They are not alone.

USA Today is reporting that several different trade groups within the industry are asking for more testing. Specifically, the Auto Alliance and Global Automakers and the Coordinating Research Council say that adding more ethanol to gas could cause the corrosive element of the alcohol to have a detrimental affect on engines and other mechanical parts. They also believe the necessary testing was never completed in the first place.

The American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers also offered an opinion about the dangers of moving from the widely used E10 to E15, releasing a statement in which its President, Charles T. Drevna, said, “The Coordinating Research Council’s objective scientific tests have found disturbing evidence that increasing the amount of ethanol in gasoline above the current 10 percent causes serious damage to car engines. The study shows that a significant percentage of cars tested suffered engine damage when refueled with 15 percent ethanol. These are cars EPA has approved to run on E15 and are representative of approximately 5 million vehicles in the nation’s existing fleet.”

Drevna’s statement continued by urging the EPA to reconsider, saying, “No one should be asked to pump first and ask questions later and become a participant in a giant science experiment to line the coffers of large agribusinesses while overlooking the real-world implications of E15.”

Here’s the intro ad to the whole campaign, which is designed to promote the 2012 Honda CR-V and the leap list.

Specifically, the company posted a pre-tax operating profit that was $544 million lower than the same period in 2011, or a total of $2.3 billion, despite the fact that operating profit in North America had increased from $1.8 billion in 2011 to $2.1 billion for Q-1 of this year. This represents the automaker’s highest quarterly profit in it’s home region since the year 2000, which is when Ford initially started reporting the North American numbers as a separate business unit.

Overall, net income fell from $2.6 billion in 2011, to $1.4 billion at the end of the same quarter this year, with more than half of that negative change caused by special charges and higher taxes, while global revenue also decline by $700 million to $32.4 billion.

Despite the discouraging results outside of North America, Ford CEO Alan Mulally focused on the positive in a statement to the press, saying, “Our team delivered a solid performance during the first quarter, with particularly strong results in North America despite a challenging global external environment.”

Mazda USA recently posted this video, showing their Mazda 2 going up against the Wall of Death, in the Demon Drome.

Now, motorcycles are often seen doing this sort of trick. They’re much lighter than cars, of course, and more maneuverable, but in this case, a car defied gravity.

(Do we need to say this was a professional driver, and not to try this at home? Well, it was, and you shouldn’t.)

The carmaker announced today that they were instituting a voluntary recall on 1,316 CR-V compact crossover vehicles from the 2006 model year, because of a problem with the right front lower control arm.

Apparently a combination of extended use and improper welding has the potential to cause the arm to break, which could “…impair vehicle handling and increase the risk of a crash,” the automaker says.

Honda has made assurances that, so far, no accidents have actually resulted from this issue. Nevertheless, owners will be notified of the recall beginning in the middle of next month, and the affected components will be replaced by Honda dealers at no cost.

If you believe you’re included in this recall, check out the website mentioned above, or call Honda’s recall hotline at (800) 999-1009.

Specifically, the upgrade has been created in order to improve the LEAF’s on-board range indicator so that it will provide more accurate numbers, and also to increase the precision of time-to-charge estimates. These improvements will give LEAF drivers a clearer idea of how far their vehicles can actually travel before they must charge the batteries, as well as how long the charging process is likely to take, based on information from the automaker’s telematics service, Carwings.

Steve Yaeger, manager of Nissan North American Technology and Motorsports Communication department explained that the company recommends the upgrade for every LEAF owner because it’s “quite useful” and is likely to “improve the ownership experience.”

So, when will LEAF owners be told about the upgrade? Most likely they’ll hear from their local dealers or directly from Nissan sometime in the next few weeks.

The Fit EV was initially revealed last year at the 2011 Los Angeles Auto Show, along with the information that US customers will be able to lease the 2013-model-year car, which has a range of about 76 miles on electric power, beginning in the summer of 2012.

Sadly, Honda has no plans to ever offer the car for sale to the general public.

Sometime later this year, the city of Torrance will also be receiving a Honda plug-in hybrid for demonstration purposes, though that will likely be a mid-size sedan, since that’s the platform the automaker’s existing plug-in hybrid drivetrain has been engineered to fit.

Enjoy.