Almost half of VW TDI owners have already agreed to settle

Of the 475,000 affected vehicles, 210,000 owners have signed up.

Of the 475,000 owners of affected VW vehicles in the US that have the infamous diesel cheat device, almost half have decided that enough is enough. They want resolution. In the ongoing settlement case between owners, VW, and government regulators, a motion for final approval was filed late last week. In that document, we learned that, "approximately 210,000 Class Members had registered for settlement benefits, a noteworthy level of participation in a program whose claims deadline does not occur until September 2018." In other words, lots of TDI owners just want this taken care of. So far, only 235 consumers have requested exclusion from the class action suit. That's less than 0.1 percent of the total Settlement Class. read more »

Internal FCA Software Was Used to Steal 100 Cars in Houston

car theft ring was using Fiat Chrysler’s internal DealerCONNECT software to steal cars in the Houston, Tex., area. Now, FCA has issued a warning to all that use the software that there will be consequences for those that provide “key codes, radio codes and other anti-theft or security measures” to outsiders, Automotive News reports. read more »

Mazda recalling 190,000 CX-7 vehicles in U.S.

Mazda Motor Corp will recall 190,000 of its CX-7 sport utility vehicles from model years 2007 to 2012 in the United States because of an issue that may cause a loss of steering control, U.S. safety regulators said on Friday. read more »

70,000 Ford Police Cars in the US to be recalled

Bad news for US security. More than 40,000 police cars in the United States will be recalled because of a fault in the power system. The affected model is the Ford Interceptor, which is the most use car model of the police force in the United States.

Police cars aren't the only ones affected but also the cars of ordinary citizens as Ford announced a recall of around 80,000 vehicles in the US including the Flex, Taurus, Police Interceptor (based on the Taurus), Lincoln MKS and MKT. In particular, those units produced between 2013 and 2015 mounted propeller V6 Ecoboost 3.5-liter. read more »

The issue is that the fuel pump control module could fail, causing a car to either not start or turn off altogether. read more »

VW could agree to U.S. large-car diesel fix by October, Audi sales chief say

Volkswagen Group could reach a final settlement with U.S. authorities as early as October over its large-engine diesel cars found to have cheated emissions tests, the sales chief of its premium Audi brand said.

Negotiations related to the 3.0-liter engine in VW, Audi and Porsche vehicles were progressing well, Dietmar Voggenreiter, Audi's global head of sales and marketing, told Reuters today in an interview in Hong Kong. read more »

Polaris Slingshot Goes Up in Flames on Highway - New Recall to Follow?

It appears that Polaris isn’t doing that well in the reliability department. After recalling over 100,000 of its side-by-side vehicles for a fire hazard this year, the problem might be spreading to the popular Slingshot as well. One of them just went up in flames and burned to the ground on a major US highway. read more »

Harley-Davidson Reaches $15M Deal Over Defeat Devices

Harley-Davidson Inc. on Thursday agreed to a $15 million settlement with the federal government over allegations it sold and installed hundreds of thousands of “defeat devices” that increased motorcycle engine emissions beyond legal levels, and sold thousands of motorcycles affixed with unverified engine emissions approval stickers. read more »