05 Verucci Scooter 50cc 49 Qingqi - Throttle Tube/sleeve Grip on 2040-parts.com

Honda recalls 1.5 million Accord, CR-V and Element models for transmission fix

Honda is recalling 1.5 million cars and crossovers to reprogram the transmission control software to prevent damage if the automatic transmission is used to rock the vehicle out from being stuck in mud or snow. The recall covers the Accord and the CR-V and Element crossovers from the 2005 through 2010 model years. The vehicles being recalled have four-cylinder engines.

One Lap of the Web: The lost F-Type, a velvet Panamera and Lutz on being king

We spend a lot of time on the Internet -- pretty much whenever we're not driving, writing about or working on cars. Since there's more out there than we'd ever be able to cover, here's our daily digest of car stuff on the Web you may not otherwise have heard about. -- Long before there was a Jaguar F-Type, there was the XJ41, originally conceived to be a lightweight successor to the XKE.

Toyota and Mercedes-Benz are top global car brands

Toyota & Mercedes-Benz are the Top Global Automotive Brands 2011 Interbrand, a branding consultancy, delivers a report on the world’s brands every year, and in 2011, despite recall woes and the devastation of the Japanese Tsunami, Toyota leads the automotive brands, with luxury car maker Mercedes-Benz just behind. Interbrand uses three measures to gauge how effective a brand is – performance of branded product, the brands ability to secure earnings and the role of the brand in purchasing decisions – to come up with a chart of the top 100 world brands. At the top of the tree are companies like Coca Cola, IBM, Microsoft and Google, but car brands do well with Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Honda, VW, and Ford all making it in to the top 50.