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Yearly auto recall record demolished in 6 months

With nearly 40 million vehicles under repair campaigns and counting, 2014 will almost certainly go down as the year of the automotive recall. At just past the halfway mark, we are already at record levels, and there aren't any signs that the epidemic is slowing. General Motors' latest 8.4 million vehicle recall in the US puts the industry over the top for the title of the most cars with fixes pending from automakers ever. That's a prize no one ever wants to receive. According to TheDetroitBureau.com, the US recall total has hit 39.85-million vehicles to surpass the previous record of 33.01 million in 2004. Perhaps more surprising, with over 26 million repairs pending, it's still quite possibly that GM could recall more vehicles by the end of the year than the 27.96-million unit total of the entire US auto industry last year. With over 40 campaigns under its belt in 2014, the roughly one million cars it would take would hardly come as a surprise at this point, especially with increased government scrutiny into the Detroit automaker's processes. The pace of recalls started off relatively normal this year, with just a smattering of campaigns. The most surprising early on was Aston Martin calling in about 75 percent of its output since 2007 due to counterfeit plastic, but with just a few thousand cars, it was relatively tiny in pure numbers. GM really kicked things off soon after, but we didn't know it at the time. It issued its first bulletin for 778,000 Cobalt compacts in early February. Things only ballooned from there as more models were added to its growing ignition switch problem. The onslaught of announcements from every major automaker hasn't abated since then. Some industry executives are trying to put a positive spin on the situation. "With what's transpired (in recent months), there's a higher level of scrutiny," said Joe Hinrichs, Ford president of the Americas, to TheDetroitBureau.com. He believes that automakers are looking at data much more thoroughly than before, and it means better customer safety. Still, many consumers probably wish these problems had been found before their car went on sale.

Ken Block shows us around his Ford F-150 RaptorTrax

From his Fiesta HFHV to his '65 Mustang Hoonicorn, the inimitable Ken Block has some awesome machinery at his disposal. But arguably the coolest of the bunch is the RaptorTrax. Based on the previous-gen Ford F-150 SVT Raptor - the one with the steel frame and V8 engine - Block's back country snowmobile on steroids packs a set of tracks at each corner, a full roll cage, equipment rack, lighting, jump seats, survival gear... everything he could need for a trip off road. The Gymkhana master showcased the beast a couple of months ago on the slopes of Baldface in Nelson, BC, but now he's followed up with a less eye-popping but more informative clip in which he shows us everything his RaptorTrax has to offer. Related Video:

IIHS says these are the safest cars of 2013

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has revealed its annual list of Top Safety Picks, an award that highlights automobiles it says offer "superior crash protection." A new and still more significant award, the Top Safety Pick+ honor, is given to those vehicles that earn good ratings for occupant protection in four out of five areas of measure. And while some 117 vehicles were given the TSP seal of approval for 2013, just 13 passed muster for TSP+.
To be fair, IIHS only evaluated 29 vehicles with its new testing procedures for TSP+ (we'd expect that the number of qualified cars will rise substantially for 2014). Luxury and Near Luxury midsize cars were the first groups evaluated, followed by midsizers in the Moderately Priced Cars category - unsurprisingly, it's only midsize cars that you'll find among the class this year.
Only two luxury sedans made the list of 13 for 2013: the Acura TL and Volvo S60. The other 11 cars on the list included entries from domestic, Japanese and German car makers: Dodge Avenger, Chrysler 200, Ford Fusion, Honda Accord (sedan and coupe), Kia Optima (but not its close kin, the Hyundai Sonata, strangely), Nissan Altima, Subaru Legacy and Outback, Suzuki Kizashi and the Volkswagen Passat all made the grade.