Lexus

A faulty airbag part that can explode and send shrapnel into the passenger cabin is responsible for the global recall of more than 3 million cars manufactured by Honda, Nissan, Toyota and General Motors and will likely lead to more recalls. The problem was reported to Japanese safety regulators late Wednesday night, but since the part manufactured by Takata Corp. is used internationally, it probably affects more automakers. “Takata supplies a lot of U.S. manufacturers too,” said Michelle Krebs, an analyst with auto information company Edmunds.com.

Lexus earned the top score in Consumer Reports' 2013 annual ranking of car brands and vehicles. The American car companies were near the bottom of the rankings.  Japanese nameplates dominated the ratings with Subaru and Mazda tying for second.  Overall, eight of the top 10 scores were earned by Japanese brands.   None of the domestic automakers made the top 10.  At No. 14, Cadillac did the best, helped by good marks for its sedans. Other General Motors nameplates and almost everything from Chrysler suffered from inconsistent reliability.

Palmela Green sits amid hundreds of fabric rolls in her West L.A. swimsuit shop, surrounded by pink and red sequins, animal prints, knits and faux furs. A photo of one of her recent projects, a swimsuit in a Lexus ad, is proudly displayed on a wall. Green, who works by appointment, is one of only a few designers - the pool also includes Lissa Walker and Merrilee Madrigal, who are both based in Orange County - in the area who create custom swimwear. Green's customers pick a fabric and then choose one of her styles or order a one-of-a-kind pattern.

Hyundai Motor America is inching closer to a settlement of claims it inflated the fuel economy ratings of its vehicles. Details of the deal are still to be worked out, but the automaker is expected to reach a settlement in 38 lawsuits on the fuel economy mislabeling, which have been combined and are being heard in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. Its corporate sister, Kia Motors America, is expected to also settle the litigation. Photos: Vehicles with overstated fuel economy claims In November, the South Korean automakers said they overstated the fuel economy on nearly 1 million late-model vehicles after the discrepancy was discovered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which monitors the fuel economy tests by automakers.

The mystery surrounding the bizarre disappearance of the father of Chicago Bulls basketball superstar Michael Jordan was partially solved Friday when a body that had been found floating in a South Carolina creek on Aug. 3 was identified as that of James Jordan. Officials said that the cause of death was a single gunshot wound to the chest. Jordan, 57, had been missing for three weeks and it wasn't until Thursday that the matter became public.

Strip away the $61,345 price tag and ignore all of its competitors, and the 2014 Acura RLX isn't a bad car. It's a quiet, luxurious and stylish front-wheel-drive sedan that sits at the top of the lineup for Honda's premium brand. Unfortunately, the RLX has plenty of competition, since it swims in the choppy waters of the mid-size luxury pool. Its peers throw into sharp relief the fact that the RLX feels and drives too much like a Honda to justify even the $49,345 base price. Plus, every other car in this class holds a meaningful advantage the RLX lacks.

If Mazda can't figure out a way to sell its excellent all-new sedan - the 2014 Mazda6 - the automaker should just give up selling cars altogether. Mazda has no problem building great vehicles. It just can't seem to sell them. The company has long failed to capitalize on critical acclaim and a track record for reliability with its mid-size sedan - a crucial segment for any automaker. Part of the problem is of Mazda's own making, with its "Zoom-Zoom" marketing. The automaker has cast itself as the fun-to-drive brand in a family sedan segment in which buyers don't care much about fun. Mazda has acknowledged as much and will seek to appeal to a wider array of car buyers with a more aggressive national advertising campaign for the new 6. PHOTOS: 2014 Mazda6 looks and drives the part The product should make the sales job easy.

Lincoln is several weeks away from introducing its all-new MKZ sedan, which means you can expect bits of information to begin trickling out now. Like today. Ford's luxo-nameplate announced Monday morning that the hybrid version of the 2013 MKZ had been rated by the EPA at 45 mpg in the city, highway and combined. This should come as no surprise as the car the MKZ is largely based on, the 2013 Ford Fusion, was recently rated at 47 mpg across the board. This mpg rating means the MKZ Hybrid is the most fuel-efficient luxury car available and is a much-needed arrow for Lincoln's quiver in its fight against Lexus.

Tom Kane hates the ads for Mercedes-Benz. It's not the car. It's Jon Hamm. Mercedes uses the "Mad Men" star as the voice of its television and radio commercials. "Even if it is a terrific spot - which it isn't - people don't have a clue who that is," grumbled Kane, a professional voice actor who's done animation, movie trailers and commercials for two decades. QUIZ: Who's that voice? As brand-name advertisers fight for attention in a cluttered media landscape, they are turning increasingly to celebrities such as Robert Downey Jr. (Nissan)

What do you call the next coupe version of BMW's venerable 3 Series lineup? Hint: not a 3 Series. On Wednesday, the company released the first concept images of what will be the BMW 4 Series coupe when it comes to market in 2013. Though the car is entirely based on the latest generation 3 Series that we tested in early 2012 , BMW will now put the sportier coupe and convertible versions under the 4 Series banner. Thus you should expect a a base 428i to have the sedan's 2-liter, turbocharged inline four-cylinder engine making something in the neighborhood of 240 horsepower.