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Honda may recall up to 1M vehicles for airbag issue, following Toyota's lead

It seems Toyota won't be the only one recalling the faulty Takata airbag inflators for long. Honda insiders in Japan claim that the company is getting close to announcing its own worldwide campaign that would begin before the end of June.
Unnamed sources close to Honda in Japan tell Automotive News that the company is pursuing an internal investigation into possibly affected models and is working with Takata to gather more information. They claim that it could involve even more than the 1.14 million cars worldwide that the automaker covered under the first recall for the problem in April 2013, including 561,000 vehicles in the US.
Toyota jumpstarted this process last week when it recalled over 2 million cars worldwide, including 844,277 in the US. Soon after, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began a preliminary evaluation into the issue following six reported incidents, and started assembling data about potentially affected models from Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Nissan, Chrysler. NHTSA also began investigating Takata itself.

Honda CR-Z refresh coming this fall

Despite moving just 1,562 of them through July 2015 with sales down 33.7 percent, the Honda CR-Z is somehow still kicking in the US lineup. Honda isn't ready to give up and is even announcing a refresh for the hybrid hatchback in hopes of giving the little car a jolt. Before you get too excited, the powertrain remains unaltered for the update with the same 1.5-liter four-cylinder and IMA hybrid system making 130 horsepower. The refresh arrives in Japan in October, and according to Automotive News, the improvements arrive in the US in November. The styling sees the biggest change of the revisions. Up front, the lower air dam now slices through the grille and leads right to the foglights. A similar addition is found on the rear, as well. The brake discs grow to 15-inches, an inch larger than before. Japan gets LED headlights too, but they reportedly aren't coming here to keep prices down. To match the revised exterior, there are tech tweaks inside. An upgraded infotainment system that adds both noise cancelation and an engine sound amplifier to make those 130 ponies at least sound sporty. Another tiny change is the switch to an an electric parking brake and the addition of a center armrest. Rumors suggest Honda is considering whether to dump the hybrid in favor of a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder in the next-gen CR-Z. However, chief engineer Terukazu Torikai disagrees. When asked about the possibility of a non-electrified model, he told Automotive News, "There are no plans for that whatsoever."

Honda revamps F1 engine for McLaren

Things haven't been going smoothly for Honda since returning to Formula One, and the Japanese automaker says the challenge has been greater than it anticipated. But after a stronger showing at the recent Hungarian Grand Prix, Honda says its reliability issues are behind it and is working on introducing a revamped engine for the second half of the season. "I am confident our reliability problems are now behind us, which means we can turn our attention to increasing power," Honda racing chief Yasuhisa Arai told Autosport. "After the summer shutdown our plan is to apply a new-spec engine using some of our remaining seven tokens." The "tokens" to which Arai refers are a way for the FIA to limit engine development. The power units are broken down into 66 such tokens in the regulations, and each engine supplier can change up to 32 of them throughout the season. The allowance was at first afforded only to returning suppliers Mercedes, Ferrari, and Renault, but Honda succeeded in convincing the FIA to allow it the same leeway. Honda has been spending its development tokens on fixing reliability issues, but will shift its focus to improving performance. The McLaren team that Honda powers has only gotten both of its cars to the finish line at two out of 10 races this season. Most of those problems came down to the new engine package. That's compared to only two retirements the team suffered last season, when it was still under Mercedes power, and none the year before. In Hungary, however, the team not only got both cars to the finish line, but placed both in the points for the first time this season. "The sport has changed immensely since the McLaren-Honda 'glory days'," said Arai. "The current technology is much more sophisticated, and it is tough to make a good racing car. We knew it wouldn't be easy, but perhaps we didn't imagine it would be this hard." The Japanese manufacturer is now spending the summer break developing its power unit. Many of those changes are expected to be rolled out in time for the Belgian Grand Prix later this month, with the rest to follow in the ensuing races. Beyond reliability, engine performance is particularly important for the high-speed races at Spa and Monza, where the subsequent Italian Grand Prix will be held early next month. Related Video: