Takata brass waits in the bunker as airbag crisis growsAuto News

Takata promoted Swiss-born Stefan Stocker to president last year to inject global thinking and openness into the insular, family-dominated Japanese supplier.



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Your favorite pickup -- with a woman's touchAuto News

Pickup trucks are still seen as a stronghold of the industry's testosterone-laden, good-old-boy past. But now, women do pickups, too. Next month Becky Blanchard will take over as director of Chrysler Group's Ram brand.



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Stagnant wages are a drag on new-car salesAuto News

One reason auto sales in the United States still aren't quite back to the 17 million-a-year pace seen during the boom years before the recession: Many consumers haven't gotten much of a raise since then.



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High salesperson turnover getting worse, study findsAuto News

In 2013, the average dealership had a 66 percent turnover rate among sales consultants, up 4 percentage points from the previous year and well above the national average for the private sector of 42 percent, the National Automobile Dealers...



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Chrysler Pentastar V-6s to get turbos and direct injection, sources sayAuto News

Chrysler Group is improving its Pentastar family of V-6s, adding direct injection, turbocharging and other technology to enable smaller displacement engines to power its vehicles.



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Toyota's products, factory retooling set stage for market share gainsAuto News

For most of the last five years, Toyota has been hampered by one problem after another: recession, safety crisis, earthquake, strong yen.



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Jeep drives 25% of U.S. sales gains Auto News

Jeep's big year has helped Fiat Chrysler grow at four times the pace of the rest of the industry, gaining momentum as the U.S. market shows signs of starting to plateau.



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Lexus ponders drop-top optionsAuto News

As the only convertible in its lineup approaches the end of its life cycle, Lexus is looking ahead to another critical step in the balancing act it's undertaking: trying to appeal to younger buyers while keeping its core customers.



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Carmakers hit the gas as China slows downAuto News

Chinese bureaucrats are jittery, maybe even a bit panicky, about the country's slumping economy. But global carmakers sound as optimistic as ever as they place big bets on the world's biggest auto market.



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Creative pairing: 2 dealers innovate as partnersAuto News

After toiling to revitalize separate single-point dealerships in the Detroit area, two childhood friends merged and expanded operations to compete with larger groups. "It's not an acquisition, but a partnership," says Sam Slaughter.



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Ford considers CVTs as way to improve fuel economyAuto News

Ford is considering giving the continuously variable transmission another spin. "We've had some experience with CVTs and it wasn't all good," said Raj Nair, Ford's global product development chief, during a media event here. "They are getting better.



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After decades of store confinement, the FandI office is inching digitalAuto News

Lou Bregou, a director of operations at Driver's Village in Cicero, N.Y., says he has embraced putting financing tools on the dealership group's e-commerce website.



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