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Infiniti Q30 goes full monty before Frankfurt

Infiniti is finally tearing off the camouflage and showing the world what the Q30 luxury hatchback actually looks like. Set to make a full debut Frankfurt Motor Show on September 15, the five-door marks the entry of the Japanese premium brand into the compact hatch ranks. The company's designers did a fantastic job of bringing the major elements from 2013's concept to the street, though. Like the earlier design, the production Q30 wears Infiniti's rounded rectangle grille and a chrome strip along the edge of the hood. The headlights are also left squinting from the concept. The only major change to the front end is an adjustment to the lower air dam to make it a little more realistic for production. Sadly, Infiniti is only providing this single front three-quarters perspective on the upcoming five-door for now, but check out the C-pillar in the background to spot the similarly pointed design there, as well. The changes are actually more noticeable when comparing the Q30 with its platform-mate, the QX30 compact crossover concept. The hatchback noticeably softens many of the CUVs swoopy lines to be a bit more mainstream. This is especially true along the front where the big air intakes from the QX are made significantly smaller. Production of the Q30 is slated to start in Sunderland, England, by the end of the year. They should actually arrive in showrooms there before the calendar runs out. Still, we're looking forward to Frankfurt for a more complete view of Infiniti's little luxury hatchback. Related Video: INFINITI Q30 PREMIUM ACTIVE COMPACT SET FOR FRANKFURT IAA 2015 PREMIERE Daring, expressive design meets advanced ride and handling performance Category-breaking Q30 faithful to 2013 concept car World premiere for global media September 15th at Frankfurt Motor Show Hong Kong – The first ever Infiniti Q30 Premium Active Compact is ready for its world premiere at the International Frankfurt Motor Show in September this year. Featuring Infiniti's iconic design language, the all-new Q30 represents a category-breaking vehicle concept developed for customers seeking urban individuality. Its dynamic drive characteristics provide for Infiniti-typical confident and responsive performance as well as excellent ride and handling. Crafted trims and expressive interiors extend the striking design approach from the exterior into the passenger cabin.

NHTSA opens investigation into Nissan's handling of airbag recall

In March of 2014, Nissan recalled eight models among its Nissan and Infiniti brands, totaling more than one million vehicles, over faulty occupant classification system software controlling the passenger airbag. The company discovered a variety of factors that would interfere with the system's ability to detect an adult passenger in the shotgun seat, resulting in an illuminated warning on on the dashboard and the passenger airbag not deploying in an accident. Yet 124 complaints submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration since the recall allege that the dealer-installed fix hasn't actually fixed the problem; some consumers say the problem persists after multiple trips to the dealer. The Detroit News reports that NHTSA is opening an investigation into the matter to determine whether a new recall is needed. The occupant sensor has been a bugbear for Nissan over the past couple of years; a much smaller recall for the issue in 2013 covered five of the eight vehicles that were recalled in 2014, and that earlier recall also continued to generate complaints after the issue had supposedly been fixed. At the same time, the company learned that in two instances there was another twist, where the dashboard warning wasn't illuminated but the passenger airbag still didn't go off in an accident. Nissan isn't alone, though, with airbag recalls on a steep upswing across the industry even before the Takata debacle.

Poor headlights cause 40 cars to miss IIHS Top Safety Pick rating

Over the past few months, we've noticed a number of cars and SUVs that have come incredibly close to earning one of the IIHS's highest accolades, the Top Safety Pick rating. They have great crash test scores and solid automatic emergency braking and forward collision warning systems. What trips them up is headlights. That got us wondering, how many vehicles are there that are coming up short because they don't have headlights that meet the organization's criteria for an "Acceptable" or "Good" rating. This is a revision made after 2017, a year in which headlights weren't factored in for this specific award. This is also why why some vehicles, such as the Ford F-150, might have had the award last year, but have lost it for this year. We reached out to someone at IIHS to find out. He responded with the following car models. Depending on how you count, a whopping 40 models crash well enough to receive the rating, but don't get it because their headlights are either "Poor" or "Marginal." We say depending on how you count because the IIHS actual counts truck body styles differently, and the Infiniti Q70 is a special case. Apparently the version of the Q70 that has good headlights doesn't have adequate forward collision prevention technology. And the one that has good forward collision tech doesn't have good enough headlights. We've provided the entire list of vehicles below in alphabetical order. Interestingly, it seems the Volkswagen Group is having the most difficulty providing good headlights with its otherwise safe cars. It had the most models on the list at 9 split between Audi and Volkswagen. GM is next in line with 7 models. It is worth noting again that though these vehicles have subpar headlights and don't quite earn Top Safety Pick awards, that doesn't mean they're unsafe. They all score well enough in crash testing and forward collision prevention that they would get the coveted award if the lights were better.