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If you want to stick out from the crowd in this ever more-busy, social media-laden, fifteen-seconds-of-fame world, there’s only one way to do it and stay there: good, solid branding. To that end, we’ve got the guy who wrote the book on branding, literally. Charlie Hughes is the author of “Branding Iron” and the former head of Land Rover North America. We’ll be asking him to help us identify the winners and losers in the branding game. As per usual, we’ll be getting into the news of the week as well: Volkswagen has just announced that its super-efficient XL1 will actually be going into production; Danica Patrick became the first woman ever to qualify in the pole position for the Daytona 500; and the New York Times and Tesla’s Elon Musk duke it out in public. Joining John McElroy in studio to talk about all that and much more, is co-host Peter De Lorenzo, the Autoextremist, Frank Markus from Motor Trend and Gary Vasilash from Automotive Design & Production.

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Just as you could get the Ford Model T in any color, as long as it was black, when the company brought the C-MAX stateside, it declared you could get any powertrain, as long as it was a hybrid. This week the C-MAX Energi rolls into the Autoline studio with John Davis, Chief Program Engineer, in tow. We’ll be asking him all about the car and about what challenges Ford faces in trying to sell a plug-in. We’ll also want to know why the C-MAX struggles, in testing, to meet the fuel economy ratings on the EPA label. And, yes, we will also get to the top news of the week. GM earnings are disappointing; 2013 just may be the year of the diesel as Ram and Subaru both announce new entries; and Federal Mogul says goodbye to spark plugs while Chevrolet says hello to shape memory alloys. Joining John McElroy in studio to talk about all that and much more, is Peter De Lorenzo, the Autoextremist, and Todd Lassa from Automobile.

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The Nissan Pathfinder came to North America in 1985 to battle the likes of Blazer, Bronco and Trooper. And even though that competition disappeared over the years, today’s all-new 2013 Pathfinder still finds itself in one of the most competitive segments in the auto industry, however, still ready to go tire-to-tire with all takers, any time.

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It’s been decades since GM released a diesel engine in a U.S. passenger car. Now, with the Chevrolet Cruze Clean Turbo Diesel, it’s back in the game. On deck to answer all our questions is Josh Tavel, Vehicle Performance Manager for Chevrolet Small Cars. Plus, we’ll be delving into the big news of the week and the questions racking our brains. Did the auto industry bet wrong on small displacement turbos? What happened to Nissan’s partnership with the revolutionary DeltaWing race car? Joining John McElroy in studio to talk about all that and much more, is Peter De Lorenzo, the Autoextremist, and Gary Vasilash from Automotive Design & Production.

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The Chevy Corvette is one of the most iconic cars in American automotive history. Peter De Lorenzo, the Autoextremist, explains why he would make Corvette a brand unto itself and how he would completely upend Corvette’s product portfolio.

The Chevy Corvette is one of the most iconic cars in American automotive history. Peter De Lorenzo, the Autoextremist, takes a look at the Corvette from a brand image and marketing point of view and shares his thoughts on what General Motors just doesn’t get about this iconic sports car.

NRG Dynamix is the name of a small start-up company in Michigan that is developing hydraulic hybrids. Instead of storing brake energy in chemical form in a battery they store it as hydraulic pressure in a tank under the vehicle, in this case a Ford Ranger. It’s a whole lot cheaper and offers intriguing possibilities. Jim O’Brien, the president of the company, explains how it works.

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On Sunday all eyes–well, a lot of eyes–will be on the action going down in New Orleans, but while the 49ers and Ravens are at each others’ throats, another competition will be playing out. That’s because all of those aforementioned eyes will be there for the taking and there is nothing else that matches the advertising spectacle that is the Super Bowl. Thus, automakers from around the world will be embroiled in a battle of corporate egos. As luck would have it, many of these ads have already been, *ahem*, “leaked” so the AAH panel will be doing a roundup of what’s on the docket, so far. Joining us to offer an inside perspective on this high-stakes competition is Michael Sprague, the Executive Vice President of Marketing and Communications for Kia Motors America. Kia has two ads in the queue for the big game, and we’ll get to preview at least one of them. Joining John McElroy in studio to talk about all things Super Bowl, plus the news of the week, is Peter De Lorenzo, the Autoextremist, and David Kiley from AOL Autos.

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