Ongoing NHTSA Probe Could Lead To Recall Of Tesla Cars With Defective Batteries

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has ordered an investigation on complaints by Tesla car owners that their vehicles suffered battery capacity following firmware updates. The probe will try to determine if the reported battery defects on Tesla Model S and Model X should have warranted a recall order from the U.S. carmaker.

Ford Accused Of Fraud Over Faulty PowerShift Transmissions

When you’re talking about the PowerShift, it’s hard to ignore how many issues the dual-clutch transmission in the Fiesta and Focus had and continue to have. Adding insult to injury, the newcomers switched to torque-converter gearboxes to hide the inherent faults of the Getrag DPS-6 co-developed with Luk.

Even a simple search on Wikipedia returns worrying information, including criticism over “rough starts and lack of smooth shifting.” Over the years, the Blue Oval released under-the-table upgrades to the software to address these widespread problems, but nevertheless, a few lines of code aren’t enough.

The biggest problem with the DPS-6, however, is that Ford has been selling cars with the six-speed DCT “despite knowing the transmission was unfixable.” read more »

Older Mercedes Sprinter vans may be recalled over emissions violations

Daimler may have to recall 260,000 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter vehicles after German motor vehicle authority KBA warned the automaker that the transporter vans may contain illegal engine management software, a German paper reported.

The KBA has been made aware that the software found in the vans was also being used in other vehicle variants, Daimler said. read more »