Honda Motor Co. has issued a recall for 304,000 vehicles around the world due to airbags that may inflate with too much pressure in a crash, sending metal and plastic pieces flying, causing injuries and death.

According to Honda, there have been 20 accidents thus far related to the problem, including two deaths in the United States in 2009. Honda announced the recall, which affects the Accord, Civic, Odyssey, Pilot, CR-V and other models, early on Friday.

The recall covers 273,000 vehicles in the U.S., about 27,000 in Canada, 2,000 in Japan, and another 2,000 in other countries. Just 359 vehicles in Europe were affected.

This latest recall is an expansion of recalls for the same issue in 2008, which was again carried out in 2009 and 2010. The recall now covers 2 million vehicles worldwide, according to the Japanese automaker.

On Wednesday, Toyota's U.S. branch announced a major recall of approximately 283,200 Toyota and 137,000 Lexus vehicles to replace a potentially faulty crankshaft pulley on the V6 engine.

Toyota Motor Sales USA said in a statement:

"There is a possibility that the outer ring of the crankshaft pulley may become misaligned with the inner ring, causing noise and/or illumination of the discharge warning light. If this condition is not corrected, the belt for the power steering pump may become detached from the pulley and the driver may notice a sudden increase in steering effort."

Vehicles included in the recall include the 2004 Avalon, Camry, Highlander, and Sienna, as well as the 2004 and 2005 models of the Solara, the 2006 Highlander, the 2004 ES330 and RX300, and the 2006 RX400h.

Toyota says that there have been no reports of accidents or injuries related to the issue, however, a spokesperson said that 79 complaints had been logged worldwide over the defect. Worldwide, another 130,000 vehicles were being recalled with 38,000 of those being in Japan.

Honda Motor Co. Ltd. announced on Friday that it will recall 1.5 million cars and small SUVs in the United States to repair software that controls the automatic transmission.

Japan's Kyodo news agency reported that another 760,000 Honda models were recalled in China, and that 2.49 million were recalled worldwide. Honda Canada accounts for 135,142 vehicles.

Without updating the software, the automatic transmission in the affected vehicles could be damaged if the driver quickly shifted between gears. This could cause the engine to stall or make it difficult to put the car into park.

Vehicles affected by the recall include four-cylinder Accord cars from model years 2005 to 2010, and the CR-V crossover for model years 2007 to 2010, as well as the small SUV Element for model years 2005 to 2008.

General Motors Corp. announced that it is recalling all 154,122 Chevrolet Cruze vehicles, stating that mistakes on the assembly line may cause safety problems. The Cruz is manufactured right here in Ohio at the Lordstown GM plant.

GM recalled the Cruze on Wednesday for a transmission problem which allows it to slip out of gear while driving or parked. GM also expanded a smaller recall over steering problems with the Cruze.

2,100 Cruzes were recalled last month after a steering wheel fell off one car. GM then went over its warranty records to see if there were any other steering problems. They didn't find any matches, but found some similar issues. Specifically, they found several instances in which the car's automatic transmission slipped out of gear.

GM said that no owners have reported accidents or injured from either defect. In both cases, the cause of the problem is the same - workers did not correctly install critical parts on the car.

Cruze owners are advised to call their dealers to immediately schedule an inspection of their cars. Dealers will check to make sure that the transmissiong and steering connections are good, and may need to tighten a few bolts on some cars.

Toyota is in the news again for all the wrong reasons as the company is recalling 2.2 million vehicles. The problem again stems from faulty eccelaration after getting trapped in floormats and carpeting around them. The vehicles being called back into the shop are the Lexus GS, RX and LX and the Toyota Highlander, 4Runner and RAV4. The automaker has recalled 14 million cars in the last 18 months and was slapped with a $49 Million fine from the governemnt for dragging their feet over the problem.

Here are the specifics of the recall from a press release issued by Toyota regarding the matter:

Owners of the involved GS 300 and GS 350 All-Wheel Drive vehicles will receive a notification by first class mail beginning in early March 2011.

On Thursday, Toyota issued a recall affecting 1.33 million Corolla sedans and Matrix hatchbacks in the United States and Canadas due to a potential for engine stalling. The recall covers vehicles from the 2005 to 2008 model years.

Three accidents and one minor injury have thus far been reported. This recall is one of the largest since it began recalling cards and trucks last October. Worldwide, the automaker has since recalled more than 10 million vehicles.

Toyota says that the affected Corollas and Matrixes are equipped with 1ZZ-FE engines, and may contain a defective engine control module, which is the computer that regulates the performance of the engine. In some instances, a crack could develop on the module's circuit board, which would prevent the engine froms tarting or could cause harsh shifting or an engine stall.

General Motors Co. is also recalling 200,000 Pontiac Vibes in North America because of the same problem. Similar to the Matrix, the Vibe was built under a joint venture between Toyota and GM.

Both Toyota and GM said that they will replace engine control modules on the recalled vehicles at no charge. Notifications will be sent to owners of the affected vehicles beginning in mid-September.

On Thursday, Toyota announced yet another recall, which this time involves nearly 417,000 high-end passenger cars and SUVS in the United States and Canada. The recall aims to fix steering problems.

The recall affects 373,000 of Toyota Avalons in the US and another 4,200 from Canada from the model years 2000 to 2004. In these vehicles, a steering lock bar in these vehicles could break under some conditions.

In addition, Toyota will also recall 39,000 LX470 SUVs from model years 2003 to 2007 in the US and another 520 in Canada. These are being recalled to eliminate the risk of steering shaft disengagement.

Toyota indicated that it would take about two hours to replace the steering column bracket in these vehicles, but did not give an estimate on the cost of the repair.

Labor costs average about $85 per hour in the US, so the US portion of the recall could cost them about $70 million plus the cost of parts.

To date, the automaker has received three reports of accidents involving the Avalons, but no injuries were reported. It is not clear whether the accidents were related to the defect. There have been no reports of accidents involving the recalled LX470 models that have been recalled.

Early Thursday morning in Tokyo, Japan, Toyota officials said that the automaker was considering "some kind of measure" that could include the recall of 270,000 vehicles worldwide involving eight models of Toyota and Lexus vehicles.

As of Thursday morning, however, Toyota had not alerted US safety regulators of a recall of Toyota and Lexus models for possible engine stalling while driving.

No accidents or injuries have been reported in relation to the engine problems.

Toyota said that decisions by government regulators would determine if a recall was necessary in this instance for the eight models, which include the Lexus LS460 and Toyota Crown. The models involved have 3.6-liter and 4.6-liter engines.

This engine issue is just the latest in a series of safety issues that have been plaguing the world's top automaker since last September. The biggest issue to date has been one involving potential acceleration. To date, 7.3 million vehicles have been recalled in Toyota's largest market - the United States.

On Monday, Toyota Motor Corp. agreed to pay a record $16.4 million fine for failing to properly notify U.S. authorities about a dangerous accelerator pedal defect. However, in agreeing to pay the fine, Toyota made sure to deny allegations that it broke the law.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced the largest-ever penalty paid by an automaker to the U.S. government. He noted that "by failing to report known safety problems as it is required to do under the law, Toyota put consumers at risk." He added:

"I am pleased that Toyota has accepted responsibility for violating its legal obligations to report any defects promptly."

Despite having agreed to the fine, the U.S. government won't be backing off on any further investigations into the Japanese automaker. LaHood said that they would continue to investigate "whether the company has lived up to all its disclosure obligations."

Toyota said it agreed to the fine "to avoid a protracted dispute and possible litigation", and denied allegations that it violated the law. In a statement, Toyota said:

On Tuesday, Toyota pulled a $50,000 Lexus SUV off the market after it was labeled "don't buy" by Consumer Reports. According to the magazine, the vehicle is dangerously prone to careening out of control.

Consumer Reports says that the 2010 Lexus GX 460's electronic stability control system failed to stop the car from skidding wildly in a test. According to Lexus, they are now trying to duplicate the findings of Consumer Reports, and commented:

"At this point, we don't know whether it's the transmission or tires or . . . a compilation of items."