AUTOMOBILE101 BLOG

You won't need an iPhone for true mobile integration Toyota joined the modern era when it  started adding CarPlay  to its vehicles early in 2018, but that hasn't done you much good if you're an Android user. You might get some relief soon, though.  Bloomberg sources  said that Toyota has agreed to put direct Android Auto support in its cars, with an announcement as soon as October. You could use the feature through Ford's SmartDeviceLink before, but that limited both their appearance on the center screen and limited their data access. Toyota wouldn't confirm or deny the apparent leak in a comment, saying that it recognized the demand for Android Auto and was considering direct support. The company would be late to the party, to put it mildly. Most major car brands have at least some kind of Android Auto support, and you'll even find it in niche makes like Koenigsegg. While it's unclear whether the absence of support hurt sales in a tangible way,...

Is the 2018 Honda HR-V safe? In its crash-test ratings, the  National Highway Traffic Safety Administration  gives the 2018 HR-V an overall rating of five stars, the highest possible. The HR-V gets four stars for protecting passengers in frontal crashes, five stars in side crashes and four of five stars for rollover crashes. Over at the  Insurance Institute for Highway Safety , which puts cars through its own bevy of smash-'em-up tests, the 2018 HR-V earns only an "acceptable" rating on its small-overlap driver-side test (it wasn't rated for passenger-side protection, one of  IIHS ' newer tests). IIHS gives the compact crossover "good" ratings on most of the other  crash tests  — moderate front overlap, roof strength, etc. Headlights, a new area of scrutiny, earn a "poor" rating, while the child-seat LATCH anchor ease of use are rated "marginal." How reliable is the Honda HR-V? J.D. Power gives the 2018 Honda HR-V two o...

 Automakers are scrambling to ship vehicles to the United States to pre-empt possible higher tariffs, according to port data, port officials and logistics companies. Data from a number of U.S. ports showed a surge in vehicle exports and imports in May, as U.S. President Donald Trump ratcheted up pressure on China and Europe to drop tariffs on U.S. vehicles and make other changes to their trade practices. May is the most recent month for which figures are available. The Trump administration's tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese imports are due to go into effect at 0401 GMT on Friday, which is just after midday in Beijing. In the United States, the ports of Baltimore, Jacksonville, Florida; and Brunswick, Georgia - the three leading U.S. ports for importing automobiles - in May unloaded a combined 23,000 more cars than they did a year earlier. Auto exports out of Baltimore and Jacksonville that month were up 39 percent and 19 percent, respectively, port officials said. At the port of L...