2014 Honda Accord Lx on 2040-cars

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6 best cars for $5,000

Looking for a great used car but only have a few thousand bucks to spend? Check out our 6 favorite used vehicles that you can get for around $5,000 or less. 1. 2004-2006 Subaru WRX The Subaru Impreza WRX offers a lot of what you might want in a vehicle. A 2L turbocharged engine gives 227 horsepower and it gets 27 mpg on the highway. 2. 2006-2015 Mazda5 The Mazda5 never got the sales it deserved. It was affordable and more maneuverable than most vehicles, but it never took off. It was based on the Mazda3, and felt like it as well... just a bigger version. If you're lucky, you'll be able to locate one with a manual transmission. 3. 1990-1997 Mazda MX-5 Miata A car that's praised for rewarding the driver. The shifter is sublime, and the controls are light and accurate. The 1.6-liter engine that makes 115 horsepower or a 1.8-liter that makes 128 horsepower are our preferred versions. 4. 2009-2013 Honda Fit Beside being cute, it's supremely practical and great in the city. It manages to be pretty entertaining to drive, and let's not forget it's a hatchback. 5. 1987-2006 Jeep Wrangler Yes, it's possible to get a well-loved Jeep Wrangler with about 100,000 miles on the odometer. In many ways, a Wrangler is perfect for the snowy winters with its unrivaled 4x4 capability. An SUV, convertible and icon, all in one? What more could you ask for? 6. 2002 Chevy Silverado Truck lovers, we have you covered. We love the Chevy Silverado with a 5.3-liter V8 engine and a 4-speed automatic transmission. It makes a great second car, especially if you already have a fuel efficient vehicle around the house. What would you buy for $5,000? Honda Jeep Mazda Subaru Autoblog Minute Videos Original Video wrangler mazda5

Florida woman says Takata airbag deployment left her paralyzed

A malfunctioning Takata airbag left a Florida woman paralyzed from the neck down following an otherwise minor car accident last year, a lawsuit filed last week alleges. Patricia Mincey says in court documents that, instead of deploying normally, the driver-side airbag in her 2001 Honda Civic deployed with such force that it injured her neck and rendered her a quadriplegic. The lawsuit accuses Takata and Honda of deliberately concealing information about the defect and taking belated action to protect Mincey and other motorists from airbags that may harm them instead of saving their lives. At least five deaths and 139 injuries have been linked to the flawed airbags in Honda vehicles. "There is a systemic failure of these companies to come clean with information they know very early on of problems," Ted Leopold, Mincey's attorney, tells Autoblog. "Instead of doing the right thing, they try to sweep the problems under the rug until there are so many deaths and injuries they're left with no choice. We saw it with General Motors ignition switches, we saw it with the Toyota unintended acceleration cases and now we see it here." Long History Of Takata-Related Recalls Four days after Mincey's accident, Honda recalled her car as part of a 5,394,000-vehicle recall that sought to repair vehicles in which the airbag inflators could rupture. Her accident took place in Jacksonville, Florida, a state in which manufacturers have said high humidity could cause a heightened risk of problems for Takata airbags. She was wearing her seat belt at the time of the crash, according to court documents, and her car was traveling approximately 22 miles per hour. Mincey remains hospitalized in a long-term care and rehabilitation facility near her Florida home, her attorney said. She is seeking compensation in excess of $15,000 for her injuries and punitive damages. Problems with the Takata airbags were discovered as early as 2001, when Isuzu issued the first recall related to high-pressure deployments. But the company continued to manufacture defective airbags, which have subsequently been flagged in dozens of recalls over the past 14 years. Approximately 21 million vehicles have been affected in the United States. Congress conducted hearings on the companies' delayed responses to the safety crisis last year.

Brand new cars are being sold with defective Takata airbags

If you just bought a 2016 Audi TT, 2017 Audi R8, 2016–17 Mitsubishi i-MiEV, or 2016 Volkswagen CC, we have some unsettling news for you. A report provided to a US Senate committee that oversees the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and reported on by Automotive News claims these vehicles were sold with defective Takata airbags. And it gets worse. Toyota and FCA are called out in the report for continuing to build vehicles that will need to be recalled down the line for the same issue. That's not all. The report also states that of the airbags that have been replaced already in the Takata recall campaign, 2.1 million will need to eventually be replaced again. They don't have the drying agent that prevents the degradation of the ammonium nitrate, which can lead to explosions that can destroy the airbag housing and propel metal fragments at occupants. So these airbags are out there already. We're not done yet. There's also a stockpile of about 580,000 airbags waiting to be installed in cars coming in to have their defective airbags replaced. These 580k airbags also don't have the drying agent. They'll need to be replaced down the road, too. A new vehicle with a defective Takata airbag should be safe to drive, but that margin of safety decreases with time. If all this has you spinning around in a frustrated, agitated mess, there's a silver lining that is better than it sounds. So take a breath, run your fingers through your hair, and read on. Our best evidence right now demonstrates that defective Takata airbags – those without the drying agent that prevents humidity from degrading the ammonium nitrate propellant – aren't dangerous yet. It takes a long period of time combined with high humidity for them to reach the point where they can rupture their housing and cause serious injury. It's a matter of years, not days. So a new vehicle with a defective Takata airbag should be safe to drive, but that margin of safety decreases with time – and six years seems to be about as early as the degradation happens in the worst possible scenario. All this is small comfort for the millions of people who just realized their brand-new car has a time bomb installed in the wheel or dashboard, or the owners who waited patiently to have their airbags replaced only to discover that the new airbag is probably defective in the same way (although newer and safer!) as the old one.