Autoline This Week - Video

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.

NACTOY's New Day?

Since 1994, the first awarding of the North American Car of the Year, there has been a parade each year of three finalists with one winner. Amid the 48 contenders and 16 eventual winners with their sleek designs and top-notch engineering there's been only one car that many observers considered a gateway to the 21st Century, and that was the Toyota Prius Hybrid. Well, it may be 11 years later but welcome to the 21st Century.

This year the more than 50 jurors of the North American Car of the Year chose not just one but two ground-breaking finalists by adding both the Chevy Volt plug-in and Nissan's Electric LEAF to its final three. But let's not forget the third member of the COY finalists, Hyundai's hot-selling Sonata, with its more standard internal combustion engine which received review after glowing review throughout 2010.

On this week's Autoline, NACTOY founding member John McElroy is joined by two of his fellow jurors, Eddie Alterman from Car & Driver and Marty Padgett from High Gear Media, as they discuss all three finalists, what they mean to the auto industry and who they each believe will be the 2011 North American Car of the Year.

King of the Hill

Thanks to producer/animator Mike Judge, most people connect "King of the Hill" with the former Fox TV series. And though there's a lot to be said for a 12-year old cartoon series that centered on one character and his life with propane, here at Autoline any "King of the Hill" reference points to one word and one word only, and of course that word is TRUCK! And this time of year when you talk truck, you're talking about three specific trucks or SUVs -- as the case may be -- who end up as our own "Kings of the Hill," better known as the finalists for the North American Truck of the Year.

That's right, twelve months have flown by and left us with the latest top three trucks voted on by the jurors of NACTOY -- the North American Car and Truck of the Year Awards. These finalists -- Ford's Explorer, Jeep's Grand Cherokee and the Dodge Durango -- have been narrowed down from a long list of top-notch candidates with the winner to be revealed at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit January 10th.

Joining Autoline host and original juror John McElroy to talk about these finalists and who may be crowned this year's "King of the Hill" are fellow NACTOY jurors Larry Webster from Popular Mechanics and Chris Paukert of Autoblog.com.

Roman Holiday

It was the movie that turned a trio into stars. Even though William Holden was arguably already there and his leading lady Audrey Hepburn was well on her way, the romantic comedy "Roman Holiday" really focused the spotlight on the third star of this 1953 movie, the Italian motor scooter Vespa. As the trio whipped around Rome it sold us on the delights of small lightweight Italian transportation.

Now fast forward to 2010, and small Italian transportation is poised to make a comeback here in America as the FIAT brand returns to the market thanks to its tie-in with Chrysler. Even as Sergio Marchionne has been putting the Pentastar pieces back together so Chrysler, Dodge, Ram & Jeep all have viable futures in the industry, at the same time he is ready to unleash his own brand back into the American car culture. The dealers have been chosen and they're getting ready to showcase the first FIAT product in years, the small, nimble Cinquecento better know as the 500.

And the person in charge of the North American reemergence of the FIAT brand joins John McElroy on this week's Autoline. Laura Soave is well aware of what FIAT stands for. Not just from last few months of running the brand here in the Americas but from her Italian heritage and spending time growing up in Europe. She has an interesting task in front of her as she tries to resurrect a brand that disappeared from American shoes for a variety of reasons, none of them good. Joining John on his journalist panel to discuss the future of FIAT is Alisa Priddle from The Detroit News and Tim Higgins from Bloomberg News.

Innocence Lost

There was a seismic shift 45 years ago. And as all change goes it was unwelcome at the time. So much in fact, that in a manner of fifteen short minutes it transformed a cultural hero to social pariah, all thanks to the innocence of choice.

But that's what happened on July 25, 1965 at the prestigious Newport Folk Festival when Bob Dylan plugged in, turned on and embraced the sound electric. The audience reaction was an early version of shock and awe. His fans became horrified that he had abandoned his acoustic legacy when he launched into an electric version of "Maggie's Farm." But in reality what they didn't know was that he was simply evolving as an artist as evidenced by the success of his beloved "Like A Rolling Stone," which had been recorded just days before the event. It was clear he was moving on.

For more than 100 years the internal combustion engine has driven the car. And though it continues to be tweaked and improved to the point where automotive's pioneers might not even recognize today's highly-efficient ICEs, evolution persists. We've been talking alternatives for years -- hybrids, PZEVs, Natural Gas and Hydrogen have all piqued our interest, but our muse has always been electrics. So much promise, so much promised, so much never delivered. But finally like Dylan, we're starting to move on...welcome to the world of the Nissan LEAF.

On this week's Autoline John McElroy travels to Tennessee -- a state that brought human evolution to the headlines last century -- to talk about the evolution of the car this century as the LEAF goes electric. John gets a deep dive on the car from Nissan Product Planner Mark Perry while marketing chief Jon Brancheau talks to him how they are rolling it out across the country. In addition, John drives the LEAF all around the city of Nashville and gives you his impressions of this first mass produced all-electric pioneer.

Politics as Unusual

Has the American public ever been so fickle? Two years ago the country went heavily Democratic. This year the pendulum swung strongly Republican. Who knows what next two years hold in store. But what we need to know is: what does this mean for the auto industry?

New fuel economy standards, stricter CO2 legislation, generous EV subsidies, the controversial cap and trade policy, our free trade policy, and the Employee Free Choice Act are all on the agenda. Or, at least they were. Thanks to the mid-term elections, committee chairmanships are switching from one party to the other. That means the legislation agenda is going to switch as well.

To learn about how the agenda will change, and to put a name to faces of who’s going to be running the show, this week’s Autoline is all about the abrupt about-face in the American political scene. Joining host John McElroy on the show are Nolan Finley, the Editorial Page Editor of the Detroit News, and co-host of the public television program "Am I Right?," as well as Edward Lapham, the Executive Editor of Automotive News.

Movin' On Up

The 1970s was the touchstone for transformation in two important American industries.

The world of television was changed forever by producer Norman Lear with ground-breaking shows like 'All In The Family' and its successful spinoff whose theme song has given us this week's headline, 'The Jeffersons.'

But at the same time that TV was "movin' on up" the U.S. automotive industry was starting a decades long decline. Fueled by OPEC in tandem with the rise of the imports, the Big Three produced model after model of lower quality cars and they began to pay the price. And we all know what price they eventually paid.

But since the start of the new century the 'downgraded' Detroit Three have been on the road back. Designing and building better cars that are not only attracting both old and new customers into showrooms, but they're starting to appear on lists that many consumers use to shop for vehicles. One of those tabulations -- the Consumer Reports Reliability Rankings -- was just released and David Champion, the Senior Director of its Auto Test Division joins John McElroy as his guest on this week's Autoline. Doron Levin of AOL Autos and Fortune Magazine and Scott Burgess, Autocritic of The Detroit News, join John and David to talk about today's best cars.

Champagne Wishes

Celebrity and luxury have been part of our culture since the beginning. But that potent combination didn't truly take off until about twenty-five years ago when television host Robin Leach made "champagne wishes and caviar dreams" our daily mantra. Suddenly greed was good, TV cops became Armani models and we all worshiped the people and products consumed nightly on the juggernaut "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous."

That was the springboard that brought us to today's luxury-satiated society where even ten year olds discuss the merits of Louis Vuitton's latest. We're now undeniably smack dab in the middle of a pop culture that's in love with luxury; and don't think any of this has been lost on certain companies that make cars.

The American luxury car market used to be just a few select players that came from Italy, Germany and the UK with a couple of homegrowns thrown in for good measure. Today the list of both cars and countries have exploded. But how has the market grown, who are today's players and which customer is buying what?

Joining John McElroy for a look at today's luxury car market is an all dealer panel who pretty much have all the brands covered. Ken Meade of Meade Lexus is one of the brand's original dealers whose stores continue to be among the brand's top-sellers in the Midwest while Chris Consiglio is the Group General Manger of the Eitel Dahm Motor Group who handles three different high-end brands from Germany. And rounding out the panel is a man with a multitude of luxury brands to look after. Rob Kurnick is the president of Penske Automotive Group which operates 325 dealerships which nearly half could be considered luxury -- everything from Bugatti to Rolls Royce to Cadillac and more.