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Pete Grady retiring from Chrysler, Maserati

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is about to lose one of its top executives as the president of Maserati North America, Pete Grady, has announced his retirement. A lifelong automotive industry exec, Grady joined the American Motors Corporation back in 1984 after graduating from John Carroll University in his native Ohio. After AMC was bought out by Chrysler, Grady started rising through the ranks under the Pentastar as a sales manager. He was named vice president of network development and fleet operations in 2009 and was shortly thereafter put in charge of the Chrysler Group's dealer network. He continued to hold that position when he was named last year as the top man at Maserati North America. Grady will continue to hold responsibility for Chrysler's dealer network until his retirement takes effect on March 31, 2015. His position as head of Maserati's American office, however, will pass to the Trident marque's global sales chief Christian Gobber, who will hand off responsibility for the Chinese region to Mirko Bordiga but maintain his global portfolio. CHANGES AT THE TOP IN MASERATI NORTH AMERICA AND MASERATI CHINA Monday, 8 December 2014 – Effective January 1st, 2015, Christian Gobber will be assigned responsibility for Maserati North America, replacing Pete Grady, who has announced his intent to retire effective March 31st, 2015. Christian Gobber will maintain his responsibility for Maserati Global Sales. Effective January 1st, 2015, Mirko Bordiga will join Maserati and will be assigned responsibility for Maserati China, replacing Christian Gobber. Maserati further strengthens its sales and commercial structure in the two main markets for the Trident brand. Maserati CEO Harald Wester thanks Pete Grady for his dedication and achievements at the helm of Maserati in North America, and wishes all the best to Christian Gobber and Mirko Bordiga in their new positions. ### Chrysler Group's Grady to Retire December 5, 2014 , Auburn Hills, Mich. - Chrysler Group today announced that Peter Grady has stated his intention to retire, effective March 31, 2015. In the interim, Grady will retain his current responsibilities as Vice President Dealer Network Development and continue as a member of the Company's NAFTA Leadership Team. In a move announced earlier, Christian Gobber will assume responsibility for leading Maserati North America, effective January 1, 2015.

Takata airbag recall claims 209k Chrysler, Dodge vehicles

Chrysler is expanding the scope of its front passenger side Takata airbag inflator recall yet again to include 139,115 additional vehicles for a total of 208,783 units now needing these parts replaced. The latest campaign affects the passenger side inflators of the 2003-2005 Dodge Ram 1500, 2003-2005 Dodge Ram 2500, 2003-2005 Dodge Ram 3500, 2004-2005 Durango; 2005 Dakota pickup; 2005 Dodge Magnum and 2005 Chrysler 300 (pictured above), 300C and SRT8. It's limited to vehicles purchased or ever registered in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and the territories of American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, Saipan and the US Virgin Islands. The company expects owners to be notified by February 8. The automaker just expanded the replacement campaign last week to include passenger side inflators in 149,150 pickups from the 2003 model year. However, the parts are not the same. Chrysler says this recall is for the PSPI family of components versus SPI for the last one. The company is also not aware of any injuries or accidents in its vehicles from these potentially faulty inflators, and lab testing of 600 of them finds no issues. Despite this, Chrysler is repairing these models at the request of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Scroll down to read the company's full announcement of the initiative. Statement: Air-bag Inflator (Regional Field Action Expansion) December 12, 2014 , Auburn Hills, Mich. - Chrysler Group is expanding an ongoing regional field action with a recall to replace front passenger-side air-bag inflators in an estimated 208,783 older-model vehicles originally purchased or ever registered in seven U.S. states and five territories. The vehicles are equipped with front passenger-side air-bag inflators from a product family code-named "PSPI." Chrysler Group is unaware of any injuries or accidents involving PSPI inflators of the type covered by this campaign, nor has a Chrysler Group investigation identified a defect in these components. Further, laboratory tests on nearly 600 such inflators did not result in any failures. The inflators affected by this campaign differ in design and construction from PSPI inflators used by other auto makers. They also benefited from a more robust manufacturing process. However, at the request of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Chrysler Group is expanding its replacement action beyond its original scope of Florida, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the U.S.

How to update and secure a vulnerable Chrysler Uconnect system

If you own one of the 1.4 million vehicles affected by the recent Chrysler software recall, you may want to watch this video. In it, we explain how to get the latest infotainment software loaded onto the 8.4-inch Uconnect system. The recall was a response to the findings of researchers who were able to hack into and remotely control a 2014 Jeep Cherokee through its cellular connection. Although Fiat Chrysler has worked with Sprint to plug most of the holes on the carrier side, there are still some vulnerabilities that only this latest software version can patch. Owners have three options to get the update: download it now, wait for a USB stick in the mail, or take the vehicle to an FCA dealer. Chrysler will be sending USB sticks loaded with the software update to customers. Anyone with an internet connection and a USB stick of their own with at least 4 GB capacity can speed things up by downloading the patch from the Uconnect website. We cover that process from start to finish in the video, with the final portion still applicable to those using the FCA-supplied USB stick. If after watching this you still don't want to tackle the patch yourself, you can take your vehicle to the dealer to have it done. Also note that this process is the same for all Uconnect updates, not just the one patching the exploits. Our demonstrator vehicle is a 2015 Ram 1500 pickup. The procedure should be very similar on other products with the 8.4-inch Uconnect system, with only the location of the USB port varying. Once you have the USB stick with the software on it – either after having downloaded it yourself or receiving it in the mail from Chrysler – the installation process is relatively simple. It takes about 15 minutes to perform the update; we edited out the wait in the video. To check whether or not your car's 8.4-inch Uconnect system is running the latest software, go to System Information on the touch screen's Settings page and look at Software Version. The update related to the recall is version 15.17.5. Related Video: Recalls Chrysler Dodge Jeep RAM Safety Technology Infotainment Videos Original Video hacking