Motor News

Automakers tend to delay announcing recalls until they can “hide in the herd” of other recalls, lessening the attention paid to their recall and the negative impact on their stock price, a recent study suggests.
The study found that 73 percent of recalls are announced in clusters, suggesting that there is a pattern to recall announcements, rather than recalls being randomly called.
The study authors recommended that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) require automakers to promptly disclose the date they first became aware of a problem.
Rather than announce recalls as soon as they surface, automakers wait until they can blend into a crowd of other recalls, an academic study suggests. This “clustering” of recalls reduces the attention paid to a given recall, and that lessens the negative impact on the stock price, because the automaker that initiates a cluster of recalls is the one that gets the most attention.

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The study, “Hiding in the Herd: The Product Recall Clustering Phenomenon,” examined 3117 automotive recalls over 48 years from 1966 to 2013, finding that 73 percent of recalls were announced in clusters. The recall clusters lasted for 34 days on average, and during those periods, an average of 7.6 recalls were announced. The “leading” automaker that prompted a cluster experienced a 67 percent larger penalty in stock price than other automakers that announced recalls shortly thereafter, according to the study.
“I think that this study has raised awareness of something that previously was not recognized both in academia as well as in industry, that there [is] this temporal clustering of recalls,” said Jason Miller, an associate professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University and an author of the paper. “The general public doesn’t realize that it is often not clear cut on whether [automakers] should have announced a recall or not.”
The study examined the six automakers with stock publicly traded in the United States: Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Nissan, and Toyota. Of those automakers, only up to 9 percent of their recalls were leading recalls. Toyota was the exception, with recalls that were much more random. Leading recalls made up 31 percent of Toyota’s total recalls, which, Miller said, suggests that Toyota may have acted as a trigger for other automakers, given the Japanese automaker’s reputation as a leader in quality. “Unfortunately, we cannot observe what’s going on in the decision makers’ heads. We only have the archival data,” Miller said. “But that mechanism would make sense.”
The researchers ascribed the penalty for the leading recaller to attribution theory, which in this context says that the more unique a recall appears relative to competitors, “the greater the market attribution of blame to the firm and the larger the stock market penalty.” Uniqueness comes from being the first to announce a recall in a cluster, or being the leading recall.
The recalls which follow, or the recalls in the cluster, appear to be less unique since they can blend into the crowd. If there is a larger period between clusters, the leading recaller is penalized further since its perceived uniqueness increases. Given the differing stock market penalties for leading or following recalls, the research suggests that the markets judge a recall more on its timing than the actual severity of the recall.
The researchers recommended that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) require automakers to promptly disclose the date when they became aware of a problem to discourage automakers from holding on to recalls until they can be released in a cluster. This is how the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) handles recalls.
NHTSA, when asked for comment, said, “The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reviews all recall reports for possible concerns, including timeliness concerns, and follows up with the manufacturer for additional information, where needed.”

Get Recall Notices to Your Phone with NHTSA App

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Million-mile warranties exist at dealerships all over the United States, but they are offered by the dealer, not—like traditional new-car warranties—by manufacturers.
If you want to reap the rewards, you’ll have to meticulously follow the service schedule and save your records.
Most people won’t keep their cars long enough to really take advantage of these warranties, which do not transfer to a second owner.
If you’re in the market for a new car, you may have come across a dealership advertising a million-mile warranty—and perhaps it was even offered for free. That may sound like a great deal, but it’s not necessarily a good reason to give your business to one dealership instead of another that’s not offering a super-extended warranty. The value of a million-mile warranty will depend entirely on your lifestyle, your plans for your new car, and how good you are at following rules.

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Many dealers that offer these warranties provide them for free on every new car that rolls off the lot. But that’s not the only warranty your car will come with. Every new car sold in the United States has a factory-backed warranty that will cover repairs due to mechanical failures (so, not those necessitated by accidents or expected wear). These warranties vary by manufacturer, but the powertrain coverage tends to cover at least the first five years or 60,000 miles of your car’s life, and sometimes a lot more. By the time the original warranty runs out, plenty of owners are ready to sell or trade in their vehicle for something new. Million-mile warranties don’t transfer to the next owner, so you’ll be on to your next car and the dealer won’t have had to pay a dime for their extended warranty.

Barnett Auto/Bear Lake, MN

Freedom Chevrolet /Fremont, MI

In the extremely unlikely event that you’re planning to keep your new car until the odometer rolls over, you’d better put those miles on quickly. Many million-mile warranties are actually 10-year or 1,000,000-mile warranties. That means you’ll need to drive 100,000 miles a year, on average, to make the most of them (most Americans drive more like 14,000 miles every year).

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Assuming you are the very unusual person who drives almost 300 miles a day in a non-commercial vehicle and plans to keep that vehicle for 10 years, there’s still fine print in the average million-mile warranty that could leave you holding the bag for major repairs. First, like all car warranties, they only apply to specific parts. Dealers’ long warranties are typically limited to the powertrain (including the engine, transmission, and drive axle). And usually only certain parts are covered. For instance, it’s common for damage to the engine block or cylinder head to only be covered by a warranty if the damage was caused by the failure of a different, covered, part. And if you ever want to cash in on your warranty, you’ll have to religiously observe the car’s service schedule and, in some cases, get all your service done at the dealership that sold you the car. Want to change your own oil? That might be fine, but only if you save the receipts for the oil filter.
There’s nothing inherently nefarious about an extended warranty program, especially if the dealer offers it for free. But it’s also relatively unlikely that you’ll ever reap any benefits from a million-mile plan. Dealers offer these programs to help build goodwill with customers, but we can safely assume they’d stop doing it if they found themselves routinely giving out free, expensive repairs. If you’re meticulous about your service records and keep your car for a long time, you may save some money on repairs down the line. But because of the variety of loopholes dealers leave in the paperwork, there’s also a decent chance you’ll find yourself paying for fixes out of pocket. So unless you fall into the narrow category of car buyers who can beat the house on a free extended warranty, don’t let it be the deciding factor in your purchase.
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Volkswagen announced that it plans to have Level 4 autonomous ID.Buzz vans ready for commercial use by 2025; the non-autonomous ID.Buzz is still scheduled to arrive in 2023.
VW said that it plans to put the vans in service as a ride-sharing fleet, following the current practice of a VW Group subsidiary called Moia.
VW previously announced that it plans to unveil autonomous ID.Buzz vans in Qatar for the World Cup in 2022. Those vans would run on semi-fixed routes.
Volkswagen announced today that it is aiming to have a Level 4 autonomous ID.Buzz—its forthcoming electric minivan—in service for commercial use by 2025. The German automaker said that it is currently conducting field testing in Germany using technology developed by Argo AI, a self-driving startup both VW and Ford have invested in. Argo AI’s tech will be used in the ID.Buzz and rolled out in 2025.

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VW said that the commercial use of the ID.Buzz vans will be similar to that of Moia, a mobility company launched in 2016 that’s part of the Volkswagen Group. Moia, which has its own Moia-specific electric van, is an ride-sharing system operating in two German cities.
Level 4 autonomy means that the ID.Buzz van will be able to operate without human input, but only in specific geographic areas. Currently, there aren’t any automakers offering that level of automation, but Honda has said that its next generation of the Legend sedan will have Level 3 autonomy in Japan. General Motors’ Cruise started testing Level 4 autonomous vehicles in San Francisco late last year, and in 2019, Waymo expanded the availability of its completely driverless cars to more customers in Phoenix.
VW announced late in 2019 that in 2022, it plans to unveil a self-driving ID.Buzz in Qatar for the World Cup. The van will be used as a public transit option, running on semi-fixed routes.
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We tested the 2021 Volkswagen ID.4 1st Edition in our 75-mph highway range test.
It achieved a result of 190 miles, compared with an EPA combined range estimate of 250 miles.
That compares with a result of 220 miles for the Tesla Model Y Long Range in the same test.
The ID.4 crossover is the first member of VW’s new electric-vehicle family, and we’ve now gotten a chance to run it through our real-world range testing. A 2021 ID.4 1st Edition model achieved a result of 190 miles in our 75-mph highway range test, against an EPA combined range estimate of 250 miles. The ID.4 recorded 82 MPGe in our test, which is close to the EPA’s 89 MPGe highway estimate.
The version of the ID.4 we tested was a rear-wheel-drive model with a 201-horsepower electric motor and a lithium-ion battery pack with 77.0-kWh of usable capacity. It carried an as-tested price of $45,190. An all-wheel-drive model is coming later on with an additional motor up front to produce a total of around 300 horsepower, and a cheaper version with a smaller battery pack will also join the lineup eventually.
How does the ID.4’s result stack up against other comparable EVs? The Tesla Model Y Long Range, which has all-wheel drive and an 75.0-kWh battery pack, bested the Volkswagen in the same test, achieving a range of 220 miles and an average of 94 MPGe. But the Tesla was further off from its own EPA ratings of 326 miles of range on the combined cycle and 117 MPGe on the highway. See our explainer on Tesla’s adjustment factor for more information on how Teslas put up big numbers in the EPA’s tests.

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It’s worth noting that the VW performed this efficiency test in 40-degree temperatures and the Tesla ran it in 75-degree weather. We’ve previously measured how cold weather can affect EV range, so we would expect the ID.4 to do better in this test in warmer weather.
We’ll have a full review and more instrumented test results for the ID.4 soon.
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The 2022 Land Rover Defender starts at $49,050 for the base two-door 90, an increase of $1600, and $51,850 for the base four-door 110.
A 518-hp supercharged 5.0-liter V-8 model has been introduced for the 2022 model year, and they start at $98,550 for the two-door and $101,750 for the four-door.
The 2022 Defenders will arrive in the summer.

Land Rover has added a 518-hp supercharged V-8 to its two-door Defender 90 and four-door Defender 110. They’ll go on sale in the summer starting at $98,550 for the two-door and $101,750 for the four-door—that’s approximately double their starting prices. The Defender 90’s $49,050 base price is up $1600 for 2022, while the 110’s $51,850 starting price remains the same. The V-8 models are considerably more expensive than America’s V-8-powered off-roader, the 470-hp Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 392, which starts at $74,995 for a Launch Edition model, but they’re more than $30K cheaper than the 416-hp Mercedes-Benz G550.

View Photos

Land Rover

The lowest price point is $49,050 to get into the 2022 Land Rover Defender 90 (the two-door model), which is powered by a standard turbocharged four-cylinder. A 3.0-liter inline-six is available on more expensive models, which start at $60,850 for the 90 X-Dynamic S and $66,450 for the 110 SE.
For the four-door Defender 110, the base model starts at $51,850, the same as the previous model year, while higher trims see increases ranging from $200 for the S to $3000 for the X.
All models, including the new V-8, are paired with an eight-speed automatic transmission and four-wheel drive, and all have a new option of a curved 11.4-inch touchscreen, with a 10.0-inch screen remaining standard.

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For 2022, new Defender V8 90 and 110 models are available, and they start at $98,550 and $101,750. They’re powered by a supercharged 5.0-liter V-8 that produces 518 horsepower and 461 pound-feet of torque. Land Rover says the two-door will sprint to 60 mph in 4.9 seconds with a top speed of 149 mph. Both V8 models are available in a special Carpathian Edition, finished in Carpathian Gray with Land Rover’s satin protective film, a black roof and tailgate, “V8 Carpathian Edition” badging, and black trim pieces. They start at $105,350 for the 90 and $108,550 for the 110.

View Photos

Defender V8 interior with 11.4-inch screen.
Land Rover

A new Defender 110 XS Edition comes with body-colored lower cladding and lower wheel arches, along with unique 20-inch wheels. Additional equipment includes an electronic air suspension and the 3.0-liter inline-six. It’s available in Silicon Silver, Hakuba Silver, Gondwana Stone, or Santorini Black and starts at $73,250.
The 2022 Land Rover Defender, including the new V8 models, will go on sale this summer.

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The Window Shop crew has a special guest this week, the witty and hilarious Zack Klapman of the Smoking Tire podcast. Klapman and Matt Farah work together on a number of projects, including their One Take series on Youtube, but one thing that Farah won’t touch is Klapman’s E46 BMW M3. Like so many M3s of that vintage, his example perpetually throws a check-engine light, which got us thinking: Perhaps we should find Klapman a replacement for his unreliable car. Even if he doesn’t want our help, we’re doing it anyway.So we called up contributor John Pearley Huffman, who presents a tasty 2005 6.0-liter Pontiac GTO with a manual gearbox. Huffman gets huffy about several matters, including aftermarket radios, the finishing order of a C/D Mustang/GTO comparison test, and how easy it is to heel-toe downshift his built-in-Australia Pontiac. Deputy testing director K.C. Colwell throws the M3 owner a curveball by selecting an overlanding-friendly vehicle, but Klapman is smitten with the choice. Plus, a suspiciously inexpensive Lotus Esprit makes an appearance thanks to contributor Jonathon Ramsey’s incredible ability to find sketchy listings that look and smell like scams.If you were wondering how many episodes it’d take before we presented a car with an Eagle badge, you now have your answer: 48. Deputy editor Tony Quiroga finds what has to be the nicest Eagle Talon on earth. But is his rare, turbocharged, all-wheel-drive cream puff enough to take the win? Watch and see.
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Lucid Motors announced today that the delivery of the 2021 Lucid Air electric luxury sedan to customers will not happen this spring as it had earlier announced.
The automaker now expects to begin deliveries to customers sometime in the second half of 2021, according to a letter from CEO Peter Rawlinson.
Lucid states that the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on its supply chain are a major reason for the delay.
The effects of COVID-19 have caused a delay in the arrival of an eagerly awaited new electric car from a startup: the 2021 Lucid Air. In a letter from Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson, the company announced that vehicles will not be delivered this spring as originally promised. Instead, customer deliveries will begin sometime in the second half of 2021.

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In the letter, Rawlinson stated that despite excellent progress bringing the car to market, “We now know that we won’t be able to start delivering Lucid Air this spring at the level of quality we insist on providing.” The automotive startup cited the effects of the coronavirus on the supply chain, testing, and preparing for sales. Currently, the company is building “release candidate” near-production-ready vehicles at its Casa Grande, Arizona, facility.
Lucid made big news when it announced that its Air electric luxury sedan had a projected range of 517 miles putting it in league with Tesla. When it later unveiled the vehicle, its launch-edition Dream trim level range was a little less than the earlier announcement but still impressive at 503 miles. At the time, it was more than anything Tesla produced. Since then, Telsa has announced an updated Model S with an estimated range of 520 miles. It’s expected to be available in late 2021.
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The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety named 90 vehicles a Top Safety Pick or Top Safety Pick+ for 2021, up from 64 in 2020.
One reason is that automakers have been improving their vehicles in the ways the IIHS tests for, including better headlights and active-safety features for crash prevention.
Test results aren’t out yet on the 2021 Genesis GV80 (pictured below), in the news this week when golfer Tiger Woods was injured in a crash driving one, but a spokesperson said IIHS expects it to do well since the G70 and G80 are both Top Safety Pick+ winners.
Cars are getting safer all the time. Thanks to innovations in computer modeling, metallurgy, and electronics (among many other things), we generally expect the new-car fleet to make gradual improvements in overall safety. But this year was a bigger leap than most, as the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety bestowed awards on 90 vehicles. Last year, the number was 64.
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The awards in question are Top Safety Pick and Top Safety Pick+. Getting that “+” includes an extra requirement that a vehicle offer above-standard headlights across every trim level. Forty-one Top Safety Pick and 49 Top Safety Pick+ winners were named for 2021. To score either award, a vehicle has to earn a Good rating in six different crash tests, plus a Superior or Advanced score in automated braking tests. Essentially, any car that earns an IIHS accolade has a robust structure and effective passive safety measures, plus electronic crash prevention and (probably) good headlights.
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The IIHS, if you’re unfamiliar, is not a government agency. It’s funded by the insurance industry, which has a vested interest in safer cars. The IIHS mission is twofold, really. There’s the scientific side, with its crash testing and crash-prevention assessments, and the media side to mete out public praise—or, as the situation warrants, shame. Manufacturers rue the dreaded IIHS Poor rating, because that invites attention of a most unwanted sort.
Moving Up by Getting Better
The Mazda CX-9 is a case in point. The 2014 Mazda CX-9 earned a Poor rating in the small-overlap test, which replicates the kind of collision where you drift out of your lane and hit an oncoming car, but not totally head on. It’s a brutal test because most of the front crash structure isn’t engaged when only a corner of the car makes impact. In the CX-9’s case, the A-pillar folded and the dashboard deformed such that the steering wheel ended up somewhere between the front seats. Mazda took the situation to heart—the IIHS putting the destroyed CX-9 carcass on display might’ve helped—and the redesigned CX-9 addressed its predecessor’s structural issues. In fact, the 2021 CX-9 is a Top Safety Pick+ recipient.
[image id=’85d6aec2-f1f7-4108-bbf5-3ad46aa1f2f6′ mediaId=’f2b042b9-a830-4620-8209-036d939fdb4f’ align=’center’ size=’medium’ share=’false’ caption=’The 2014 Mazda CX-9 wore its Poor rating in the IIHS hall of shame.’ expand=” crop=’original’][/image]
Sometimes manufacturers move to improve a model even before a redesign. In 2017, the Chrysler Pacifica was brand-new when an IIHS test prompted Fiat Chrysler to modify the front door structure. Again, the small overlap test was the cause. Now, the IIHS assessment of the Pacifica notes: “Two tests of the Pacifica were conducted because the driver door was torn off its hinges in the first test. As a result, Fiat Chrysler strengthened the upper hinge and reinforced the joint between the door hinge pillar and inner body panel in front of the pillar. In the second test, the upper hinge held and the door stayed shut.” After that modification, the Pacifica earned across-the-board Good scores on all six crash tests. Thanks, IIHS.
Genesis Tests Coming Soon
This year’s plaudits are spread across a wide range of companies, but you may notice a few absences. Like, what, is a Bentley Bentayga not safe? What about the Genesis GV80, lately in the news for its crashworthiness? Both are absent from the list, though for different reasons. To conduct its tests, IIHS either buys a given car or gets reimbursed for it by a manufacturer that wants to prove the mettle of a given model. So they’re not going to go spend $183,425 on a Bentley (or Bentleys) to run into a wall. And neither has Bentley seen fit to gift them any crash-test vehicles, evidently.
And the Genesis just hasn’t been in production long enough for IIHS to complete its testing. As the IIHS director of media relations, Joe Young, told us: “Tests of the 2021 GV80 (pictured on IIHS tweet above) and the 2021 G80 are underway now, and we expect to have results out in the second half of March. These vehicles are simply too new and we weren’t able to get testing completed in time for this release. The G70 and G90 both earn Top Safety Pick+ awards, and we expect the GV80 to perform well in our tests as it’s a brand-new model and Hyundai Motor Group has a solid track record of performing well in our crashworthiness, crash avoidance, and headlight evaluations.”
While the Top Safety Pick glory will surely be amplified by the winners, it’s up to the IIHS to scorn the losers. Mitsubishi, step right up! The agency notes that 2021 extends Mitsubishi’s unprecedented streak of never winning a single award. Also, “The low number of awards for General Motors is striking for such a large manufacturer.” GM earned a single Top Safety Pick+ and one more regular Top Safety Pick, for the Cadillac XT6 and Chevy Equinox, respectively.
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Perhaps the most encouraging thing about IIHS’s 2021 report is that many more vehicles almost made the list, but came up short in a single category. There were 12 more vehicles that aced every criteria except headlights, and seven fell short on pedestrian crash prevention. Only five cars missed the cut solely because of crash-test shortcomings, and in all five cases the passenger-side small overlap test was the culprit. (If you’re wondering: Toyota Prius, Toyota Prius Prime, Volkswagen GTI, Audi A5 coupe, and Chevy Traverse.)
As the IIHS data shows, cars are safer than ever. If only the same could be said for drivers.
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