DETROIT — Honda is recalling over 1.4 million vehicles in the U.S. to repair drive shafts that can break, window switches that can overheat and a software flaw.

The software recall includes 737,000 Accords from 2018 to 2020 and Insights from 2019 and 2020. A programming flaw in a control computer can cause the rear camera, turn signals and windshield wipers to malfunction. Owners will be notified in late January about when they should take their vehicles to a dealer for repairs.

Nissan will start offering its Safety Shield 360 suite of active safety gear as standard on 10 of its U.S. models come next year.

WASHINGTON — Nissan's U.S. lending arm agreed on Tuesday to pay a $4 million U.S. fine to settle a government agency's allegation that it improperly repossessed hundreds of consumers' vehicles.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) said that between 2013 and 2019, Nissan Motor Acceptance Corp (NMAC), a subsidiary of the Japanese automaker's North American unit, "wrongfully repossessed hundreds of consumers' vehicles despite the consumer having made payments" or taken other actions. Nissan must pay up to $1 million distributed to consumers subject to a wrongful repossession.

WASHINGTON — Honda said on Saturday it has confirmed a 17th U.S. death tied to a faulty Takata air bag inflator.

The Japanese automaker said that after a joint inspection with the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), it confirmed a faulty air bag inflator was to blame for the Aug. 20 crash of a 2002 Honda Civic that led to the death of a driver in Mesa, Arizona.

The two slowest-selling new vehicles in the United States are both Mitsubishis, a new study has found.

NEW YORK — Honda Motor Co has agreed to pay $85 million (64.7 million pounds) to settle an investigation by most U.S. states into its use of defective Takata airbag inflators in its vehicles, according to a consent order made public on Tuesday.

The state probes are connected with the ongoing recalls of tens of millions of vehicles equipped with potentially defective Takata inflators that were sold by Honda and other major auto manufacturers over the past 20 years.

The outlet Tire Meets Road spotted a leaked document from Toyota on Reddit, sent to the automaker's dealers and general managers in the Southwest region. According to the memo from Toyota's western comms manager, "The Yaris sedan and Yaris Hatchback will not be available for model year 2021. Model year 2020 will be the last year for Yaris. June 2020 will be the last month of production for the Yaris sedan and Yaris Hatchback for the US." Reddit deleted the document, but when AutoWise reached out to Toyota, the same comms manager confirmed the information to the site. And just for good measure, when CarBuzz reached out to Toyota, the response was, "The Yaris sedan and Yaris Hatchback will not be available for model year 2021. Model year 2020 will be the last year for Yaris in the U.S."

So ends a 15-year run in the U.S. of what has, at times, been one of America's spunkiest hatchbacks. In our review of the 2019 Mazda2-based sedan, we called it slow but "pretty entertaining to drive," one of the "better-looking cars in this diminutive class," and were surprised "at how grown up it feels." Such accolades haven't been enough to convince the buying public; since 2008, when shoppers took home 102,328 Yaris models, the Yaris has posted steep declines in all but three years. A burst of sales in 2017, after Toyota absorbed Scion and turned the Mazda2-based Scion iA into the Yaris iA, fell back into substantial declines in 2018 and 2019. Last year, the Yaris hatch and sedan sold a combined 21,916 units. The Honda Fit did 35,414 sales, the Hyundai Accent 25,628. 

Nissan will pull back from Europe and elsewhere to focus on the United States, China and Japan under a plan that represents a new strategic direction for the embattled carmaker, people with direct knowledge of the plan told Reuters.

The "operational performance plan" is due to be announced on May 28 and goes beyond fixing problems from ousted leader Carlos Ghosn's aggressive expansion drive, the people said.

This week, Toyota celebrated selling more than 15 million hybrids worldwide since 1997, 5 million of them in the past three years. It really began in 1993, when Toyota decided to develop a car that would be kinder on the environment. The car those engineers created, codenamed 890T, debuted at the 1995 Tokyo Motor Show, an event bearing the theme, "Dream the Dream, a Car with That Feel." That car was called the Prius. Who could have known the homely yellow wonder, looking like it had been pulled straight from a Japanese anime of the time, would reshape the automotive industry. The Wikipedia entry for the 1995 show doesn't mention the Prius, although it does mention the Honda S2000 concept and the Subaru Streega concept, which became the Forester. The New York Times wrote, "The concept cars shown this year will probably not make Detroit quake with fear. But they show some flair nonetheless," one of two sentences covering the Prius stating simply, "Toyota is showing a sedan of the future called Prius that should be able to get 70 miles per gallon."

Lexus' challenger to Germany’s BMW 5-Series and Mercedes-Benz E-Class executive sedans, the GS, has received a new limited edition.

Honda has announced plans to furlough several thousand salaried employees and support staff in the U.S. for two weeks.

Nissan is laying off about 10,000 workers in the U.S. as its plants sit idle. These layoffs will largely affect folks who worked at plants in Tennessee and Mississippi, according to a report by Nikkei. 

As of now, Nissan has announced plant shutdowns lasting through late April. The report says Nissan plans to rehire the workers that are being laid off once work is possible again, but they won't be getting paid in the meantime. We've asked for comment from Nissan to learn if everybody will be brought back on, or if Nissan has other plans in mind for restarting its factories.

Transcript: Lexus' digital side-view camera and monitor. The digital side-view camera and monitor provide the driver with a high-definition view. When turns are activated, the monitor goes into "extended view" eliminating blind spots. The system has adjustable brightness, the option for automatic camera retraction, and it's designed with weather-proofing features. It even includes a built-in heater to prevent freezing so it can work in all weather conditions. The futuristic tech is currently available as an option on the ES 300h Takumi. U.S. regulations do not allow this tech.

The new 2020 Honda CR-V Hybrid will arrive in dealerships across U.S. on March 1, featuring a similar electrified powertrain with the Accord Hybrid.