Sonari Glinton

2016 is the year of the SUV and pickup truck. Each month the car sales share of the market slips a bit. Lower gas prices and changing consumer tastes are making the sedan an endangered species.

A car is one of the larger purchases most people make. How can you make sure that purchase isn't a mistake? Don't "buy it today." Do your research. Don't panic. Easy, right?

Federal regulators have dramatically increased the number of vehicles to be recalled because of defective airbags made by Takata Corporation. An additional 35 to 40 million airbag inflators will need to be replaced, according to regulators. The vehicles will be recalled in five stages between now and December 2019.

As many as 80 percent of Americans don't know what's for dinner by 4 p.m. that same day. From in-grocery store restaurants to local, organic cafeteria fare, new options for fast meals are cropping up.

Los Angeles can seem like a company town, dominated by the movie business. But the area is dotted with oil wells — landmarks of a key industry in the region. Now plunging prices are taking their toll.

Before the Model 3 was even unveiled, people lined up at Tesla stores to put down a deposit. With a base price of $35,000, the car will go on sale late next year at the earliest.

Major automakers have agreed to install automatic braking systems on nearly all models by 2022. Federal regulators say the technology will prevent thousands of crashes. Through the use of sensors, the systems detect imminent crashes and apply the brakes even if drivers don't react.

The two leading car reviewers, Consumer Reports and JD Power, announced their picks for the year's best cars. For the first time in years, overall quality dropped — and that's not the only surprise.

A J.D. Power report finds problems with in-vehicle technology of 2015 cars. Consumers say unreliable navigation systems and other issues are eroding trust when it comes to rating a car's performance.

The jobless rate fell is at an eight-year low, the government reported today. But for blacks, the rate is still 8.8 percent — a bit lower than worst unemployment whites experienced in the recession.

Toyota has killed off its struggling Scion brand. The lineup of small cars targeted economy-minded young buyers. But those marketing efforts failed to win over millennials in any significant numbers.

For the first time on a mass scale, a car built in China will be on sale in the U.S., joining countless other Chinese-made products. It comes as Chinese firms invest billions in the auto industry.

Consumers bought a historic number of trucks and SUVs last year. With gas prices at record lows, consumers are gobbling up increasingly bigger and faster trucks. What does that mean for the future?

NPR's Sonari Glinton tells Michel Martin about week one of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

Volkswagen CEO Mattias Mueller, who was in Detroit earlier this week for the auto show, told NPR that the emissions cheating scandal was a technical problem and not an ethical one.

During President Obama's administration, the auto industry hit record sales in 2015. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat from Michigan, says Obama has a right to a "victory lap."

The North American International Auto Show is a place where car industry gathers to celebrate — and in recent years to apologize. At this year's show in Detroit, it was Volkswagen CEO Matthias Mueller's turn to face the media.

In a prepared statement, Mueller said of the emissions-cheat scandal, ...

For years, car geeks have talked a lot about self-driving cars. But this year is different, with record sales and potentially record profits, the industry invested billions on autonom...

Volkswagen CEO Matthias Mueller spoke to the media in the U.S. for the first time on Sunday, and characterized the auto emissions scandal enveloping his company as "technical" in nature.