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Honda airbags are being stolen

The latest hot target for car thieves might just be the airbag mounted inside your steering wheel. And late-model Honda and Acura vehicles are a particularly hot target right now, for reasons not well understood. USA Today reports that criminals across the country are stealing airbags out of relatively new Honda models for apparent resale online or to black market repair shops. It's a trend that has caught the attention of law enforcement agencies in cities like Miami, New York City and Washington D.C. The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) estimates that around 50,000 airbags are stolen each year. In Miami-Dade County, thieves stole 875 airbags in 2017, up from just 13 in 2013, according to police records obtained by USA Today. In the Virginia suburbs outside Washington D.C., thieves recently smashed the windows of 10 Hondas at an apartment complex to steal the airbags. Second Lt. Jonathan Bryant told the local Fox affiliate that stolen Honda airbags often end up in chop shops and can command between $300 and $500 each. A quick search of eBay listings for Honda steering wheel airbags turns up results being sold for as high as $700, though most are listing for hundreds less than that. New replacement versions purchased from dealerships approach $1,000. Many dishonest repair shops install the stolen airbags as new and charge the owner or their insurer full price for the replacement, a version of insurance fraud. Last year, police in Coral Springs, Fla. published an alert on the neighborhood social networking site Nextdoor urging residents who own a Honda or Acura to park in a garage or well-lit area, "or if you have another vehicle, pull it as close to your driver's side door as possible," they wrote. "We have seen an increase in airbag thefts, primarily in Acura and Honda models," the posting added. "The suspect(s) often disarm the alarm by cutting the battery, punch the driver side door lock or smash the window. It is believed these criminals take approx. 5-10 minutes to steal the airbag." One theory for the apparent rise in airbag thefts is that a spate of airbag recalls in recent years — including the ongoing recall of nearly 50 million potentially explosive Takata airbag inflators that left suppliers scrambling to make new parts — may have boosted demand for replacements. Most of the vehicles involved are late-model Honda Civics and Accords, but it's not clear exactly why Honda is being targeted.

WSJ investigation reveals Takata may have hidden testing failures

We're not sure how much more Takata can get wrong concerning its airbag fiasco. The Wall Street Journal says it reviewed internal documents submitted during litigation that reveal US engineers had concerns about altered test data for at least a decade, from 2000 to 2010. This comes after Taktata's largest customer, Honda, stopped doing business with the company, publicly calling Takata out for "misrepresented and manipulated test data." On top of that, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration hit the Japanese company with an open-ended fine of $70 million. Ford took away its business, as have Toyota and Mazda. The latest recall tall has surpassed 19 million vehicles in the US alone. The in-house memos show US employees complaining among themselves that their Japanese equivalents were burying validation test failures and changing the results of validation tests. Such tests are conducted to show automakers that Takata products met specification, and employees specifically cite Honda as the recipient of those edited or redacted reports. One US engineer wrote that the "prettying up" of data "confounded my engineers," and "has gone beyond all reasonable bounds and now most likely constitutes fraud." The engineer apparently said his team made sure that the products were up to spec by using alternative data. Takata said the issues the Journal article covers don't have anything to do with the exploding airbags, and that in one case the problem with the airbag inflator was resolved, and in another case the problem airbag inflators didn't reach production. Takata admitted to the Journal that there have been past instances of "selective, incomplete or inaccurate data" in customer validation reports and apologized, laying the situation at the feet of employees trying to meet production deadlines. News Source: Wall Street JournalImage Credit: KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP/Getty Images Government/Legal Recalls Honda Safety

Profit at Honda doubles on strong global sales of cars and motorcycles

TOKYO — Honda reported Wednesday that its April-June profit more than doubled on healthy sales of its motorcycles and cars, as the Japanese company also received a perk from favorable exchange rates. Honda Motor Co. said its fiscal first quarter profit totaled 363 billion yen ($2.5 billion), up from 149 billion yen. Quarterly sales jumped 21% to 4.6 trillion yen ($32 billion). HondaÂ’s financial service division also reported growing sales. Honda said its profitability improved, especially in North America, where production recovered. Automakers around the world were slammed by supply shortages because of production delays related to social restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. But such restrictions have eased, allowing production to pick up again. Auto sales were about the same in Japan in the latest quarter as in the previous year, while dropping significantly in China because of intense competition from makers of battery electric vehicles, Honda said. Honda is banking on growth in EVs in the U.S. market, where it recently announced it is joining six other companies in the creation of a high-powered charging network across North America. Worries about climate change have helped set off a dramatic shift in the auto industry toward battery electric vehicles, allowing for relative newcomers like Tesla and BYD to prosper, while catching some Japanese makers off guard with their hybrids and regular gasoline-powered models. Honda said a computer chip shortage crimped its motorcycle sales in India, while sales rebounded in Indonesia as production recovered. Honda said it sold 901,000 vehicles in the latest quarter, up from 815,000 a year earlier. It also sold more motorcycles worldwide at nearly 4.5 million, up from 4.2 million. Honda added 23 billion yen ($160 million) to its quarterly operating profit because of the impact of currency exchange rates. A weaker yen, trading lately at about 143 yen to the U.S. dollar, is a boon for Japanese exporters by boosting the amount of its overseas earnings when converted into yen. Honda stuck to its full year projection of an 800 billion yen ($5.6 billion) profit, up from 651 billion yen a year earlier. Honda shares slipped 0.9% on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Related video: Earnings/Financials Acura Honda