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Honda Civic Tourer to debut at Frankfurt

Honda will be bringing its new Civic Tourer to next month's Frankfurt Motor Show, just as we predicted in our spy shots of the new MPV from back in April. The new model, which will arrive in European dealers in 2014, will be built alongside Honda's Euro-spec Civic hatchback, Jazz (Honda Fit) and CR-V in Swindon, Wiltshire, UK.
Honda first hinted at the Civic Tourer with a concept at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show, which is set to do battle with the Toyota Auris and Volkswagen Golf in the European market. The production Civic Tourer will also be shown alongside a refreshed Civic hatchback, yet another NSX Concept variant, a McLaren MP4/4 Formula One car, and Honda's World Touring Car Championship Civic.

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.

Weird Honda patent shows robot arm to charge an EV while driving

Despite big leaps in electric car range and charging times, EVs still haven't reached the point of being as convenient as gas-powered cars. A recently published patent from Honda seems to offer a possible, if questionable, solution to electric charging and range. The patent shows and describes a strange system in which a car would be equipped with a deployable arm with an electrical contact on the end. When extended, the arm would ride in a grooved rail along the side of the road. This rail would be connected to the electrical grid, and would allow the car to charge as it drives along. The idea is similar to old electric trolleys and buses that connected to overhead power lines. While novel, we're not sure that this would be a better solution than wireless charging systems that have also been proposed. Honda's idea would likely be easier and cheaper to build and maintain than a wireless system with electromagnetic coils embedded in the pavement. However, there are many potential issues. For one, that arm is just begging to be broken off. At some point, someone will forget it was deployed, or the retracting mechanism will break, and that driver will snap it off on a something like a street light. And while the charging rails would be easier to reach for maintenance, they might need more of it. In heavy snow, the rails may have to be cleared to be usable, and since the contacts will be rubbing against the rails all the time, people will have to inspect them to make sure they still work. We still have to give Honda some credit though. This is an interesting idea for solving the issues of range and charging. We just think there are other technologies that would work better long term. Related Video: Image Credit: United States Patent and Trademark Office Green Weird Car News Honda Technology Electric Future Vehicles patent