Autoline After Hours

TechShop is for doers. If you want to make something with your own two hands and you don’t have the thousands of dollars to spend on a top-of-the-line workshop, then this is the place for you. Think of it as a gym membership for the DIY crowd. Now, TechShop, in partnership with Ford, will become an incubation lab for new ideas that will fuel R and D. To get to the bottom of this, we’ll talk to the...

Let's take a moment to stop and think about who the auto industry really should be targeting. In an age when Facebook seems to be more important to 16-year-olds than cruising on a Saturday night, could Gen Y actually spell the death of the automobile as we know it? After all, how critical is car design to a generation that cares very little about automobile culture? Now, spin the globe and take a...

This week host John McElroy is joined in the AAH studio by his partner in crime, Peter De Lorenzo, the Autoextremist. Their special guest is Art Spinella from CNW Marketing Research. He always has fascinating insight about vehicles and what's going on in the car market. Some of the topics up for discussion include the redesign of two American icons, the Chevrolet Corvette and the Ford Mustang and...

What good is design these days? If fuel efficiency is our master, shouldn't the wind tunnel have final say over every car's silhouette? We'd wager that this week's special guest disagrees with that statement. David Rand was GM's Executive Director of Global Advanced Design, and he's most-recently back from a stint as Brand Director for Design at Changan Automobile Co. in China. We'll ask him why d...

All of the biggest car news this week was in the city that doesn't sleep and so were we! For the first time ever, Autoline After Hours comes to you from New York City, and it's courtesy of our good friends and Katz's famous delicatessen. We're broadcasting from their historical eatery, and we're ready to gab about all the latest automotive issues. John McElroy will be joined by AAH alum Jason Vine...

If you wanted to assemble your ideal car from existing components, what engine would you use? Who would craft the interior? How about the transmission? On tonight's show, we'll talk about the auto industry's "magical ingredients," and we'll find out what guest host Peter De Lorenzo would put into his car, the Bandini. Plus, guest Mark Phelan just reviewed the Turbo and Hybrid versions of the Porsc...

It’s time for another episode of Autoline After Hours! Host John McElroy will be joined by Frank Markus of Motor Trend as well as Gary Vasilash from Automotive Design and Production magazine. Together, these three mus-car-teers will delve into the top news stories from the past week, including Chevrolet delaying the Camaro ZL1, BMW missing fuel-economy targets on its latest 3 Series and Consumer R...

Get an inside peek at all the fights and controversy behind Ford's epic turnaround at the hands of Alan Mulally. This week's guest is Bryce Hoffman, the author of "American Icon," which is all about what went on behind the scenes during Ford's restructuring. We'll also get into the news of the week including the DeltaWing race car's debut with Nissan behind the wheel. Audi's bid for Ducati and its...

Get ready for a fascinating episode of Autoline After Hours. We’ll talk to a man who claims Hitler stole the idea for the Volkswagen Beetle from a Jewish engineer. Paul Schilperoord is the author of "The Extraordinary Life of Josef Ganz" and we'll ask him about the facts behind this obscure bit of history. Of course we'll have a few other items on our agenda including a discussion of electric cars...

It's Renzo at the reigns this week as the Autoextremist takes over the Autoline airwaves. McElroy is out of town driving some of the latest and greatest cars, meanwhile Peter De Lorenzo is here in Motown with some of your Autoline After Hours favorites: Jim Hall, the man who knew too much from 2953 Analytics, and Scott Burgess, formerly of The Detroit News, and now of AOL Autos. They'll be discuss...

Meet the man who hand-built your Corvette's engine. No Corvette? How about a Camaro? Rob Nichols is the supervisor of GM's Wixom Performance Build Center so get ready for some horsepower worship. As usual we'll get into the news of the week including a possible partnership between GM and PSA; the bailout bashing that the Republican presidential candidates are doling out; and Mazda's struggle to su...

This week a fierce-looking Falcon swoops into our studio. Specifically the Falcon F7, an exotic sports car made right here in Michigan. We'll be talking to the owner of Falcon Motorsports, Jeff Lemke, who also happens to be the designer of this boutique supercar. Of course we'll also get into all the top news of the week including GM's profits (and losses) in 2011, Europe's languishing EV sales an...

This week it’s all about auto ads, and we’re bringing in the automotive advertising queen to help us get down to the heart of the matter. Jean Halliday is the voice behind AutoAdOpolis, and we’re sure she has some opinions to share about the big Super Bowl ad event. We’ll also get into the news of the week and that includes the Chicago Auto Show, and we’ll discuss the implications of the Ford mana...

This week we're joined by Chris Preuss, Executive Vice President at Hill and Knowlton Strategies and former chief of OnStar and former VP of GM communications. Suffice it to say, you can expect a lively discussion. Per usual we'll get into the news of the week including the strong sales numbers in the first month of 2012, brash Chinese rip-offs and the 50th anniversary of 24 Hours of Daytona. We'l...

This week we're going to resist the temptation to polish up our Cockney accents, but we might just call our special guest "guv'nah" since he's Skyping in live from the UK. Karl Ludvigsen is an independent motor industry consultant and all-around car guy. He also wrote the well-known book "Porsche: Excellence was Expected." On the docket tonight, we'll discuss some European goings on. Who will Fiat...

This week it's all auto show all the time as we talk about the best and the worst of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. On hand to help us spot the trends and discuss all the nitty-gritty no one should know is Jim Hall of 2953 Analytics. All this and more with John McElroy and Peter De Lorenzo the Autoextremist.

This week we're getting the inside dirt on the North American International Auto Show, or as we prefer to call it: the Detroit Auto Show. Our guests are Bill Perkins, the NAIAS Chairman and Rod Alberts, the Executive Director for NAIAS. We'll be asking them if things have really changed down at Cobo Center. Are unions still ripping everyone off? Can we expect any more fights with the Detroit City...

This week Santa Welch is comin’ to town … and Santa De Lorenzo and Santa McElroy for that matter. And, like old Kris Kringle, all three of our panelists have taken a look back at the year and decided which automakers have been naughty and which have been nice. In this special episode — the last of 2011 already — our three esteemed panelists will dole out presents for some folks and dirty lumps of...

This week the Autoextremist gets behind the wheel while John McElroy is in Texas driving the new Chevy Malibu Eco. And, as we close in on 2012, we'll be taking a look back at some of the biggest automotive stories of 2011 with Scott Burgess of The Detroit News and Todd Lassa from Motor Trend. As usual we'll also get into the news of the week including China's import tariffs on U.S. cars, Acura's a...

This week we plan to have a quality discussion, that is, a discussion about quality. As you know, we've taken exception to the way Consumer Reports evaluates cars for its quality ratings. Well, our guest on this show knows a thing about automotive evaluation since he runs the website, TrueDelta.com. We'll be asking Michael Karesh if he thinks Consumer Reports' methodology is sound. As always we'll...

This week we ask the question: does Detroit's culture nurture or choke off entrepreneurial thinking? We'll be getting into this discussion with our special guest, Michael Pickholz, an engineer and inventor. And, as always, we'll discuss the latest news coming out of the automotive world. Chevy Volts are catching on fire, but did NHTSA follow proper safety procedures? Laura Soave is out as head of...

This week we're in a very different time zone. Since John McElroy and the crew are in Los Angeles for the LA Auto Show, they've decided to pay a visit to the famous Petersen Automotive Museum and meet the collection's curator, Leslie Kendall. They'll also talk to John Clinard, formerly of Ford West Coast Communications, but perhaps more well known for the event he helped create in California: Cars...

First he accused GM of “Kill(ing) the Electric Car.” Then he took “Revenge” and got buddy-buddy with the giant company that created the Chevrolet Volt. But Chris Paine, director of the new documentary, “Revenge of the Electric Car,” hasn’t faced off against our resident EV skeptics. This week John McElroy and Peter De Lorenzo will attempt to navigate the EV hype and get down to the heart of the ma...

This week we're wondering if the iPhone has met its automotive match. Designed by our guest, Stuart Norris, Cadillac CUE is the infotainment system that promises to simplify a user's experience while offering the smart phone features people have come to expect. It will begin arriving in 2012, and we'll be asking Stuart what he thinks puts CUE ahead of the competition and how it will avoid the qual...

This week we’re calling Consumer Reports to the mat. As far as we’re concerned, their automotive testing is second to none, but when it comes to quality ratings: bogus. Much has been made of Ford’s plummeting status in the latest survey, but we’ll talk about whether the folks in Dearborn have to start worrying or not. We’ll also get into the news of the week including the third quarter financial r...