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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.

'Trouble-free day! No joke': Honda-powered Toro Rosso F1 car debuts

LONDON — Honda's Formula One partnership with the Toro Rosso team got off to a positive start on Wednesday with a seemingly smooth track debut of their new car on a limited mileage filming day in Italy. "Trouble-free day!! No joke," commented French driver Pierre Gasly on Twitter. New Zealander Brendon Hartley, who was at the wheel of the TR13 car at the wet Misano circuit, reported on Instagram that "the new girl ran super smooth." This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Honda is starting over with the Red Bull-owned team this season after three seasons of failure with former champions McLaren left the Japanese engine manufacturer's reputation in tatters. A behind-the-scenes documentary, "Grand Prix Driver," released on Amazon recently shone a spotlight on the tension between McLaren and Honda that eventually led to the relationship tearing apart. It also revealed how the troubles had started before the launch of the car and were fully exposed once testing in Barcelona started when the car broke down repeatedly due to engine failures. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. McLaren, who finished ninth out of the 10 teams last season, is now using Renault engines and hoping to be far more competitive. How Toro Rosso, and McLaren, fare this season will be among the intriguing sub-plots to the 21-race season that starts in Australia on March 25, with Mercedes and Ferrari again expected to be the frontrunners. Italy-based Toro Rosso, one of the smaller outfits on the starting grid, has taken the cynicism and gloom-mongering about its prospects in good heart. It put out a tongue-in-cheek Q&A at the time of the first engine fire-up that included the questions: "Did it take like six attempts to fire up?", "Did the engine blow up?" and "Did your factory catch fire after the engine started?" The respective answers were "Nope, the engine fired up on the first attempt," "Quite the opposite, it started just as planned" and "Our factory is perfectly fine, thanks for the concern." The final 'question' was simply, "Good luck, you'll need it." Reporting by Alan BaldwinRelated Video: Motorsports Honda McLaren Racing Vehicles F1 toro rosso

Honda spinning off Acura as stand-alone division in bid to wake up brand

Every major automaker has a different way of relating between its various divisions and brands. At Volkswagen, for example, the individual brands seem to operate with a large degree of autonomy. Under the Renault-Nissan Alliance, the two units share a common chief executive, but little else. The relationship between Honda and its luxury division Acura has always been rather close, but that's all about to change.
American Honda Motor Company has always handled sales and marketing in the North American market for both the Honda and Acura divisions, but new reorganization plans call for the two units to be separated under their own direction. Leading the Acura division will be Michael Accavitti, who moves into the position from his role as Senior Vice President for Auto Operations at American Honda. The Honda division will meanwhile be taken over by the current head of Acura sales, Jeff Conrad.
Both will report to John Mendel, the current executive vice president of the Automobile Sales Division that is being rebranded as the American Honda Auto Division. Unlike rivals Lexus and Infiniti - two brands that Acura beat to the market - Honda barely markets its luxury brand outside of North America. Its overseas presence is felt only in China, though we've yet to receive word on how the reorganization might effect that market - or for that matter, any potential of expanding into others.