Autoline After Hours

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 and Coffee. We'll learn a whole lot about that, find out what's new at the Petersen and much more on this week's show.

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 matter: are electric cars really here to stay? Of course we’ll get into the top news of the week as well: GM earnings disappoint, experts are sounding the overcapacity alarm in China and Lexus is calling it quits on the HS 250h. All that and much more on this week’s show.

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 quality problems plaguing MyFord Touch. To discuss this and more, John McElroy is joined in studio by Peter De Lorenzo the Autoextremist.

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 results. Plus we want to talk about what we, including one of our viewers, think the next generation of Mustang could look like. To discuss this and more, John McElroy is joined in studio by Peter De Lorenzo the Autoextremist and Charlie Vogelheim from ResponseLogix.

This week we're thinking small. Micro actually. Our special guest for this episode is Jack Hollis, the Vice President of Scion. We'll be talking about the pint-sized iQ and whether it could be the car that gets the brand's mojo back. We'll also get into the news of the week including the Indy race that never should have been run. To discuss this and more, John McElroy is joined in studio by Peter De Lorenzo the Autoextremist and Michelle Krebs from Edmunds.com.

This week we talk UAW and all the other top automotive news of the week. Joe Szczesny from The Oakland Press, joins John McElroy and Autoextremist Peter De Lorenzo for a discussion about where negotiations will go with Ford and Chrysler. Watch this week's show for your weekly dose of unscripted, unapproved, unusually frank discussion on Autoline After Hours!

This week we talk UAW and all the other top automotive news of the week. Joe Szczesny from The Oakland Press, joins John McElroy and Autoextremist Peter De Lorenzo for a discussion about where negotiations will go with Ford and Chrysler. Watch this week's show for your weekly dose of unscripted, unapproved, unusually frank discussion on Autoline After Hours!

This week the topic is wood. Sorta kinda. Actually, we'll be touching on the very special wood that went into the new Cadillac Ciel concept, and we'll be talking with none other than Clay Dean, the Director of North America Advanced Design for GM. We'll be asking him where the future of Cadillac and other GM design is going in the next few years, and we'll see if we can talk him into letting us test drive Cadillac's new über-sedan -- but somehow we doubt it. To discuss this and more, John McElroy is joined in studio by Peter De Lorenzo, the Autoextremist, and Scott Burgess from The Detroit News.

This week the Autoextremist hijacks the Autoline airwaves while John is in Frankfurt for the big auto show. Speaking of the Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung, we’ll be getting into a Frankfurt post-mortem including the invasion of tiny slo-mo EVs from VW, Opel and Audi and the Jeep Grand Cherokee-based Maserati Kubang. We’ll also discuss the NADA’s lobbying effort against upcoming fuel regulations, and we’ll talk about whether we’ll see watered down rules if Obama loses the White House. Also, Coda’s EV will be the first (almost) Chinese vehicle to enter the American market. And, Chevrolet will be aiming the next-generation Corvette at younger buyers — will it work? To discuss this and more, Peter De Lorenzo is joined in studio by Sharon Terlep of the Wall Street Journal and Gary Vasilash from Automotive Design and Production.

This week we're coming in with our shoes shined and ready for inspection because we've invited the man in charge of quality for Volkswagen, Bentley, Lamborghini and Audi. Marc Trahan is the Executive Vice President, Group Quality, VW of America and if you want to know how the company is going to maintain its commitment to quality while growing to become the largest automaker in the world, this is the man to ask. To discuss this and more, John McElroy is joined in studio by Peter De Lorenzo of Autoextremist.com and Todd Lassa from Motor Trend.