Autoline This Week

The Union Label Change has been the theme at the United Auto Workers union for the last few years. As it fought to keep members and jobs, it met face-to-face with today’s economic reality: Bankrupt automakers, unprofitable corporations and strong non-union foreign transplants. But now, with the UAW’s new president Bob King firmly in control, a new reality is taking shape. Joining John McElroy to discuss where the UAW goes from here is Sean McAlinden from the Center for Automotive Research, Robert Chiaravalli, the president of Strategic Labor & Human Resources and Joe Szczesny of the Oakland Press.

What’s Next Technology has been transforming the car today more than ever. Since its beginning, the auto industry has always pushed the envelope when it comes to power, ride and design. But these days consumers are demanding more and more. Whether it’s under the hood or in the cloud, a vehicle’s technology is now a top buyer consideration. Paul Mascarenas knows that more than most. He is Ford’s chief technical officer, in other words, the man in charge of research and development. This week he joins John McElroy to discuss the company’s leading edge technology and what’s next.

Clearing the Haze For more than 40 years, one inconspicuous building outside of Ann Arbor, Michigan has been making the air we breathe cleaner. It’s the home of The Environmental Protection Agency’s National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory. No engine can be sold in America without its stamp of approval. This week John McElroy gets an exclusive look behind the walls of the Lab as he talks with the EPA’s Chris Grundler about the work they do there, how it impacts the auto industry and the motorized products that we all buy.

The Profit Chain It's been a tough couple years in the automotive supply chain. Tough for everybody it seems except for BorgWarner. The century-old global giant reported record sales and profits for last year and even registered a profit for 2009 during the great collapse. Obviously the company is doing something right. And among the items this Tier One automotive supplier has checked on its list are designing new parts for 21st Century vehicles while still producing those for its bread and butter: today's combustible engines. Joining John McElroy to discuss a variety of topics including new technologies, the Chinese auto market and the interruption in the supply chain is BorgWarner Chairman and CEO Tim Manganello. Joann Muller from Forbes and Mark Clothier of Bloomberg News round out this week's Autoline panel.

The New Guard Ad agencies tend to have a long shelf life at GM. Buick signed McCann-Erickson in 1958 while Chevy and Campbell-Ewald went all the way back to 1919. That was until the 2009 bankruptcy. And that was until Joel Ewanick. Ewanick was the Hyundai marketing guru who made actor Jeff Bridges the voice of the Korean automaker and subsequently improved sales. He joined GM in 2010 as VP of U.S. marketing and was quickly named the automaker's global chief marketing officer in only 6 months. Ewanick moves decisively and has a "take no prisoners" mentality. Just ask any of GM's old ad agencies. He changed each one in less than a year which was pretty historic at Chevy; that's something the brand hadn't done in nearly a century. This week John McElroy welcomes special guest Joel Ewanick for his first visit to Autoline. He is joined by Chrissie Thompson of the Detroit Free Press and Peter De Lorenzo of Autoextremist.com.

Washington's Auto Influence From all the bailout coverage the past few years, you might've thought that automakers only looked to Washington for money. But in reality, the Department of Transportation is involved with every OEM in one way or the other. Take Patrick Davis for instance. He runs a DOT office that searches for new fuels and groundbreaking batteries for electrics and hybrids. Over at the EPA, Margo Oge, who's in charge of, among other things, emissions, has a phalanx of staff who test every engine and the fuels that run them. And then on the flip side there are executives like Daimler's Jake Jones who works with the government on programs like the company's new Student Driving Academy. All three guests join John McElroy from the floor of this year's Washington Auto Show.

Dodge & Designs You'd think being in charge of design for an automaker would be a big enough job, but not for Ralph Gilles. As the designer of the iconic 2005 Chrysler 300, he was promoted to oversee design for all 5 of the company's brands. But in addition, when CEO Sergio Marchionne started handing out second assignments, Gilles was tagged to run the Dodge brand as well. On this week's Autoline he not only discusses the demands of both jobs but also Chrysler's rapid renaissance with both product and sales. Host John McElroy is joined by Natalie Neff from AutoWeek and Jeff Gilbert from CBS Radio Detroit-WWJ 950.

Two Triple Cheese What would prompt you to pull off the road while driving? Well, for Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen -- you know, the "Hot Rod Lincoln" guys -- it was the mere thought of their favorite food which they sang about in the '70s culinary classic, "Two Triple Cheese Side Order of Fries." But 30 years later no one seems to be pulling off the road for much of anything. Certainly not for eating evidenced by the galaxy of restaurant drive-up windows; not for phone calls thanks to cell towers & electronics; and now not for the latest eye-averting activity -- texting. These days distracted driving appears to be running rampant. It used to be that your biggest distraction was lunging for the radio whenever that "Titanic" song came on. Instead, today drivers of all ages are multi-tasking behind the wheel leaving one to ask just when did piloting 3,000 pounds of metal at 70 miles per hour become a second or third thought, and is there anything we can do about it? For answers to those questions and more tune into this week's Autoline where John McElroy and his panel tackles the issue that's confronting everyone on the road today, distracted driving. He's joined by three experts who have had an impact on the issue in different arenas. Louis Tijerina is a safety engineer with Ford while Paul Green is with the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute. John's third guest, Buzz Thomas, is a former Michigan State Senator who had a hand in crafting an anti-texting law in his state.

Motors and Parts Antifreeze was created to start cars and not necessarily brands. But sometimes the stars align -- or in this case the Pentastars -- giving the world a 75-year old company that's still going strong. Such was the humble beginning of Mopar, Chrysler Corporation Parts. From a name developed for cans of antifreeze to, can you say the word HEMI, Mopar has a rich heritage in engineering, accessories and replacement parts. But today as manufacturers look to find new revenue streams some, including Chrysler, are turning to their brands like Mopar for that growth. And that's what Pietro Gorlier, the president and CEO of Mopar is doing with service, parts and even with vehicles themselves. This week on Autoline Mr. Gorlier joins John McElroy to discuss the brand and where he and his team are targeting that growth.

Turnaround If you happen to be in a jazz band, a turnaround -- chords that take you back to an earlier part of the song -- is something easy that you do all the time. If you're an executive in the auto industry, a turnaround is a massive undertaking with no guarantee of success. Welcome to Mark Reuss' world. As a GM legacy, Mark's father Lloyd was president of General Motors in the early '90s, he witnessed the ups and downs of this automotive giant from a closer vantage point than others. As the boss' son and then an employee, he rode the company roller coaster like everyone else until, as a corporate executive, he was there when they finally ran out of track and declared bankruptcy. But since that point the GM turnaround has taken hold. And as head of North America, earlier this year Mark's operation helped GM achieve its largest profit since 2004. There's still a lot more work to be done but things are back on the right track...and right now there's plenty of it. This week on Autoline, GM's Mark Reuss joins John McElroy and his panel to discuss GM, its brands and where it goes from here.

Here Comes the Sun This January, 2011 Detroit seemed to be channeling 1969 London for a time. That's when Beatle George Harrison, to escape the burdens of the business world, took some time off to commune with nature and stroll around the home gardens of friend Eric Clapton. With a clear head, he emerged with his epic song "Here Comes the Sun;" a tune that 42-years later you could almost hear walking around the floor of this year's North American International Auto Show. Gone was the financial gloom of the 2009 NAIAS as well as the shrunken floor space from 12 months ago. This year Detroit welcomed back big aisles, bigger reveals and even some big names -- like Porsche -- who had been staying away. Here comes the sun, indeed. This week Autoline captures a little bit of these sunnier climes with four interviews from the floor of Cobo Hall. Joining John McElroy from Detroit, in order of appearance, are: Adrian Hallmark, the Global Brand Director for Jaguar; the President and Co-CEO of IAC Group North America and Asia, James Kamsickas; Scott Strong, the Director of Interior Design for Ford Americas; and the COO and CFO of Subaru of America, Tom Doll.

Travels with Farley The headline might look vaguely familiar. Think early 1960s where it borrows everything but the "Ch" from author John Steinbeck's famous travelogue "Travels with Charley." But where that work involved a camper, dog and the continental United States, "Travels with Farley" features a camera crew, a cutting-edge crossover and the hillsides of southern France. Oh, and not to mention a conversation with Ford's Global Marketing Chief. This week on Autoline join John McElroy as he and Ford's Jim Farley roam the French countryside, in a brand new C-Max crossover, and talk marketing, comebacks and cars, cars, cars. Some of the topics Jim covers during their conversation include his early days in the business, Ford's refound success and the company's plans and hopes for its new-to-the-USA crossover, the C-Max. **Special thanks to FremantleMedia North America for its assistance with the production of this week's Autoline. And don't forget, Autoline is now available on public television across the country. Consult your local listings. And if you can't find it in your city contact your local public station and ask for Autoline.

Technotronic When you're looking for an example of a huge fast marketing splash, few have been more effective than Jo Bogaert. He's the Belgian music producer who, in 1988, created the "Techtronic" sound that spread like wildfire over land, air and ocean to seemingly everything and every place that played music. His global hit single "Pump Up the Jam" with vocalist Ya Kid K was ubiquitous whether you were at a club in New York, an elevator in Tokyo or a cafe in Paris. The song and the sound spread like Kudzu and kept its grip on world music well into this decade. Jim Newton wouldn't discourage a "viral" splash like that, but both he and his clients would really prefer to build it themselves. And that's exactly what they're doing at Tech Shop. Mr. Newton is the founder of this nationwide nirvana for those who never got enough of Industrial Arts in high school. But actually Tech Shop is much more since it allows anyone with a manufacturing idea, to create, design & produce that dream all for about the cost of joining your local YMCA. For this week's special "On-the-Road" edition of Autoline, John McElroy takes you inside the original Menlo Park, California Tech Shop location. Here you'll meet some of the members of this creative community, experience their dreams coming to life and see why this idea is already spreading Technotronic-like across America, perhaps coming soon to a neighborhood near you.

Blipvert Remember the computerized character MAX HEADROOM? In the fictional future that he called home, television corporations, not governments, ran the world. And what ran television was advertising. In fact, a high-speed, super concentrated three-second dangerous version called blipverts. Well, despite its continuing influence on our 21st Century culture, television isn't quite the ogre as the show's creators imagined. Plus advertising is still viewed in manageable 15, 30 and 60-second doses. But what they didn't miss was the ongoing symbiotic relationship of the two. A relationship that goes on display to the world's largest television audience each year during the NFL's Super Bowl. So far there have been 45 Super Bowls played which means 45 sets of advertisers as well. Over the years the auto industry has played a major role in both creativity and content. In 2011, nine separate automotive manufacturers populated the game with nearly 20 different ads spending in excess of $50-million dollars. On this week's Autoline, John McElroy and his panel of advertising experts examine the Super Bowl and see if the automakers got their money's worth. But in addition to our Super Bowl ad discussion, John also has his panel look at what the OEMs and their agencies were doing in the months leading up to that big day. With so many automotive accounts having changed hands last year, there's a lot more than just new creative driving these campaigns. Joining John McElroy on his advertising panel are Jean Halliday from AutoAdOpolis, David Kiley of AOL Autos and Advertising Age and Gary Topolewski, an award-winning advertising creative director.

The DC Dance If recent history is any guide, many Americans believe that the easiest way to reform our government is to attend a couple of town hall meetings, kick some politicians out of office and wait for the inevitable change to come. However there's a flaw in that formula, and it has nothing to do with the three branches of government, the Fourth Estate or the voters themselves. The formula simply doesn't account for three little letters that spell out the powerful acronym NGO. Non-governmental organizations have a mighty hold over how Washington works. Their influence blankets everything from monetary policy to drug laws to environmental edicts. And whether they're called think tanks, foundations or associations, these organizations are the pipeline through which much political influence travels. The kind of influence that molds many of our laws, especially those that effect the auto industry. That's why, on a recent trip to the Washington Auto Show, John McElroy made it a point to catch up with two of these DC insiders, along with a California outsider, to talk about our all-around federal automotive policies. Daniel Weiss is a Senior Fellow at the left-leaning Center for American Progress while Fred Smith is the president and founder of the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute. Both card-carrying members of the Washington NGO fraternity. Meanwhile, rounding out the panel is Ron Cogan, the editor of Green Car Journal and GreenCar.com, a leading outlet for green transportation information. And though it's based on the west coast, most of its content is driven by what happens in Washington. So check out this week's Autoline and see why the auto industry, at times, looks a little dizzy thanks to the DC Dance.