January Recall Roundup: Is Your Car On This List?

As of January 2011, certain units of the following vehicle models are under recall by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to address these potential issues:

• 2011 Cadillac Escalade, Escalade ESV, Escalade EXT, Chevrolet Avalanche, Colorado, Express, Silverado, Suburban, Tahoe, and GMC Canyon, Sierra, Yukon and Yukon XL vehicles for rear axle lock (p. 3).
• 1999-2003 Ford Windstar in certain states for lower control arm separation (p. 8).
• 2010 Honda Accord, CR-V for engine stall (p. 3).
• 2006-2009 Lexus IS models for fuel leakage (p. 8).
• 2006-2007 Lexus GS models for fuel leakage (p. 8).
• 2010-2011 Saab 9-3 for engine stall (p. 5).
• 2009-2010 Suzuki Grand Vitara equipped with 4 cylinder engines, certain 2011 Suzuki Grand Vitaras and certain 2010-2011 Suzuki SX4 vehicles for drive belt tension adjuster pulleys (p.15).
• 2011 Think City for seat belts and heater-defroster systems (p. 7).
• 2010 Volkswagen New Beetle, New Beetle Convertible for replacement due to noncompliance with crash test requirements (p. 9).

For details on any of the above recalls click here for the full report (PDF).

Cars Under Investigation

Automobiles that might be recalled pending a current engineering analysis are:

• 2002-2005 BMW 3 series sedans (E46)
• 2007 Chevy Tahoe and GMC Yukon
• 2001-2004 Ford Escape and Mazda Tribute
• 2002-2005 Ford Explorer and Mercury Mountaineer
• 2004-2006 Ford F150
• 2004-2005 Ford Freestar and Mercury Monterey
• 2002-2003 Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable (in Salt Belt states)
• 1999-2003 Ford Windster (in Salt Belt states)
• 1999-2003 GMC C/K pickups and SUVs (in Salt Belt states)
• 2003-2004 Infiniti M45
• 2003-2005 Infiniti Q45
• 
  
• 2007-2008 Kia Sorento
• 2001-2007 Volkswagen (VW) Passat

[Source: NHTSA]

Wretched, Monstrous Excess: 2004 Infiniti QX56

Drove the company Infiniti QX56 to Costco a few weeks ago to get some supplies. I don’t plan on ever doing that again. It was a huge disappointment.

It’s apparent why crossover SUVs have gained so much market share. Based on a pickup truck chassis, the QX56 is very beefy but has a fair amount of chassis flex. It feels substantial but not solid.

Power was plentiful, acceleration quite brisk. I couldn’t help but imagine this engine in a regular sized car. It would be fast.

The biggest gripe was the aggravatingly unsteady throttle. It was too sensitive, making it hard to maintain a constant speed. If the transmission is adaptive, this may have been a result of bad driving on the part of other people who’ve been using the thing.

Forward visibility was good. The back up camera and rear object detection system are necessities in this vehicle because it really is hard to maneuver in tight spaces. They do work quite well.

I didn’t experiment with all the bells and whistles but did notice the nice materials throughout the interior, except for the economy car-looking plastic center console, and map light switches which looked like those in the Versa, and clicked rather loudly when turned on/off. The power lift gate was a neat feature that seemed to only work sporadically. The leather seats are nice but with the armrest down the seatbelt buckle is obstructed.

This truck is luxurious in that lipstick-on-a-pig kind of way, and I’m amazed the number of people that have paid this kind of money for what it is. When new the sticker price was around $56k. Now it’s valued at about $23,400 (15k miles, no one drives this thing) which is pretty good as far as depreciation goes, compared to other vehicles.