DETROIT – Chrysler is recalling nearly 87,000 Jeep Wranglers in the U.S., Canada and elsewhere due to a risk of fires.

The recall affects only Wranglers from the 2010 model year that have automatic transmissions and were built before July 14, 2010, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in documents posted Saturday on its website.

Debris can get caught between a plate that protects the transmission and the catalytic converter, causing a fire. A catalytic converter is part of the exhaust system and uses heat and precious metals to control pollution.

Chrysler knows of at least 14 complaints of fires caused by the problem with 2010 Wranglers. The company says it doesn’t know of any injuries. It said debris can get trapped when the SUVs are driven off-road or through tall brush.

(CNN) — Someone who may be posing as a police officer is pulling cars over on Mississippi highways and then shooting drivers dead, authorities said.

After two such shootings this month, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is asking for the public’s help to find the person.

The agency is receiving leads and processing forensic evidence, bureau spokesman Warren Strain said Tuesday.

“There are some similarities between the two incidents, mainly the fact they happened alongside a Mississippi highway,” said MBI director Lt. Col. Larry Waggoner on Monday. “The concern is that someone is posing as a law enforcement officer and that is how these vehicles end up on the side of the road.”

When it comes to safety-related quality problems, 2011 wasn’t a good year for Honda, and 2012 isn’t getting off to any better of a start.

The Japanese maker, traditionally known for solid reliability, has announced it will recall about 550,000 of its Pilot and CR-V crossover due to problems that could cause the low beam headlights to suddenly stop working.

Honda Latest to Add Plant in Mexico

It’s the latest of a half-dozen safety-related service actions Honda has announced during the first three years of 2012 – and comes in the wake of Honda recalling more vehicles than any other auto manufacturer operating in the U.S. in 2011, a dubious distinction held by Toyota the previous two years.

Ford is hoping history can repeat itself with the upcoming launch of the next-generation Fusion four-door.

It’s been more than a quarter century since the maker revolutionized automotive design with the original Taurus sedan. Its windswept styling helped Ford dominate the huge midsize market segment, and led most competitors to migrate to more aerodynamic designs. The new Fusion, which makes its debut at the Detroit Auto Show next month, will borrow many of the visual cues of the recent Ford Evos concept car and, if early reviews are any indication, could help the maker topple the imports that have dominated the midsize segment over the last two decades.

SALT LAKE CITY — A truck driver who won a Lamborghini worth about $300,000 in a convenience store contest crashed the sports car six hours after he got it, and he now plans to sell the 640-horsepower convertible because he can’t afford the insurance or taxes.

“I already had offers on it. I’m going to sell it,” David Dopp said Wednesday. “I have bills more important than a Lamborghini. I’ve got a family to support.”

Dopp, a 34-year-old truck driver for Frito-Lay, spun out of control just a few hours after taking the keys to the Murcielago Roadster that he won in a “Joe Schmo to Lambo” contest sponsored by Maverik convenience stores.

Updated at 4 p.m. ET: The government’s transportation safety experts recommended Tuesday to ban all American drivers from using portable electronic devices — including cell phones, even if you use a hands-free device.

The recommendation, which isn’t binding but which is likely to influence the decisions of Congress and state legislatures in writing new safety laws, makes only two exceptions: You could still use GPS navigation devices, and you could use your cell phone in an emergency.

“No call, no text, no update, is worth a human life,” Deborah Hersman, chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said at a news conference in Washington.

(Reuters) – Ford Motor Co has recalled nearly 129,000 of its Mercury Milan and top-selling Ford Fusion in the United States because their 17-inch steel wheels may fall off, U.S. safety regulators said on Friday.

In some vehicles from model years 2010 and 2011, the wheel studs may fracture and make the car shake. If ignored, the wheels may fall off a moving car, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a posting on its website.

Ford, the No. 2 U.S. automaker, said the issue may stem from wheel mounting pads or rear brake discs that have been incorrectly built and cannot support the wheel.

MONROE, Mich. — A blast that turned a vehicle along a Michigan street into a blackened shell and seriously injured an attorney and his two sons was the result of a car bomb, police said Wednesday.

Emergency responders rushed to the site of the Tuesday evening explosion near a highway underpass in Monroe, about 35 miles southwest of Detroit, the Monroe Police Department said. The vehicle’s three occupants were taken to St. Vincent Medical Center in Toledo, Ohio, about 20 miles south of Monroe. They were listed in serious condition Wednesday.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Italian automaker Pagani was to begin selling its $1 million, 700 horsepower Huayra supercar in the U.S. later this year but federal safety regulators have said “Not so fast.”

Pagani had applied for an exemption from federal auto safety rules requiring child-safe “advanced” airbags, arguing that complying with the rule would have caused “substantial economic hardship,” according to documents from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Members of a House of Representatives subcommittee on Wednesday accused the Obama administration of making politically motivated decisions in picking the winners and losers in the General Motors and Chrysler bankruptcies.

Subcommittee chairman Jim Jordan, a Republican from the Urbana area, said the intervention in GM’s bankruptcy established a dangerous precedent. He juxtaposed the success of GM’s Lordstown plant, which remained open, with the closure of a GM facility in his district in Mansfield to illustrate his point that the government decided who would endure the restructuring.