Sonari Glinton
Sonari Glinton is a NPR Business Desk Correspondent based at our NPR West bureau. He covers the auto industry, consumer goods, and consumer behavior, as well as marketing and advertising for NPR and Planet Money.
In this position, which he has held since late 2010, Glinton has tackled big stories including GM's road back to profitability and Toyota's continuing struggles. In addition, Glinton covered the 2012 presidential race, the Winter Olympics in Sochi, as well as the U.S. Senate and House for NPR.
Glinton came to NPR in August 2007 and worked as a producer for All Things Considered. Over the years Glinton has produced dozen of segments about the great American Song Book and pop culture for NPR's signature programs most notably the 50 Great Voices piece on Nat King Cole feature he produced for Robert Siegel.
Glinton began his public radio career as an intern at Member station WBEZ in Chicago. He worked his way through his public radio internships working for Chicago Jazz impresario Joe Segal, waiting tables and meeting legends such as Ray Brown, Oscar Brown Jr., Marian MacPartland, Ed Thigpen, Ernestine Andersen, and Betty Carter.
Glinton attended Boston University. A Sinatra fan since his mid-teens, Glinton's first forays into journalism were album revues and a college jazz show at Boston University's WTBU. In his spare time Glinton indulges his passions for baking, vinyl albums, and the evolution of the Billboard charts.
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When a company announces that millions of cars have a defect, there's an upside — for dealerships, at least. Car recalls can lead to more profit, and, counterintuitively, to more brand loyalty. -
General Motors CEO Mary Barra faced another grueling hearing on Capitol Hill, two weeks after a critical internal report blasted the company's handling of defective ignition switches as incompetent. GM has recalled 20 million vehicles already this year and has set aside $700 million to cover repairs related to the recall.
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Hybrids represent only a small fraction of overall car sales. So automakers are trying to boost fuel savings by making vehicles lighter using some unexpected materials. -
An internal probe of how General Motors handled an ignition switch defect has found "a pattern of incompetence and neglect" at GM. On Thursday, CEO Mary Barra announced the dismissal of 15 employees, many of whom were executives and senior managers.
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General Motors is putting 4G capabilities directly into its vehicles. But analysts say connecting your car to the Internet poses a challenge to automakers: how to balance safety with convenience. -
Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has announced that General Motors has entered into a consent decree with the U.S. government, a response to how the company handled its ignition switch recall. As part of the agreement, GM will pay a record penalty of $35 million.
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The Department of Transportation on Friday announced that it's ordering General Motors to pay a $35 million civil penalty for the handling of its ignition switch problems.
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Toyota is recalling 6.4 million vehicles due to defects. The recall comes at a time of heightened scrutiny of automakers, only weeks after Toyota agreed to a $1.2 billion settlement with the U.S. government for misleading consumers.
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During her grilling before Congress, CEO Mary Barra insisted the new GM is different and better than the old GM. But are the company and its cars really new and improved? The answer is complicated.
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Records show that GM knew about faulty ignition switches in its cars at least a decade ago. The first death now linked to the problem happened the same year the company was shedding thousands of jobs.
