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Worker killed at Nissan Tennessee plant

A worker has died at the Nissan assembly plant in Smyrna, TN following an accident. According to The Detroit News, the tragedy happened Thursday and involved a large electric panel that fell while it was being moved. The victim was not a Nissan employee, he was a worker for Michigan-based supplier Complete Automation.
Nissan has not released the name of the deceased, but has vowed to cooperate with the authorities investigating the accident. The Murfreesboro Post notes that this is the second death at the plant in recent years - in 2012, a transport truck driver was killed after his rig rolled forward, crushing him between his cab and trailer.

2014 Nissan Leaf EVs recalled for missing welds

The Nissan Leaf has been recalled before, for problems with the passenger-side airbags. Early models of the car has also had start-up issues, but those did not lead to a recall. Today, we're learning about another problem with the world's most popular electric vehicle. In April, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued a recall of a small number of 2014 model year Leaf EVs - just 211 units that were made between February 28 and March 12 of this year – and reminded the world about it this morning with a Tweet. The problem, NHTSA says, is that, "the front structural member assembly may be missing welds," and that means that the car's structural integrity could be compromised in a crash. You don't say. Starting in the middle of June, Nissan will look at the vehicles that could be missing welds and offer replacements for free. If you have a potentially affected vehicle, Nissan should be contacting you soon, or you can call the automaker at the number listed below. Report Receipt Date: APR 16, 2014 NHTSA Campaign Number: 14V192000 Component(s): Potential Number of Units Affected: 211 Manufacturer: Nissan North America, Inc. SUMMARY: Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) is recalling certain model year 2014 LEAF vehicles manufactured February 28, 2014, through March 12, 2014. The front structural member assembly may be missing welds, which could reduce the structural integrity of the vehicle if the vehicle is involved in a crash. As such, these vehicles fail to meet the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) number 208, "Occupant Crash Protection," and 305, "Electric-Powered Vehicles: Electrolyte Spillage and Electrical Shock Protection." CONSEQUENCE: Missing welds may effect the vehicle's integrity in the event of a crash, increasing the risk of injury to the vehicle's occupants. REMEDY: Nissan will notify owners, and dealers will inspect to see if any of the welds are missing. Any vehicle missing welds will be replaced, free of charge. The recall is expected to begin by mid-June 2014. Owners may contact Nissan at 1-800-647-7261. NOTES: Owners may also contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Vehicle Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236 (TTY 1-800-424-9153), or go to www.safercar.gov.

A car writer's year in new vehicles [w/video]

Christmas is only a week away. The New Year is just around the corner. As 2014 draws to a close, I'm not the only one taking stock of the year that's we're almost shut of. Depending on who you are or what you do, the end of the year can bring to mind tax bills, school semesters or scheduling dental appointments. For me, for the last eight or nine years, at least a small part of this transitory time is occupied with recalling the cars I've driven over the preceding 12 months. Since I started writing about and reviewing cars in 2006, I've done an uneven job of tracking every vehicle I've been in, each year. Last year I made a resolution to be better about it, and the result is a spreadsheet with model names, dates, notes and some basic facts and figures. Armed with this basic data and a yen for year-end stories, I figured it would be interesting to parse the figures and quantify my year in cars in a way I'd never done before. The results are, well, they're a little bizarre, honestly. And I think they'll affect how I approach this gig in 2015. {C} My tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015 it'll be as high as 73. Let me give you a tiny bit of background about how automotive journalists typically get cars to test. There are basically two pools of vehicles I drive on a regular basis: media fleet vehicles and those available on "first drive" programs. The latter group is pretty self-explanatory. Journalists are gathered in one location (sometimes local, sometimes far-flung) with a new model(s), there's usually a day of driving, then we report back to you with our impressions. Media fleet vehicles are different. These are distributed to publications and individual journalists far and wide, and the test period goes from a few days to a week or more. Whereas first drives almost always result in a piece of review content, fleet loans only sometimes do. Other times they serve to give context about brands, segments, technology and the like, to editors and writers. So, adding up the loans I've had out of the press fleet and things I've driven at events, my tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015, it'll be as high as 73. At one of the buff books like Car and Driver or Motor Trend, reviewers might rotate through five cars a week, or more. I know that number sounds high, but as best I can tell, it's pretty average for the full-time professionals in this business.