Autoline This Week - Audio

As more and more of those alternatively-powered vehicles hit the streets around America, the potential legal issues grow. We’ve already seen batteries burst into flames so who knows what lies ahead with hybrids, pure electrics, hydrogen or natural gas vehicles? Manufacturers are keeping a close eye on the situation within not only their research and development departments, but legal ones as well. Joining John McElroy to talk about these potentially explosive issues is an expert panel including, Fred Fresard from the suburban Detroit law firm Dykema, automotive consultant Thomas Livernois and Mike Ramsey from the Wall Street Journal.

Running a car company in Europe is decidedly different than in America. Especially if you’re on the Board which makes all the big decisions. Join John McElroy and his guest Dr. Walther Kiep, the longest serving member of Volkswagen’s Supervisory Board, for an inside look at his years helping run this mega-automaker as he promotes his recollections of a life in politics and business in his new book “Bridge Builder.” Joining John on his panel are Christina Rogers of Automotive News and Mike Ramsey from the Wall Street Journal.

Both boardrooms and government agencies are guiding design teams to create the vehicles of tomorrow. But how you achieve cost-savings and meet standards all in a slick package remains the (insert outrageous cost projection amount here) question. On Autoline This Week John McElroy brings together a cutting-edge panel of auto experts who are doing just that on the inside with interiors. Klaus Busse sees it from the OEM side as Head of Chrysler Group Interior Design. Meanwhile, representing the supplier community are Fiona Doskocz with Benecke-Kaliko and Gerald Winslow, VP of Sales and Marketing for InfiChem Polymers LLC.

Just a few short decades ago, the only way to get information on a new car was to go to a newsstand or go to a dealership. Since then, as consumers have learned how to use the maturing internet, the number of car-buying options have exploded. One of the newest on the web is TrueCar out of California. Joining John McElroy on Autoline This Week is Larry Dominique, former Vice President with Nissan, who signed on with TrueCar to help challenge the competition like Edmunds. Included on this week’s panel are Craig Trudell from Bloomberg News and Steve Finlay of WardsAuto Dealer Business.

How to break the ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) ceiling? Some manufacturers don’t think we need to and continue to upgrade their current crop of engines. But then there are companies like Nissan-Renault, whose leader Carlos Ghosn, gave the world the all-electric Leaf and is continuing down that path. As Senior VP in charge of Research and Development for Nissan Americas, Carla Bailo has to walk a delicate line -- continue to provide the company with ICE vehicles all while working with Japan to develop those ground-breaking high mileage electric cars. Joining host John McElroy and Ms. Bailo on this week’s Autoline are Brent Snavley from the Detroit Free Press and Lindsay Brooke with Automotive Engineering International.

We all know Manhattan for its Wall Street institutions, Broadway musicals and idyllic Central Park, however, let’s not forget about transportation. Even though the city has perhaps the best public subway and bus systems, cars are very important in New York’s daily routine. And we don’t mean just those yellow ones with the meters. Joining John McElroy from the shadow of Times Square to talk about the Big Apple and its unique relationship with the auto industry is Jamie Lincoln Kitman from GQ, Bank of America analyst John Murphy and Joe Phillipi with AutoTrends Consulting.

It won nearly every serious automotive award and had a huge carbon-free footprint of positive reviews from critics and consumers alike. So if that’s the case, why is the Volt GM’s slowest selling product? More than that, why does there seem to be such a negative charge to the car? People across the country who have never even seen a Volt let alone driven this engineering marvel have nothing good to say about it, confounding both auto analysts and company executives. On Autoline This Week John McElroy and his panel look at the strange state of GM’s engineering masterpiece the Volt. Joining John on the panel are Joe White of the Wall Street Journal, Manny Lopez from the Michigan Capitol Confidential and Gary Witzenburg an auto journalist and former engineer on GM’s original electric project, the EV1.

The word on the street is the economy is getting better. And we mean “on the street” literally with new car sales leading the way. But how is this happening in the middle of a slow recovery? Are the manufacturers doing something special to move metal or is it simply that the 2008 recession caused such a large pent up demand for new vehicles that consumers couldn’t wait any longer? The man with answers to these questions and more joins John McElroy on Autoline This Week. Jeremy Anwyl is the Vice Chairman of Edmunds.com, the automotive do-all website. He joins John and his panelists, Edward Lapham of Automotive News and Steve Finlay from WardsAuto.com to talk about the state of automotive retail and more.

Washington, D.C. has been leading a double life of late. Not only is it the American Capitol but it seems to have usurped the title of the Motor City from Detroit as well. With federal loans to automakers, Car Czars and CAFE requirements, there’s been an extraordinary amount of auto activity in the District the last few years. That’s one of the reasons that Autoline visited our nation’s capitol earlier this year to talk autos with a variety of influencers. Join John McElroy on this week’s show as he speaks with Phil Murtaugh from CODA Automotive, Roland Hwang of the Natural Resources Defense Council, Dave Zukchowski from Hyundai Motor America and Margo Oge of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Ford Motor Company was in trouble even before that breathless September four years ago that sent the world economy searching for financial oxygen. But armed with a bold strategy and solid leadership, Ford survived the crisis, steering clear of both bankruptcy and government loans. And then as it released some of the new products it had in the pipeline, suddenly the company started making money and the blue oval was back in the black in a big way. That’s the story of how Alan Mulally and his team brought Ford back from the brink as told in the new book “American Icon.” Bryce Hoffman of The Detroit News spent two years engrossed in the culture that Henry Ford built and Alan Mulally arguably saved. On Autoline This Week, John McElroy talks to Mr. Hoffman about “American Icon” and is joined in the discussion by Keith Naughton from Bloomberg News and Jim Hall from 2953 Analytics.

National Rifle Association members are famous for their passionate slogan “I’ll give you my gun when you take it from my cold, dead hands.” Well, slogans are great but in the end they’re only words. Just ask those American car dealers who, over the last few years, had their franchises unceremoniously ripped from their very live hands and were powerless to stop it. On Autoline This Week John McElroy talks to mega dealer and author Tammy Darvish about her book “Outraged – How Detroit and the Wall Street Car Czars Killed the American Dream” as well as two of her fellow dealers – one former and one still fighting – as they discuss what it’s like to have corporate America try to deal independent business owners a death blow.

China is a communist country with capitalist tastes and the money in the bank to prove it. That’s why nearly all Western automotive manufacturers are now in the country importing, building and selling cars. But despite all this economic attention, Chinese consumers are still a mystery to many in the auto industry. Thank goodness for men like Michael Dunne who packed up and moved to China some 25 years ago. Over that quarter century this automotive consultant has learned plenty about China, its people and manufacturers like General Motors who brought its products east early on. This week on Autoline Michael Dunne joins John McElroy, Sharon Terlep of the Wall Street Journal and David Welch of Bloomberg BusinessWeek to talk about his book “American Wheels, Chinese Roads” and the exploding Chinese automotive market.

Cadillac has long been known as the Standard of the World when it comes to luxury, but especially cars. However, no matter how good the product, even standards can hit on hard times which is what happened to the brand when it nearly closed its doors in the 1930s. Luckily it was saved by a group of men who, at that time, couldn’t even officially buy the car. On Autoline This Week join host John McElroy, Economic Historian John Steele Gordon, Photographer Bill Gaskins and Blues musician Johnnie Basset for a provocative discussion on how African-American men saved the Cadillac brand.

Four years ago he was a one of 435, just a seven-term Congressman from a sleepy section of western Illinois. But since then life has been a bit harried to say the least. When Representative Ray LaHood joined the Obama Administration as the 16th Secretary of the Transportation in January 2009 little did he know that he would be presiding over the most dramatic time in the American auto industry since Henry Ford drove his first car around Detroit. From bankruptcies to bailouts to batteries driving green vehicles, his department oversees everything we drive or ride in on the ground or on the water, as well as divisions like the FAA, the FHA and NHSTA to name three. This week on Autoline from the floor of the Washington Auto Show, John McElroy welcomes Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood for an exclusive one-on-one interview on everything automotive and more.

Children do it out of spite when they don't get their way. They may turn a different color for a bit but the good news is it usually doesn't last very long. However, when economists hold their collective breath that's a bit more mysterious. Being an inexact science, the answer is open for interpretation -- a conservative economist sees it one way while a liberal economist sees it another. There is no agreed avenue to prosperity which is unfortunate especially for those whose business it is to watch the auto industry. Unemployment spikes to near record levels and lo and behold auto sales rise. Huh? It's not supposed to happen that way. Maybe it's time to break out the emergency tea leaves. So as Autoline prepares to examine the automotive outlook in 2012, instead of those tea leaves, John McElroy turns to three top professionals in the auto industry to take a look at what they believe is going to happen around the globe. Joining his panel this week are the Chief Economists from Ford, Ellen Hughes-Cromwick, and her counterpart at General Motors Mustafa Mohatarem along with Charles Chesbrough, IHS Automotive's Senior Principal Economist.