#VnRChat – The Agenda for the June 2013 Chat

We could be talking about this… Photo by Randy Stern

Did you miss V&R Chat?

It missed you, too. Took a month off due to scheduling issues, but V&R Chat (#VnRChat on Twitter) is back and kicking off the month of June with a huge chat show. It is on Sunday, June 2 at 8:00PM Eastern Time (7:00PM Central) on Twitter. Please use the hashtag #VnRChat to follow and participate on Twitter. It is suggested to use a website or program – such as TweetChat – to get the full effect of the chat itself.

The agenda is as follows:

EXAMINING THE SEGMENTS: In this chat, we will be looking at two of the biggest segments in the North American automobile market – pickup trucks and mid-sized family sedans. The big question everyone should ask is "why" – why do they sell in such big numbers?

To discuss pickup trucks is our special guest Mike Levine of the Ford Motor Company. Levine is a familiar name to us, as he used to be a part of PickupTrucks.com prior to coming over to Dearborn. As the main communications person for the F-Series, Levine will discuss Ford’s role in leading the way for the pickup segment and will field questions on the F-150 and Super Duty lines.

In addition, Randy drove the 2014 Chevrolet Silverado at the Midwest Automotive Media Association Spring Rally at Road America. He will discuss this and the rest of the segment to get to the bottom of what it takes for a pickup truck to sell at the numbers we see on the charts. We will discuss other truck products for context of this segment.

Also, Randy recently reviewed three of the contenders in the mid-sized family car segment – the Nissan Altima, Honda Accord and Ford Fusion. He has a fourth contender in for review at the time of the chat. – the Chrysler 200. To discuss these four vehicles, Randy will lead a discussion on the viability of this segment in North America and to decipher which one could topple the segment and passenger car sales leader this year – the Toyota Camry.

IN THE GARAGE: While the Altima, Accord, Fusion and 200 will be discussed in the last segment, Randy has plenty to catch up on from the Garage. Since our last chat, Randy reviewed the Buick Enclave, Ford Explorer Sport, Nissan Sentra, Toyota Corolla S and the 2014 Mazda CX-5 2.5. Bring your questions on these vehicles.

RANDY'S BUSY SCHEDULE: The MAMA Spring Rally, the 10,000 Lakes Concours d’Elegance, various shows, meet and such – what has Randy NOT done this year?

If you are curious as to what was going on since our last chat, bring your questions! Randy will probably have plenty of stories to tell from the Concours, Spring Rally and the various meets in the Twin Cities he found himself in the middle of.

Meanwhile, one of our contributing writers, Robert Edwards, is going on the Hot Rod Power Tour out of Dallas to Charlotte as the chat is under way. He will running with Team Hall & Nass/Motorama Live with the Ford F-150 SVT Raptor on the road. If Rob checks in, we will indeed chat with him, along with Berry Lowman and Shane Walker of Team Hall & Nass/Motorama LIVE, on an update on Power Tour live from Texarkana, Arkansas.

This is a full show – and it could run late! Be there to get in on the conversation!