Ask the Experts

Welcome to Main Street Motors new "Ask the experts" section. This is a new section of MainStreetAutos.com where we take time to ask experts about the car industry and all of it's related fields.

Are you an Expert in the automotive field? Would you like to have your own page on MainStreetAutos.com to promote your automotive content? Feel free to email or call me (401)316-1997 for details.

We are pleased to have Aaron Gold from cars.about.com to answer a few of our questions. Aaron Gold, About.com's Guide to Cars, has been an automotive journalist for just over a decade and has been About.com's Guide to Cars since 2004.

Ruth Manuel-Logan aka Car Chick™ was born with Matchbox cars in each hand. Ruth feels, that countless women-folk share her passion for cars too. Who really makes the car-buying decision in U.S. households...men? NOT!

Kristen Hall Geisler has driven Corvettes, Vipers, Maseratis, Jaguars, and more as part of her job as a freelance automotive journalist. She has written about exotic car manufacturers from Alfa Romeo to Spyker Cars for Sports Car Market magazine, the New York Times, Details, Portland Monthly, and Ultimate Northwest. Her favorite recent drive was in an Audi S5 through the Cascade Range in Oregon.

Basem Wasef from motorcycles.about.com Basem Wasef's two-wheeled experiences include everything from $150 mini-bikes to V8-powered cruisers, and you might be surprised to find out which one he prefers.

In his 11-year career as an automotive journalist, Jonathan Lamas has logged thousands of hours, both on and off the track, writing about cars, trucks, and motorcycles. His coverage has included the Ford Mustang, professional racing, and countless automotive events across the country. He's reported for Forbes Autos, CarandDriver.Com, RoadandTrack.Com, CycleWorld.Com, Consumer Guide, and U.S. News and World Report.

He entered the realm of automotive journalism in the late '90s as Senior Producer and Staff Writer at Car and Driver Online. There he wrote the monthly editorial "In Gear: The Latest and Greatest in Automotive Accessories", in addition to providing online editorial coverage for the magazine. From 2003-2006 he served as the Editor of Truck & SUV Performance magazine and Staff Editor of Auto Trim & Restyling News located in Los Angeles, Calif. His professional affiliations include member of the Motor Press Guild and the Society of Professional Journalists.

Matt Keegan is a freelance writer who has been in business for himself since November 2002. Among his specialties are automotive, aviation, travel, and business topics.

Prior to launching his current enterprise, Matt worked as technical writer for a pair of aviation firms for nearly eleven years which followed seven years of management work as a restaurant operator and non-profit administrator. It was while working in the non-profit world that Matt began to write newsletters and develop a public relations strategy, attributes he has fine tuned over the past two decades.

Today, Matt writes for a number of print and online clients including 435 South Magazine and Wisconsin Golfer, in his role as the automotive columnist for both regional print publications. In addition, Matt maintains The Auto Writer and Auto Trends blogs and operates several smaller, niche car and other business sites. Matt has provided online content for several auto parts suppliers since 2005 and continues to pursue additional writing opportunities, both print and online.

Matt is a member of SEAMO, the South East Automotive Media Organization, and attends local, regional, and national auto shows and displays as time permits including the North American International Auto Show in Detroit and the Los Angeles Auto Show.

Jason M. Hendler Automotive Innovation Analyst and Hybrid Mountain Bike Hobbiest

To view my career, please see the link below:
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jason-hendler/14/b3/91b

I started out in the automotive industry as a General Motors Scholar attending the University of Detroit, studying Internal Combustion Engines and working for the Alternative Fuels Group within the Advanced Engineering Staff at the General Motors Technical Center. While I enjoyed the work, the impact of Japanese imports on the US auto industry revealed to me that the big 3 would be in permanent decline due to entrenched corporate / union / dealer polices, so I decided to work in other industries.

I then moved into the defense industry, and the parallels were disheartening – large corporations with trade unions that wouldn’t / couldn’t adapt. This industry too suffered a great collapse, so fortunately, I was able to apply my military telecommunications experience towards the high-tech commercial industries. It was within the Silicon Valley high tech industry that I eventually learned the product development tools necessary for companies to innovate and thrive. I applied these techniques with great success within an industry that many thought stagnant – antennas – and reaped great rewards.

The US auto industry is now being overturned by Silicon Valley style innovation in the area of alternative fuels / propulsion systems. My experience at the GM Technical Center’s Alternative Fuels Group, and my personal implementation of disruptive technology allows me to identify how new companies are penetrating the incumbent heavy auto markets, and how old companies are transforming themselves to resist this new competition.

My goal with these columns is to give you my foresight into how these various companies are applying these Silicon Valley techniques in an attempt to seize market share and profits. With that knowledge, I hope to help you navigate your own choices into the vehicles you plan to purchase in the future.

Main Street Motors Automotive Tips blog is about quality consumer information about the automotive industry.