Honda profit targets tumble in wake of Takata scandal

Takata's massive airbag inflator recall will likely do some damage to Honda's bottom line this year, according to the Japanese automaker's latest forecasts. The company will allocate 50 billion yen ($425 million) to fulfill costs related to the safety campaigns, Reuters indicates. The decision will reduce estimated operating profit by about 6.5 percent to 720 billion yen ($6.1 billion US) for the fiscal year ending March 31. In addition to lower profits, Honda also cut back its sales estimate for the year to 4.45 million vehicles from the previous 4.62 million, according to Reuters. This was largely due to lower-than-expected demand in Japan. "We are not seeing a big impact on sales in North America from the airbag issue," company vice president Tetsuo Iwamura (pictured above) told Reuters. The decreased forecasts come at the same time as the possibility of another death in a Honda vehicle from the Takata parts. According to Automotive News, a man in Florida died in a crash in his 2002 Accord, but investigators have not yet determined whether the inflator was the cause. However, the vehicle was included in a 2011 recall for the part and was not repaired. The family intends to file a lawsuit alleging the inflator ruptured, spraying metal shrapnel into the driver's neck. Reportedly, the owner was never notified of the recall. While the Takata inflator recall is affecting many companies with alleged links to at least five deaths and 139 injuries worldwide, Honda has it among the worst. Including vehicles covered under the previous regional repair campaign for the issue, the automaker needs to repair roughly 5.4 million vehicles just in the US. Honda has taken action by employing suppliers other than Takata to supply some of its replacement parts for the recall. The business is also reportedly switching airbag suppliers for the next-gen Accord and possibly the 2016 CR-V and Odyssey.

Honda installs 3-minute, fast-fuelling hydrogen fuel station in California

OK, but let's see how well Honda can control hydrogen refueling temperature in Houston or Buffalo. That's what some pessimists may be saying now that the Japanese automaker has installed a fast-fueling hydrogen station in the oh-so-temperate environs of Torrance, CA. That city is about 20 miles southwest of downtown Los Angeles and a sliver of it actually touches the Pacific Ocean, so we're not talking about wild swings in air temperature here. Honda is calling its fast-refueling platform the MC Fill (we'd expect a lawsuit if it was McFill, even though that'd be clever) and says that filling up takes about 45 percent less time than the typical hydrogen-refueling station. That's because the system monitors the ambient temperature in order to speed up the process. There's more scientific stuff in there - for example, the fact that the MC name comes from the "two key values in a heat transfer equation- 'M' for mass and 'C' for specific heat" - but the long and the short of it is that a hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle can fill up in less than three minutes. That's pretty impressive, despite the distinct lack of vehicles needing to charge that fast today. Honda unveiled its FCEV Concept vehicle at the Los Angeles Auto Show last November. The five-seat vehicle has a range of more than 300 miles, while its fuel-stack power density is about 60 percent higher than its previous version. The production version is due to arrive in the US in 2015. Check out Honda's press release below. Honda R&D Installs Advanced Fast-Fill Hydrogen Refueling Station -- New station on Honda R&D Americas' Torrance, California campus built in anticipation of Honda's next-generation fuel cell electric vehicle, due in 2015 -- Honda-developed hydrogen refueling protocol significantly reduces fill time TORRANCE, Calif., March 3, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Preparing for the 2015 introduction of the next Honda fuel cell-electric vehicle (FCEV), Honda R&D Americas has installed a state-of-the-art hydrogen refueling station on its Torrance, California campus. This advanced station will serve as a platform for demonstrating and validating the enhanced hydrogen fueling protocol developed by Honda, named the MC Fill. With the aim of standardizing this new protocol, Honda will make the new research station available to other automakers to further validate the MC Fill protocol's performance and functionality.

2013 North American Car and Truck/Utility of the Year finalists announced [w/poll]

2012 is almost in the books and automakers are spending December gearing up for the 2013 auto show season, which tips off next month at the Detroit Auto Show. Traditionally, the latter opens up with the announcement of the North American Car and Truck/Utility of the Year awards, and this year figures to be no different.
But up until this moment, we didn't know which six vehicles would be parked ahead of the stage as finalists, with executives and engineers waiting for the winners to be disclosed. Whittled down from October's "short list" of nominees (11 cars and 10 truck/utility vehicles), the finalists are as follows:
2013 North American Car of the Year: