Timely Repairs Elusive as Takata Recall Reaches 1 in 4 Cars

CARS.COM - The massive ongoing recall of vehicles equipped with faulty Takata airbag inflators continues to have far-reaching ramifications this week, as the number of recalled airbags effectively doubled. With Wednesday's announcement that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration was ordering the recall of an estimated 35 to 40 million more airbags inflators, the population of U.S. cars affected reached a startling 25 percent.

Related: NHTSA Launches Recall Awareness Campaign

According to The Guardian, with 1 in every 4 vehicles on the road now estimated to be equipped with potentially faulty airbags, repairs are expected to take until December 2019 to complete. At issue is a deadly defect that causes the airbag inflator to rupture during deployment, sending shrapnel flying in the cabin and endangering the health and safety of vehicle occupants.

The problem, attributed to ammonium nitrate propellant not treated with a drying agent called desiccant, has resulted in the deaths of 13 people worldwide - the vast majority of which were in the U.S. - and more than 100 injuries. At particular risk are vehicles in high-humidity states, where prolonged exposure to a combination of heat and moisture causes deterioration.

This latest expansion only highlights the vital importance of vehicle owners heeding recall notices and taking their cars to a dealership to have the airbags replaced in a timely fashion. CNBC reported that Honda had sent six recall notices to multiple registered owners of the used 2002 Civic equipped with a faulty Takata airbag that caused the death of a 17-year-old girl in Texas, the most recent U.S. victim. Despite those notices, CNBC stated, the car was never fixed.

But the blame is hardly on the shoulders of vehicle owners alone. A spokesman for NHTSA said automakers need to be more "creative and aggressive" in notifying car owners beyond mailed notices, CNBC reported. As of April 22, NHTSA reported that only 8.2 million of the original 29 million recalled inflators had been replaced, largely due to a lack of replacement parts.

Officially, 14 automakers are already affected by the Takata recall, but NHTSA said this week Tesla, Jaguar Land Rover and Fisker also would be joining the mix, bringing the total to 17, according to The Detroit News. You can find out if your car is affected by the Takata recall here. Vehicles manufactured by the three automakers added to the list this week were not yet included in NHTSA's Takata-recall database.

Feds Push Takata to Recall 35 to 40 Million More Faulty Airbag Inflators

CARS.COM - Federal safety regulators today announced an agreement with Japan's Takata Corp. to recall an additional 35 to 40 million airbag inflators, more than doubling the ongoing Takata recall that already covers 28.8 million airbags in at least 24 million cars from a dozen automakers in the U.S. The massive and complicated recall already was the largest auto safety campaign in U.S. history and will take years to complete.

Related: Is Your Car Part of the Takata Recall?

At issue are faulty inflators that can explosively rupture upon deployment, propelling shrapnel from the airbag it inflates into vehicle occupants. So far, the defect has been linked to 10 deaths in the U.S. - the most recent is a Texas teenager killed in a Honda Civic in March - and scores of injuries.

Mark Rosekind, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said at a press conference announcing the expansion that Honda, the automaker hardest hit by the airbag recall, today reported two more deaths in Malaysia, bringing the worldwide total to 13. He emphasized, however, that all known U.S. fatalities have been in cars already under recall.

In the latest expansion, Takata will recall all frontal airbag inflators using ammonium nitrate propellant not treated with a drying agent known as a desiccant. Rosekind said this expansion of the initial recall in November was ordered by NHTSA after its analysis of three investigations, including one by a coalition of 10 affected automakers who determined that the "root cause" of the inflator failures is a combination of age and exposure to prolonged heat and humidity.

While the latest action covers 35 to 40 million inflators, the exact number of vehicles newly affected is yet unknown, though it likely will be tens of millions. "Vehicle manufacturers own that number," said Rosekind, and automakers will determine the specific vehicles and notify owners. The government also maintains a tool at Safercar.gov where owners can look up open recalls by their car's vehicle identification number. He said information on cars affected by the latest Takata expansion would be added "in the coming weeks."

Rosekind said the new recall expansion will be done in phases from now through 2019 and some of the vehicles have been recalled previously. Some earlier recalls covered only one frontal airbag but not the other. Also, some recalled cars were fixed with a non-desiccated inflator and now will have to have the same airbag fixed again. NHTSA estimates that about 70 percent of replacement inflators now are being provided by other suppliers using a different propellant.

Rosekind said that of the three major factors contributing to inflator failure, "really critical is the time." He said that there is a "six-to-nine-year period before we start seeing ruptures." And he said NHTSA is close to creating a model that would allow it to determine the highest risks and prioritize which cars would be first in line for replacement as parts become available.

He said that he sympathizes with the frustration of owners waiting for parts, saying that he also owns a Takata recall vehicle. He recommends that owners check once a week with dealers. But in response to questions, he said that NHTSA has no authority to order recall loaners for owners who don't want to drive their cars.

The latest recall is an amendment to a consent order agreement between NHTSA and Takata in November 2015 calling for the end of production of ammonium nitrate inflators by 2018. Takata is the only airbag supplier using that propellant.

The agency also fined Takata $70 million for delays in reporting the problem, with a provision for an additional $130 million in fines if it fails to comply fully with the deal. The Justice Department also is conducting a criminal investigation.

The airbag recalls could eventually grow to include all Takata inflators using ammonium nitrate including those with a drying agent, which could involve nearly 70 million vehicles in the end. The deal with NHTSA gives Takata until 2019 to prove that its inflators with the drying agent are safe.

Rosekind said that all ammonium nitrate inflators remain under review and that all will be recalled unless Takata can demonstrate their safety. There have been no failures so far of inflators with the drying agent.

While most of the recall costs have been borne so far by the automakers, Takata recently set aside almost $200 million for recall expenses and with its survival in the balance, the company reportedly has been exploring a restructuring.

Tesla Model 3 to Get Ludicrous Speed Option

CARS.COM - According to a tweet from Elon Musk, the forthcoming Tesla Model 3 will share one of the more ridiculous options available on both the Model S and Model X: the Ludicrous Speed upgrade.

Related: Tesla Model 3: First Ride

Beyond the ability to make copious Space Balls references, checking the box for Ludicrous Speed will add big performance gains to the Model 3, if the other two Tesla models are any indication.

For the Model S, adding the Ludicrous Speed upgrade bumps maximum horsepower from 463 to 532 and drops the P90D's 0-60 mph time from 3.1 to 2.8 seconds, according to Tesla. Exact horsepower figures for the Model X with Ludicrous Speed added were not available, but its 0-60 mph time drops from 3.8 to 3.2 seconds. At Tesla's Model 3 launch in March, the automaker also offered guided test drives in the Model X with the Ludicrous Speed upgrade installed. I'll just say this: The name fits.

Ludicrous mode will most certainly not be standard on the Model 3 - it is currently a $10,000 standalone option for P90D models of the Model S and Model X, the most costly trim level of each vehicle. So if you want a Model 3 with extra power, you likely won't get it at anywhere near the Model 3's base price that Tesla says will be about $35,000.

Stay tuned for more Model 3 details as they become available.

Top 10 Worst Movie Cars

CARS.COM - Awesome movie cars are easy to come by. The DeLorean from "Back to the Future." Ecto-1 from "Ghostbusters." Steve McQueen's '68 'Stang from "Bullitt." Let's face it: Any jerk stepping off the Greyhound from Jerkville R.F.D. can cobble together a Best Movie Cars list - but it takes a special kind of jerk to summon the vitriol necessary to codify the proverbial worst.

We at Cars.com fancy ourselves just such jerks.

Related: Best Cars for a Netflix and Chill

The last time we ranked the Worst Movie Cars was a decade ago, and Hollywood's odometer has put on a lot of miles since then. We've had a new Griswold family vacation car, a few Batmobiles, a whole fleet of rebooted Bond cars and five more films (and counting) with titles comprising varied combinations of the words "fast" and "furious." While some of those arrived in cherry condition, others turned out to be big, fat, sour lemons.

So pucker up to endure the Top 10 Worst Movie Cars:

10. Chevrolet Lumina/Ford Taurus Rental Cars in 'Days of Thunder'

An impromptu car race on the beach between rival NASCAR drivers Cole Trickle (Tom Cruise) and Rowdy Burns (Michael Rooker) quickly turns into a demolition derby in these just-rented (and hopefully heavily insured) vehicles. It's a fun scene with a funky soundtrack, but c'mon: Who really wants to watch someone drive a rented Ford Taurus, much less race one?

9. 1959 Fiat 500 N in 'The Rum Diary'

No doors? No windows. No front seat? No problem ... well, not at first. In this boozy Puerto Rico-set film version of the Hunter S. Thompson novel, Johnny Depp and his buddy are forced to lap up on the backseat of this ravaged, clown-car-like subcompact so that Depp can reach the pedals. Things go relatively smoothly until a busted axle throws the car into an uncontrollable bounce and, ultimately, a pretty nasty crash - though not nearly as bad as the box-office crash of "The Rum Diary." (Don't drink and drive.)

8. Wingo in 'Cars'

You've heard the old adage/admonition "too many cooks spoil the broth"? Well when it comes to Wingo from Pixar's "Cars," too many spoilers spoil the sports car. Wingo's sextet of spoilers is truly ridiculous (not to mention aerodynamically inadvisable). While it may be the most offensive among his multiple crimes against exterior styling, other offenses include an unforgivably gaudy paint job and wind-resistant protruding lower-body elements.

7.  The Shaggin' Wagon in 'Dumb and Dumber'

The canine customization of Harry and Lloyd's 1984 Ford Econoline Mutt Cutts dog-grooming van may be the dumbest idea either of the titular dimwits ever had. Still, we have to admit: We like it a lawwwt.

6. Assan Motors Sport Sedan in 'Gung Ho!'

Even if this fictitious compact car hadn't fallen off its rear axle and the entire front end hadn't fallen apart the moment Michael Keaton stepped on the accelerator, this '80s-fabulous hoopty would've been a shameful testament to any cooperative effort between American and Japanese automakers.

5. Rental Car in 'Planes, Trains & Automobiles'

Whether due to Steve Martin's bad karma for cursing out the car-rental-kiosk lady early in the film or John Candy's hapless, sad-sack idiocy, there's no rest for these weary travelers trying desperately to get home for Turkey Day. And if this pea-green, wood-paneled soft top - a 1986 Chrysler LeBaron Town & Country, according to imcdb.com - wasn't bad enough to begin with, it certainly gets that way after Candy heads the wrong way down the interstate and shoots the gap between two semitrailers at full speed sending sparks flying and skeletons screaming.

4. 1975 Mercury Marquis Brougham Coupe in 'Uncle Buck'

That's right, two Candy classics in a row. You can just smell the stale cigar smoke and back sweat permanently saturating the upholstery of Buck's crud-caked, groaning-door-hinged boat of a car. That and this brown bomber's bomblike exhaust backfire make it every teenager's worst nightmare to be picked up from school in by their embarrassing uncle.

3. Volvo C30 in 'Twilight'

If Edward the dreamboat vampire had rumbled around the corner to save Bella from a bunch of bros on, like, a Harley or in a Dodge Challenger or something, it might've come off at least a little tougher. And while the Volvo C30 was no doubt a fun, zippy little ride, the compact hatchback in this context just seemed so ... wimpy.

2. 2015 Tartan Prancer in 'Vacation'

It's quite a feat to top the original Wagon Queen Family Truckster from 1983's original "National Lampoon's Vacation" for terribleness. But that might be this disastrous 2015 "Vacation" reboot's sole success. Highlights of the fictitious Albanian-made minivan include two front ends, four side-view mirrors that face each other, pop-out cupholders on the outside of the car and a gigantic key fob with indecipherable buttons for "convenience" features no one would ever use, like a pop-off steering wheel or fully forward-tilting headrests. It's just No. 2 on our list, but this actually may be the worst car ever.

1. 2016 Jeep Renegade in 'Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice'

No offense to the Renegade per se; it's a fine little vehicle with impressive off-road bona fides - but ain't no Bruce Wayne gonna be caught drivin' no $19,000 subcompact SUV. It might be the coolest car pulling into the Jerkville Senior High student parking lot, but everyone knows Batman's billionaire alter ego rocks Bentleys and Lambos and Ferraris and such. Did the studio's product-placement department think a cool black paint job on a Renegade would suddenly make Batfleck forget about his Land Rover parked back in the Wayne Manor garage? Plenty of stuff in "BvS" made no sense, but this was by far worst.

How We'd Spec It: The Least Miata-Like, Most Italian Fiat 124 Spider

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Fiat's 124 Spider is making a return to the U.S., but things are a bit different this time around. As in the 1960s and 1970s, it's still a small, front-engine, rear-drive roadster, but now it takes its chassis from an unlikely source: Mazda. While the MX-5 Miata's Japanese bones underpin the Fiat's curvy body, the 124 still packs plenty of Italian flavor. We played around with Fiat's online configurator and found several ways to distinguish the 124 Spider from its sibling, as the Fiat offers myriad equipment and trim differences to complement its authentically Italian turbocharged engine and distinct looks.

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2017 Fiat 124 Spider Elaborazione Abarth (base price $29,190)

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Most obviously, the 124 Spider has a dedicated high-performance model that the Miata lineup lacks. It's called the Elaborazione Abarth, a fancy-sounding Italian name that may over-promise a bit, given that its 1.4-liter turbocharged four-cylinder only puts out five horsepower more than the standard 124's 160 horsepower. Even so, we chose the Abarth because it packs standard performance bits including a limited-slip differential, Bilstein dampers, and a front strut-tower bar. The Abarth also looks a hell of a lot cooler than the standard 124 Spider, with its more aggressive front fascia, black 17-inch wheels, and quad exhaust.

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Of course, we chose the standard six-speed manual transmission, in order to make the most of the 1.4-liter engine's 165 horsepower and 184 lb-ft of torque. We're anticipating that this turbocharged powerplant will offer a significantly different character compared to the Miata's naturally aspirated 2.0-liter four-cylinder and, if we're lucky, the 124 Abarth's tuned exhaust will crackle and pop as much as it does in the Fiat 500 Abarth.

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OPTIONS:

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Rosso Red paint ($0)

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Luxury Collection ($3995)

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Brembo Performance Brakes ($1495)

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At $29,120 with destination, the 124 Abarth may start out a bit cheaper than the roughly equivalent Miata Club, but that all changed when we loaded our Fiat roadster up with nearly every option available. We started with the no-cost Rosso Red exterior paint, fulfilling the Italian sports-car stereotype, and because red paint adds horsepower, right? To avoid too much red assaulting our eyeballs, though, we opted for a Nero Black interior. You may notice that we passed on the optional, $1195 Recaro seats trimmed in Alcantara. That's because the Recaros don't appear to offer any additional bolstering over the standard sport seats, at least based on the interior photos of the car. We'll reserve final judgement until we can try out the Recaros for ourselves.

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You also can't equip the 124 with its $3995 Luxury package if you opt for the Recaros, and we wanted extra goodies on our Fiat (our purist spirit doesn't sing as strongly for this car as it does for the Miata). This package offers plenty of kit that you can't get on the Miata Club, including leather seats, a Bose premium audio system, navigation, and sharp-looking adaptive LED headlights. Given the 124 Spider's diminutive size, we don't care as much about the included blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, and park-assist system, but the package still strikes us as a pretty good deal.

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Even though we'll be a bit spoiled by all this luxury equipment, we still want our Fiat to be equipped to handle the occasional track day. As such, we sprung for the optional $1495 Brembo performance brakes that adds monoblock aluminum calipers with four pistons for improved performance. And the calipers are painted red, natch.

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• 2017 Fiat 124 Spider Debuts, Is More or Less a Turbo Miata in an Italian Suit
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• Fiat 124 Spider Dissected: Design, Powertrain, Chassis, and More
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• Quanto Costa? Fiat 124 Spider Priced, Starts $240 Lower Than the Miata
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All this adds up to $34,680, which sounds like a pretty penny for a tiny roadster, but this well-equipped Abarth only rings in at $1860 more than a Miata Club optioned with its BBS wheels and Brembo brake package. Although we've yet to get behind the wheel of the 124 Spider to see how it stacks up to the Miata dynamically, it strikes us a reasonable amount to pay for the Fiat's sharp looks, turbo engine, and impressive load of luxury options.

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2016 Honda Civic, Mazda CX-3, Volvo XC90 Earn NHTSA's Top Safety Rating

CARS.COM - The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced a new batch of safety ratings for model-year 2016 vehicles today, with the Honda Civic, Mazda CX-3 and Volvo XC90 faring well. All of those vehicles received overall scores of five stars in NHTSA's crashworthiness tests, while the Toyota Tacoma once again managed only four stars.

Related: More Safety News

The sedan version of the front-wheel-drive Civic has the distinction among the group as the only car to earn perfect scores of five stars across the board; the Civic coupe version was not included in this round of testing. In addition to the overall vehicle score, these scores include ratings for frontal crashes, side crashes and rollover protection. The Civic improves upon its scores for the 2015 model year, when it still earned an overall rating of five stars but scored fours for frontal and rollover protection.

Both the front- and all-wheel-drive versions of the CX-3 compact SUV also earned an overall score of five stars from NHTSA. Individual scoring included fives for frontal and side crashes, and a four for rollovers. The 2016 CX-3 is a new model and has no previous results.

The all-wheel-drive versions of both the XC90 SUV's T5 and T6 variants also received overall scores of five stars, as well as fives for frontal and side crashes, and fours for rollovers. The last time NHTSA tested the XC90 was for the 2014 model year, and only in the rollover category, in which it also scored a four. Meanwhile, the XC90's front-wheel-drive versions of the T5 and T6 also were tested in the frontal and side-crash categories, in which both received fives; these models were not rated for rollovers and have not yet received an overall score.

Scoring for the Tacoma was a mixed bag for 2016. Both the two- and four-wheel-drive versions repeated from 2015 their overall score of four stars, side-crash rating of five and rollover rating of four , but they improved to four stars from three in frontal crashes.

2017 BMW i3 Electric Gets a Lot More Range

CARS.COM - Electric-vehicle manufacturers are bolstering range of current models as two affordable, long-range EVs bear down on the industry, the Chevrolet Bolt and Tesla Model 3. BMW has upgraded the battery of the funky i3 plug-in hatchback for 2017, bumping its electric range into three-figure territory - excellent by today's standards, less so by tomorrow's.

Related: 2015 BMW i3 Review

The 2017 i3's lithium-ion battery will hold 33 kilowatt-hours of energy, up from the current car's 22 kwh. BMW said testing shows the hatchback could go as far as 114 miles in combined city and highway driving. The EPA has yet to weigh in, but if their figures align with BMW's, it would represent a significant bump from the 2016 i3's 81-mile electric range. It would also beat the Nissan Leaf's recently increased range, though both hatchbacks fall well short of the distances promised by GM for the Chevrolet Bolt (200 miles) and Tesla for the Model 3 (at least 215 miles).

The i3's extra battery capacity comes thanks to additional energy density in its cells, not extra size. It shouldn't affect any space in the car's four-seat cabin, but it will impact weight; total curb weight for 2017 is up 162 pounds. A range-extender, which adds a tiny gasoline engine-generator and 2.4-gallon fuel tank to boost total range, adds another 273 pounds. That's up 170 pounds versus the 2016 i3 with its range extender.

It's unclear how much the range-extender will impact electric range for 2017. In the 2016 i3, its extra weight dropped all-electric range from 81 to 72 miles. With the extender in use the 2016 i3 turned out an EPA-estimated gas mileage rating of 39 mpg in combined city and highway driving. BMW said fuel economy testing still is underway for the 2017.

Overall performance of the 2017 is similar to 2016. The i3's electric motor makes 170 horsepower to push the rear-drive hatchback to 60 mph in the low-7-second range, or 7.8 seconds with the range extender - both figures slightly slower than the 2016 i3, though still relatively quick for an electric car.

Typical of any range increase, charging times also have gone up. BMW says the 2017 i3 takes 40 minutes to reach an 80-percent charge with a DC quick charger (versus 25 minutes before) or 4.5 hours on a Level 2 charger (versus 3.5 hours before). The automaker also includes an occasional-use charger that plugs into a regular household outlet. You can use it in a pinch, but it's a slow process; in our last i3 test car, we only added about 5 miles of range per hour with that charger.

An optional moonroof is new; last year's i3 didn't offer one. BMW said the 2017 i3 goes on sale this fall. The price is not yet announced. The 2016 i3 starts at $43,395 including destination but before any tax credits.