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Will states start to prevent you from registering cars that have pending recalls?

The impact of 2014 – henceforth known as Year of the Recalls – will have long-ranging consequences on the auto industry. One of the biggest changes, though, might not be in the way manufacturers inform the government of pending recalls or in the way Uncle Sam punishes automakers that violate its rules, but in the ability to sell cars with pending recalls. And strangely enough, the charge is being led by an automaker. Honda Executive Vice President Rick Schostek, pictured above, argued during a meeting of the Senate Transportation Committee that the government needs to take a role in mandating that consumers have recall services performed. That could include withholding registration for vehicles with pending recalls, Bloomberg reports. Honda is just one of the automakers currently embroiled in the massive Takata airbag recall. "It's a good idea," safety advocate Clarence Ditlow said, according to Bloomberg. "California won't give you a registration if you have an emissions recall. Why not a safety recall?" "Honda is going to use any innovative tools to find customers and get these recalls done," Schostek told the Transportation Committee. The exec, aside from echoing Ditlow's viewpoint, also argued for requiring dealerships and garages to inform vehicle owners of incomplete recalls, regardless of the service provided. Schostek also made an argument that state governments could step in, as well. Whatever ends up happening, it's fair to say that between Takata and General Motors, the future of recalls for American consumers are set for significant changes. News Source: BloombergImage Credit: J. Scott Applewhite / AP Government/Legal Recalls Honda Ownership Safety

Honda CR-V vs. Subaru Forester Cupholder Test | King of cups

When I got our long-term Subaru Forester back from the shop to fix a mysterious source of moisture, I also happened to have a Honda CR-V Hybrid taking up temporary residence in my driveway. After testing out my large son's car seat in each to these two right-sized vehicles, I moved on to the examine their capacity for the second-most-precious cargo they could carry: beverages.  I counted eight cupholders in each of these cars, which amounts to two per outboard passenger. Two front cupholders on the center console, one in each front door, one in each rear door, and two in the center armrest that folds down in each rear row. That's not Subaru Ascent levels of beverage storage (19 cupholders!), but it should be plenty to keep a family hydrated on a short-to-medium drive. Though these two appear to be equal in quantity, let's take a closer look and see if they're equal in quality, too. I brought along a Klean Kanteen bottle that's about the same size as most other brand of metal water bottles folks carry around, a big Corkcicle 24-ounce insulated tumbler, a standard 12-ounce soda can, and a skinny, 7.5-ounce soda can that's the same width as a lot of canned energy drinks. As a bonus, I — the man known to Twitter as "that one dude with the Nalgene bottle" — brought my trusty 32-ounce Nalgene to see if it fits anywhere. Let's start with the spots we use the most. I like the placement of the CR-V's front cupholders for their easy reach, but beverages block the wireless charging pad (only available on the Touring trim and as Riswick discovered, it has issues). In the Forester they're further back, out of the way of the center stack, but a somewhat awkward angle for retrieval. Now let's fill 'em up, starting with the Honda. As expected, there's plenty of room for the cans, but perhaps too much room. They both wobble around quite a bit in there. The bottle and cup fit much more securely, but the water bottle rattles around a bit in there. The Corkcicle cup is going nowhere. In the Forester, the little rubber doodads inside the cupholder do a much better job of holding even the smaller can in place. A perfect fit! As for the reusables, the Corkcicle cup is snug, while the bottle has a little bit of wiggle room, though not quite as much as in the CR-V. OK, let's try the front door pockets. In the CR-V, the cans are a bit loose, but the purple Klean Kanteen fits as though the pocket were designed for it. The mighty Corkcicle is too big to fit securely.

McLaren-Honda goes 8-bit in Turbo Heroes

Formula One is all about speeding forward, but it's not without its spats of nostalgia – from retro liveries to a return to turbo power. Take, for example, this latest animated short from the McLaren-Honda team. It's called Turbo Heroes, and it sends us back to the days of our childhood in the 1980s and 90s in glorious 8-bit form. Part Street Fighter and part Aryton Senna's Super Monaco Grand Prix, Turbo Heroes is a game-style video short – the start to a series from the looks of things. It portrays an epic battle in which basic animated versions of Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso (coached by a grumpy Ron Dennis, no less) chase the evil Exhaustus in a race to recover the fabled (and equally fictitious) Jade Dragon of Suzuka to its rightful home in Japan. It's brought to you by the same team responsible for the Tooned series that was targeted at today's kids, only this one takes a decidedly different aesthetic approach. If you grew up around the same time as many of us here at Autoblog did, and got a kick out of films like Kung Fury and Scott Pilgrim vs The World, you'll probably enjoy this one. So put on your snapback, grab a can of Jolt Cola, and crank the ghetto blaster you've got hooked up to that Nintendo Entertainment System for a high-speed race down memory lane. You don't even have to blow in the cartridge.