In the spirit of the holiday season, Scion, a division of Toyota Motor Sales, has launched the Scion Holiday Mail Drop. This program offers active duty U.S. military personnel the opportunity to receive a Scion cinch sack filled with complimentary clothing and accessories.

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Toyota Motor Corporation announced it will repair 378,000 Prius vehicles in the United States from model years 2004-2007 to correct a possible water-pump condition that could cause coolant to overheat resulting in reduced power output.
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Lebanon, Tenn.— Cracker Barrel, modeled to represent a slower time of rocking chairs on old wooden porches, will soon feature a very modern technology — electric vehicle chargers.
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The Subaru Outback is a popular car in the offices of our friends at Cars.com. Three of the editors there own it. For our Car Seat Check, we had the 2011 Outback, which seats five.

For the Car Seat Check, we use a rear-facing infant-safety seat, a convertible child-safety seat and a high-back booster seat, all made by Graco. The front seats are adjusted to a comfortable position for a 6-foot driver and a 5-foot-8 passenger. The child seats are installed in the second row and, if available, third row. The booster seat sits behind the driver’s seat, and the infant seat and convertible seats are installed behind the passenger seat.

Here’s how the 2011 Outback scored in MotherProof.com’s Car Seat Check:

Latch system: Two sets of lower Latch anchors sit in the outer seat positions. The anchors are covered by cloth or leather straps. Once removed, the Latch anchors are easy to use.  Three tether anchors can be found in the cargo area’s ceiling. They’re easy to access, but when in use, they limit the driver’s rear visibility.

Booster seat: The Outback’s reclining seatback makes it easy to get a good fit with the booster seat. The seat belt buckles in the outer seats sit on stable bases and stick up high enough for kids to grasp. The middle seat’s buckle, however, is floppy.

Convertible child-safety seat: Both the forward- and rear-facing convertible fit well in this wagon.

Rear-facing infant-safety seat: We had to move the front passenger seat forward a few inches to fit this car seat in the second row. However, there was still enough legroom for the front passenger.

Do two car seats fit? Yes

Do three car seats fit? No, but it’s close. We were able to fit our three car seats in the backseat, but there wasn’t enough room for a child in the booster seat to get to the seat belt buckle.
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Land Rover is recalling 2,956 2010-2011 LR2s over a manufacturing error that could affect the deployment of the driver’s side airbag, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

In the affected vehicles the shorting bar in the clock spring may become disconnected when the driver’s side airbag module was installed. As a result, the airbag may not deploy as intended or not at all, which could increase the risk of injury in an accident.

Land Rover dealers will repair and install a spacer into the driver’s airbag clock spring harness connector free of charge.

The recall is expected to begin Dec. 13. Owners may call Land Rover at 800-637-6837 or NHTSA’s hot line at 888-327-4236.
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Ford Motor Co. has about 15,000 orders — about double its projections — for the 2011 Ford Explorer that isn’t slated to hit showrooms until the new year.
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November is expected to be another strong month for U.S. auto sales, despite purchases of new cars and trucks dipping slightly from last month, according to analysts’ predictions. Industry sales for the month are higher than last year, a sign the marketplace is stabilizing and demand for car and trucks is returning.
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Long before the Chevrolet Volt, General Motors designed a groundbreaking electric car, the EV1, and learned from that experience it doesn’t always pay to be ahead of the pack.
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Washington — The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened investigations into electrical issues on the 2006 Honda CR-V and shifting issues with the 2007 Kia Optima.
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The first Chevrolet Volts begin arriving in American driveways next month, putting General Motors Co. on the precipice of an electric future.
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