Toyota Tundra 4x4 Trd 2007 on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Japanese spark plug giant NGK pleads guilty to price fixing, to pay $52M fine

The ongoing investigation by the Department of Justice into price fixing in the automotive industry has nabbed one more company breaking the law. Japanese parts giant NGK Spark Plug Company agreed to plead guilty to a felony count of pricing fixing and bid rigging in the in the US District Court in Detroit. Its punishment is a $52.1 million criminal fine and to continue to cooperate with the DOJ's sleuthing into the problem.
According to the DOJ, NGK conspired to fix prices on spark plugs, standard oxygen sensors, and air fuel ratio sensors on vehicles from major automakers in the US, including the former DaimlerChrysler, Honda and Toyota, in a scheme that ran from at least January 2000 to July 2011. The charge claimed that the company and its co-conspirators held meetings where they agreed on bids and price quotes that were submitted to the automakers.
With the latest plea, the DOJ has caught 28 companies and 26 executives for price-fixing and bid rigging in the auto parts industry, and they have collected $2.4 billion in criminal fines. In 2013, the feds brought nine Japanese suppliers down at once, to collect $740 million. Scroll down to read the DOJ's complete announcement of the case.

White House clears way for NHTSA to mandate vehicle black boxes

At present, over 90 percent of all new vehicles sold in the United States today are equipped with event data recorders, more commonly known as black boxes. If the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration gets its way, that already high figure will swell to a full 100 percent in short order.
Such automotive black boxes have been in existence since the 1990s, and all current Ford, General Motors, Mazda and Toyota vehicles are so equipped. NHTSA has been attempting to make these data recorders mandatory for automakers, and according to The Detroit News, the White House Office of Management Budget has just finished reviewing the proposal, clearing the way. Now NHTSA is expected to draft new legislation to make the boxes a requirement.
One problem with current black boxes is that there's no set of standards for automakers to follow when creating what bits of data are recorded, and for how long or in what format it is stored. In other words, one automaker's box is probably not compatible with its competitors.

2023 Japan Mobility Show Mega Photo Gallery: All the highlights and reveals from Tokyo

The 2023 Japan Mobility Show managed to serve up a surprise heap of exciting and futuristic designs and production reveals. Our staff was on the ground in Tokyo for this year's show, where we captured not just all of the latest automotive trends, but some genuinely weird and fascinating stuff.  Browse: Some Delightful Oddities of the 2023 Japan Mobility Show But on to the cars. This year's show featured introductions from Daihatsu, Honda, Lexus, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, Suzuki and Toyota. Some are weird; some are wild; most are probably destined to change significantly before production or merely fade into the void with the rest of the industry's vaporware, but if even a few of these make it to showrooms, we'll consider it a win. Scroll on down for our live galleries of each of the show's major debuts (and cars we're only now seeing in person for the first time). Enjoy!   BMW X2 and iX2 BMW X2 View 6 Photos   Daihatsu me:MO Concept Daihatsu me:MO concept View 14 Photos   Daihatsu Vision Copen Concept Daihatsu Vision Copen View 7 Photos   Daihatsu Osanpo Concept Daihatsu Osanpo View 6 Photos   Daihatsu Uniform Concept Daihatsu Uniform concept View 6 Photos   Honda Prelude Concept Honda Prelude concept View 5 Photos   Honda Sustania-C and Pocket Concepts Honda Sustania-C and Pocket Concept View 8 Photos   Honda CI-MEV Concept Honda CI-MEV View 3 Photos   Infiniti Vision Qe Concept Infiniti Qe concept View 14 Photos   Lexus LF-ZC Lexus LF-ZC View 8 Photos   Lexus LF-ZL Lexus LF-ZL View 10 Photos   Mazda Iconic SP Mazda Iconic SP concept View 8 Photos   Mitsubishi D:X Concept Mitsubishi D:X Concept View 8 Photos   Nissan Hyper Force Concept Nissan Hyper Force concept View 11 Photos   Nissan Hyper Tourer Concept Nissan Hyper Tourer concept View 6 Photos   Nissan Hyper Punk Concept IMG_6533 copy View 8 Photos   Subaru Sport Mobility Concept Subaru Sport Mobility Concept View 7 Photos   Suzuki Swift Suzuki Swift View 5 Photos   Suzuki eWX Suzuki eWX Concept View 3 Photos   Suzuki eVX Suzuki eVX concept View 4 Photos   Toyota Land Cruiser Se Concept Toyota Land Cruiser Se concept View 4 Photos   Toyota FT-3e Concept Toyota FT-3e View 6 Photos   Toyota FT-Se Concept Toyota FT-Se View 7 Photos     Tokyo Motor Show Honda Infiniti Lexus Mazda Mitsubishi Nissan Subaru Suzuki Toyota