Autoline This Week - Video

With car and truck sales predicted to hit around 17-million for the year, you’d imagine that most dealers are singing “Happy Days Are Here Again.” But is that really true? Joining John McElroy as his Autoline THIS WEEK guest is Steven Szakaly, the Chief Economist for the National Auto Dealer Association. John and Steven are joined by Steve Finlay from Ward’s Dealer Business and the Wall Street Journal’s John Stoll.

With so much of today’s engineering revolving around the connected car and autonomy, many automakers are setting up shop in Silicon Valley including Detroit Three member Ford. Autoline went west to take a sneak peek and see what Ford is developing in the midst of its neighbors like Google, Tesla and Apple. Host John McElroy talks with Ford executives Raj Nair, Ken Washington and Don Butler about how this lab will impact future product. In addition, he takes you for a quick tour behind the scenes at some of the experiments being done within the walls of this high tech lab.

With auto sales going gangbusters you’d think it’s the perfect time for the United Auto Workers to sit down and talk a new contract, right? The union gave up a lot to keep GM and Chrysler alive – along with its members’ jobs – but with the automotive landscape changing daily with CAFE numbers, the growth of Mexico and autonomy, there’s a lot to talk about. Joining host John McElroy on his panel to discuss where the talks could be going are Kristin Dziczek, Center for Automotive Research (CAR), Former GM labor negotiator Art Schwartz from Labor and Economics Associates and Robert Chiaravalli from Strategic Labor and Human Resources.

It’s a company that doesn’t make sexy cars. Pickups and big SUVs aren’t part of the mix either. And when it comes to luxury, as Tony Soprano would say, “forget about it.” So we know what it doesn’t make but the question is what does it make? And the answer is…profit! Join John McElroy as he welcomes for the first time to the Autoline studios the man who runs Subaru of America, very successfully we might add, president and COO Tom Doll. Appearing on the panel with John are Michelle Krebs from AutoTrader and Joe White from Reuters.

Making cars isn’t a charity case. We all know that. Every manufacturer wants to be first to market with that groundbreaking vehicles because that means big bucks. So how does the auto industry not only do its own R and D but keep an eye on the competition as well. On this week’s show John McElroy is joined by GM’s Adam Bernard, Joe McCabe from AutoForecast Solutions and Michael Omotoso from Eaton to talk about how you get the competitive edge.

As the reality of autonomous cars gets closer and closer, a world of hurdles still face everyone from the manufacturers, insurance companies and especially governments before they hit the road on a regular basis. Joining John McElroy on this week’s show are three legislative experts who are dealing with those issues every day. Jude Hurin is with the state of Nevada’s DMV, Catherine Curtis represents the American Association of Motor Vehicles and Chan Lieu is a lawyer with the Washington, DC powerhouse law firm Venable LLP.

He was the 14th Administrator for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration who dealt with automotive issues like unintended acceleration and airbags. Now he’s a partner at one of the biggest Washington, D.C. law firms. This week he joins John McElroy as his special guest talking about his time at NHTSA and the future of the agency.

It used to be a this or that question. But now when you ask what’s powering your car it could be almost anything as Kia proved with in its tongue-in-cheek hamster campaign over the last few years. But this week John McElroy is joined by 3 experts – Charlie Freese from GM, Prof. Levi Thompson from the University of Michigan and Jeff Kessen from battery manufacturer A123 – to discuss the options that consumers face today as well as into the future.

On this week’s Autoline John McElroy and a panel of expert analysts dive into the topic of automotive mergers. Joining the panel are Paul Eisenstein from The Detroit Bureau, Fortune’s Doron Levin and Jason Stein from Automotive News.

They deliver just about everything that’s in your house…heck they probably even delivered that, too, when it was still in the building stages. “They” are commercial vehicles and on this week’s Autoline, John McElroy and his expert panel introduces to what qualifies as a commercial vehicle, how they’re used and who buys them.