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Byline: KEN WYSOCKY Automakers constantly seek to fill the 'white space' in their lineups with niche vehicles aimed at specific market segments. The Matrix Trade Institute applies the same concept [...]

Byline: Rick Popely Here is what some automakers are doing in their technician education programs to address the switch to electrification. Ford Motor Co. In 2021, Ford will add web-based [...]

Byline: RICK POPELY As auto companies ramp up plans for more electric vehicles, the schools training the technicians who will work on these vehicles are shifting gears to prepare them [...]

Byline: RICHARD TRUETT For most dealers, running an express service lane generally makes more sense than cents. That's because the financial aspect of offering fast oil changes is often not [...]

Byline: Pete Bigelow Derrick Niello got a glimpse at the electric-vehicle future earlier than most of his counterparts. As controller at Niello Co. in Sacramento, Calif., he has watched the [...]

Byline: Jim Henry Amid a chronic shortage of dealership service technicians, record new-vehicle sales could make Subaru the neediest brand of all. In response, the automaker is stepping up its [...]

Byline: Vince Bond Jr. Imagine a family with triplets who all have the same name but different dietary preferences. And they have to give lunch instructions to the new baby [...]

Byline: Marcus AmickThe 3D development company Unity Technologies, known for its widely used virtual and augmented reality gaming platforms, has spent the past three years working with automakers to help [...]

AutoNation Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram Spring Spring, Texas * General manager: Bill Suessman * Dealership group: AutoNation * Full-time employees: 152 * 2017 new-vehicle sales: 4,296, up 1.8% * 2017 used-vehicle sales: 2,370, [...]

Byline: Alex Kwanten BMW/MINI: BMW of North America launched an expansion of its Service Technician Education Program last year. 'We graduate about 360 students a year through STEP,' says Gary [...]

Byline: ALEX KWANTEN Warren DeBardelaben, Nissan North America's director of dealer support, has overseen the automaker's service technician training program since 2006. In that time, he says, more than 5,000 [...]

Byline: Alysha Webb This year, JM Family Enterprises Inc., the parent company of Southeast Toyota Distributors, surveyed the 177 dealerships to which Southeast supplies vehicles and parts. The company wanted [...]

Byline: Alysha Webb The end-of-class bell has rung, but three boys still are tinkering with a car on a lift in the auto shop of the charter school run by [...]

Byline: ALYSHA WEBB American Honda Motor Co. works with community colleges nationwide to train service technicians to work on its Honda and Acura vehicles. It spends tens of thousands of [...]

Byline: Jamie LaReau Most car dealers pay outsiders to train their staffs. Not Aaron Zeigler. Instead, he sells his in-house training to other industries, including college sports teams. 'We've always [...]

Byline: Amy Wilson Exciting customers is about to become more than a mission statement at Porsche Cars North America. The theme will govern a new program to train 5,200 people [...]

Byline: Arlena Sawyers Men have known it for years. Dealership service and parts departments offer great opportunities for people who want career training that may or may not include a [...]

Byline: Keith Crain Chevrolet is putting technology in its vehicles that encourages safe driving by teenagers. I hope it spreads to all General Motors divisions and the rest of the [...]

Byline: Mike Colias As a former human-resources executive, General Motors CEO Mary Barra is certainly familiar with the term 'probationary period.' Barra has survived hers. That's the underlying message in [...]

Byline: Mike Colias General Motors is working with the U.S. Army to train discharged soldiers to serve as service technicians at dealer-ships. Based at the Fort Hood base in Killeen, [...]

Byline: Larry P. Vellequette Like a ball team building a farm system, Fiat Chrysler is expanding its feeder network of training schools to meet a rapidly growing need for service [...]

Byline: Larry P. Vellequette FCA US is expanding its in-house volunteer program to dealers nationwide to provide a way for dealerships to increase community involvement. The automaker's corporate program, Motor [...]

FCA US wants dealership salespeople to excel in 1 or more of these areas, as part of its Most Valuable Professional program. -- Job-rating and trailer towing -- 4wd systems [...]

Byline: Diana T. Kurylko JOSEPH AGRESTA MERCEDES-BENZ DEALER BOARD Mercedes-Benz dealers are riding high after a record sales year crowned by top ratings in several sales and customer service surveys, [...]

Byline: Hannah Lutz When Diego Hurtado took his 2008 Mercedes-Benz C300w in for service in May, an available Mercedes loaner was prepared for him. Then the staff noticed Rex, his [...]

Byline: Larry P. Vellequette Chrysler Group is about to encourage dealership salespeople to play video games during downtime. But not to waste time. The automaker has created four video games [...]

Byline: Diana T. Kurylko Printed in Automotive News May 5, 2014 Jaguar Land Rover North Scottsdale isn't just puttin' on the ritz for its customers. It's taking dealership employees for [...]

Byline: Jesse Snyder Printed in Automotive News Sept. 1, 2014 Bernie Moreno was 28 and had no auto retailing experience when Boston dealer Herb Chambers hired him as general manager [...]

Byline: Bradford Wernle Printed in Automotive News March 31, 2014 Cam Clark knows he can recruit veteran service repair technicians from outside to work in his Airdrie, Alberta, Ford dealership. [...]

Byline: Mike Colias General Motors' heightened focus on safety in the wake of its recall crisis is spilling over to its 4,300 dealerships. In a Sept. 30 memo, GM North [...]

Byline: Lindsay Chappell Nissan executives have promised that next year's redesigned Titan pickup, with an optional 5.0-liter V-8 diesel, will be a bold new product for the brand. But it [...]

Byline: Jesse Snyder Bernie Moreno was 28 and had no auto retailing experience when Boston dealer Herb Chambers hired him as general manager of a Saturn store. Nearly two decades [...]

Byline: David Barkholz It's back to the future for car shoppers, who now much prefer to contact dealerships with an old-fashioned phone call rather than via the Internet. Two years [...]

Byline: Andrew Thurlow Dealership service managers are complaining about a rusty old clunker that's gumming up their operations: America's vocational education system. Traditional schools are steering more students toward college [...]

Byline: Diana T. Kurylko Jaguar Land Rover North Scottsdale isn't just puttin' on the ritz for its customers. It's taking dealership employees for afternoon tea at the nearby service-oriented Ritz-Carlton [...]

Byline: Diana T. Kurylko Mercedes-Benz USA is benchmarking the best luxury retailers in the country and is launching a wave of training for dealers and their employees. Two training initiatives [...]

Byline: Diana T. Kurylko Mercedes-Benz USA is launching two programs that will train thousands of dealership employees this year, intensifying the brand's focus on customer service and on deeper knowledge [...]

Byline: David Barkholz Tommy Baker, an ex-Marine and graduate of The Citadel military college, is big on training. The CEO and founder of Baker Motor Co. says his 250 employees [...]

Byline: Bradford Wernle Stung by several vehicle launches gone awry, Ford Motor Co. is giving workers additional training before the launch of the 2014 Fusion at the Flat Rock Assembly [...]

Byline: Larry P. Vellequette Chrysler Group is offering additional diesel-engine training to its dealerships to help them sell and service light-duty diesel variants of its two best-selling nameplates this year. [...]

Byline: Diana T. Kurylko On two high-speed race tracks last month, about 1,300 Jaguar sales and service employees were put behind the wheel of the new F-Type convertible. They evaluated [...]

Byline: Bradford Wernle This week Ford Motor Co. launches a program to help dealership sales staffers with the challenging and time-consuming task of familiarizing buyers with all the features of [...]

Byline: Larry P. Vellequette Nearly 150 Chrysler Group dealerships face a year of intense training to treat consumers better as Chrysler struggles to raise its bottom-dwelling customer satisfaction scores. Later, [...]

Byline: Mike Colias Last year, sales of both Buick and GMC lagged the industry's 13 percent industry growth, ending a streak of two years in which both brands picked up [...]

Mercedes-Benz USA's plan for improving customer experience at dealerships -- Create a customer experience department -- Provide extensive training for dealership employees -- Tie more of the dealer profit margin [...]

Byline: Rick Kranz Chevrolet is training dealers how to sell the new Sonic subcompact to the car's targeted buyers -- consumers who are 18 to 29 years old. Dealers are [...]

Byline: Diana T. Kurylko Mercedes-Benz USA is partnering with NADA University on a yearlong online training program to help Mercedes improve its retail operations. Mercedes is the first automaker to [...]

Byline: Alysha Webb Chrysler Group dealers say training now available from Shell can boost their quick-lube business, but some say it is pricey. Shell, which owns the Jiffy Lube chain [...]

Byline: Mike Colias One day last week, the general manager at Carl Black Chevrolet-Buick-GMC in Orlando snapped a picture of the cars in his customer parking spaces: a BMW, a [...]

Byline: Hans Greimel Steve St. Angelo says restoring Toyota's shattered quality reputation in the United States won't be easy if only because there are so many Toyota Way rules that [...]