Blog Posts by: Joe DeMatio  

Dr. Ian Robertson -- Member of the Board of Management, BMW AG -- is the man grappling with the Big Issues that will face BMW as an automaker in the near and distant future. He's concerned with immediate matters for BMW AG, of course, such as sales. ...    Read more

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Stefan Fegg is the Project Manager for Powertrains on the Porsche Cayenne. Deputy Editor Joe DeMatio spoke to him while sitting in a Porsche Cayenne Diesel on the Porsche stand at Javits during media days for the 2012 New York Auto Show. The Cayenne Diesel goes on sale this fall ...    Read more

I just interviewed Christophe Georges, President & COO of Bentley in North and South America, and Darren Day, a longtime Bentley designer, in a private room on the Bentley stand at Javits. Both of these Bentley Boys are steadfast in their defense of ...    Read more

Last night I attended the official unveiling of the Nissan NV200 at Skylight West on the West Side of Manhattan, arriving just in time to hear NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg introduce the yellow cube before he was whisked out of the building by his security detail. Bloomberg used the opportunity ...    Read more

We received our first serious snow dump in Ann Arbor last week, but the Automobile Magazine fleet of Four Seasons test vehicles was ready for the cold, since we had fitted each car with a set of winter tires from various manufacturers well before Thanksgiving with the assistance of the ...    Read more

Jaguar has long been know for its designs, but has had some real knockouts one after the other in the past few years in the forms of the C-XF, C-X75, and C-X16 concepts, and the XF and XJ production cars. We were able to sit down with Jaguar Global Brand ...    Read more

Our editors have been plenty busy scouring the show floor of the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show -- but in between running to and from press conferences and battling spotty Wi-Fi connections, they picked their three favorite concept and production cars at the show. Joe DeMatio, Deputy Editor CONCEPT CARS ...    Read more

Mercedes-Benz's AMG performance division has paired up with legendary Italian motorcycle manufacturer Ducati for a sport bike called the Ducati Diavel AMG Special Edition, which is front and center in the AMG display in the Mercedes-Benz hall at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show. The Diavel is the product of an agreement ...    Read more

Simon Humphries, a Brit who has been in Japan for 21 years, 17 of them with Toyota, is General Manager of Global Design, for both Toyota and Lexus. I spoke with him about the Lexus LF-Gh concept that debuted at the 2011 New York Auto Show. On the general design theme: "The ...    Read more

David E. Davis Jr, whom TIME magazine called "the dean of automotive journalism," has died in Ann Arbor, Michigan, following complications from surgery for bladder cancer. Davis founded Ann Arbor-based Automobile Magazine with Rupert Murdoch’s backing in 1985 after leaving his second stint in the editor’s chair ...    Read more

Adrian Hallmark Global Brand Director, Jaguar Cars ...    Read more

Lamborghini and Callaway, the American maker of high-end golf clubs, jointly develop a new form of carbon fiber--"forged composite"--that will be used first on a new Callaway driver and later in a future Lamborghini automobile.Today at the 2010 Paris Motor Show, Lamborghini not only unveiled its wild Sesto Elemento concept ...    Read more

Over the last decade, Automobile Magazine has sent the very best photographers to the four corners of the globe to capture the essence of the automobile and the driving experience. We've sifted through the last 120 issues of the magazine and selected the very best images to present in this ...    Read more

Want to buy a Porsche 918 Spyder? Just hop in your private plane and come on down to the 918 Spyder dealership! On the Thursday evening of the annual car-celebration weekend on California's Monterey Peninsula, Porsche hosted a group of international media at the Monterey ...    Read more

A new Volvo sedan for a new owner of Volvo Motor Car Corporation. The all-new, 2011 Volvo S60 sedan is noteworthy not only because it’s the first new iteration in a decade of the most popular Volvo model but also because it arrives at a unique moment in Volvo’s ...    Read more

A visit to AutoChina 2010, the Beijing auto show, reveals a different side of the bankrupt automaker. In China, GM has gone from only 31,794 sales in 2000 to 1,826,424 sales in 2009. The bulk of those sales has come from Wuling, a brand of modest, Daewoo-engineered minivans and cars, ...    Read more

Design chief of German luxury brand looks askance at Chinese copycats.Chinese auto manufacturers long have been known for, um, borrowing design themes and engineering concepts from more established Western automakers. All it takes is a stroll through AutoChina 2010 in Beijing to see how blatant some of the vehicles are. ...    Read more

"It's like finding a polished pebble on the beach." Freeman Thomas, Ford's Director of Strategic Design, explains the design philosophy behind the handsome Ford Start Concept at AutoChina 2010 in Beijing. Designed in California, it was inspired by the 1960 Alfa SZ Zagato and the 1956 Porsche Speedster.“We wanted to ...    Read more

Veteran Corporate Finance Whiz Led Efforts to Oust Former GM CEO Rick Wagoner, Merge GM with Nissan/Renault, and Thwart the Culture of Denial at GM.Jerry York, the former Chrysler finance executive who teamed up with Las Vegas investor Kirk Kerkorian in 1995 in a failed attempt to take over Chrysler, ...    Read more

Stephan Winkelmann: No news on the next Murcielago, but could I sell you a Gallardo Superleggera in the meantime?; Stephan WinkelmannPresident & CEO, Lamborghini AutomobiliAutomobile Magazine: What can you tell us about the next Murcielago?Stephan Winkelmann: We don’t speak about the future, so I can’t tell you anything about what ...    Read more

I attended a dinner on the night of the first media preview day of the 2010 Detroit Auto Show with Ford Motor Company CEO Alan Mulally and two of his top executives, CFO Lewis Booth and recently appointed head of Asia/Pacific & Africa operations Joe Hinrichs. As has become custom ...    Read more

"The Golden Age of Small Cars," says Margaret Brooks, Chevy's Small Car Marketing chief. ...    Read more

Chevy lifted the veil on its future at a special media event in Detroit--including the fabulous new Camaro convertible.I attended a media event last night showcasing all of the new models coming over the next couple of years. Can't show you pictures of most of it (don't have any; they ...    Read more

Want to get your hands on one of the only 500 Lexus LFA supercars that will ever be built? Here's how.I’ve just had a brief drive in the new Lexus LFA supercar at Miami’s Homestead Speedway, and the car blew me away. The LFA is unlike any other Lexus -- ...    Read more