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This week the gang is all back together and they invite Amy Marentic, the marketing manager for the newly-revealed Ford Explorer, onto the show. We’ll be asking Amy just how many people she thinks Ford can bring back to the SUV segment. Of course, the panel will also get into the news of the week like the positive earnings several companies have been seeing in the second quarter. We’ll also discuss our recent trip to the VW research labs where we saw an amazing autonomous Audi TT, and we’ll talk about their EV strategy which goes the laptop-battery route. John McElroy’s in studio with Peter De Lorenzo, the Autoextremist, and David Welch from Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

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Thanks to our partners and friends MissMotorMouth.com and WardsAuto.com for embedding AAH!

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When you go to Europe, you’re immediately struck by how vastly different the cars are from the ones you’ll find in the wide open United States where the gas, relatively speaking, is as cheap as water. Isaac Bouchard takes us on a brief walking tour of just a few of the unusual cars parked downtown in Trollhättan, Sweden. They come in all shapes and sizes, but there’s generally a theme: small and fuel efficient.

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The new Saab 9-5 is a critical car for the company. If it doesn’t do well, there will be no second chance. Isaac Bouchard files this story from Sweden about how the car will be manufactured.

If you weren’t a part of Monday’s great “Open Line” discussion on anything and everything automotive, Michelle Naranjo of MissMotorMouth.com has a taste of what you missed! And, don’t forget to check out the next discussion right here at 8PM ET / 5PM PT on July 26, 2010. Phone: 1-218-936-6581 and PIN: 4928

In a another rousing episode of Open Line, the opinions ran as wide as the topics! On the usually popular EV front, discussions were about the Tesla prototypes of the RAV4 and the RX plus the 8-year warranty that Chevy is promoting for the Volt. Design and style discussions went from the design of the Nissan Juke, the next Ford Fusion, the Cadillac XTS Platinum Concept, wood trim in high end cars and even onto the Frozen Ice paint care agreement from BMW and which car wax is a favorite.

After about 7 hours and many more topics, the callers and chat room had quite a lot of shared insight and more to think about for tonight’s show at 8pm ET. Join us right here!

Special Thanks to our friend Dave Foley, AKA Miradart, for hosting the show ALL night on Monday. Great job!

~Michelle Naranjo, MissMotorMouth.com

Open Line for July 26, 2010:
Phone – 1-218-936-6581
PIN – 4928

Thanks to our partners: GMInsideNews.com, AllPar.com and BlueOvalNews.com

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This week our dear leader is on the road, so Peter De Lorenzo, the Autoextremist, grabs the wheel and takes over. We’ll discuss the news of the week and other pressing topics: Is Ford running a risk having too many similar vehicles (Explorer, Edge, Flex) on the road? Can we ever realistically expect subsidy-free electric vehicles to be viable in the marketplace? Honda has lost its mojo — can it go green to get it back? Peter’s in studio with special guests Frank Markus from Motor Trend and Scott Burgess from The Detroit News.

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Thanks to our partners and friends AutobirdBlog.com, Rumblestrip.net and WardsAuto.com for embedding AAH!

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Saab may have gone through a lot of changes the past year, but one thing that hasn’t wavered is the love that Saab owners have for their cars. The Autoline crew saw that up close this past weekend at the Saab Festival in Trollhättan, Sweden. Here’s Isaac Bouchard with that report.

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This week we welcome Peter Hofbauer, a former diesel-engine designer at Volkswagen who’s now the Founder, Chairman and Chief Technical Officer of EcoMotors, the company developing a revolutionary new opposed-piston engine. Beyond that, host John McElroy, David Welch from Bloomberg BusinessWeek and Jim Hall of 2953 Analytics talk about some of the top news stories from the past week, like Ford’s recent management shakeup and the latest on Toyota’s unintended acceleration problem. Of course the panel also discusses the future of the ICE and what EcoMotors’ new powerplant can offer the auto industry as it shoots to deliver better fuel economy.

Subscribe to the free podcast version of Autoline After Hours:

Thanks to our partners and friends AutobirdBlog.com, MissMotorMouth.com, Rumblestrip.net and WardsAuto.com for embedding AAH!

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Nissan’s Z car has come a long way since the early days. Overall it’s a solid, impressive sports car, and it even has a piece of technology that we haven’t seen anywhere else.

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A two-door car presents an engineering challenge that we don’t often think about. The doors have to be bigger so that passengers can squeeze more easily into the back seat. This is all well and good, but it usually means the front passengers have to strain to grab their seat belts. BMW has solved this problem in the 335i.

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You’re in the market for a Rolls-Royce (who isn’t, right?), but you only have $340,000 to spend. Well, let’s have a look at how we can spend that money for you. Perhaps you’d be willing to settle for the brand new Ghost?