Cars, Trucks and Bucks: John Davis

John Davis created the Motorweek program and has served as host and executive producer since it started more than 30 years ago. We talk with him about the state of the auto industry and what he sees for the future.

John H. Davis

As the Emmy® Award-winning host, executive producer and creator of MotorWeek, television\'s longest running automotive series, John Davis is seen by millions of viewers on PBS, Velocity and V-me Spanish-language network. One of the most trusted and recognized automotive journalists in the nation, Davis has been featured on CNN, Weekend Today, Live with Regis and Kelly, PARADE magazine and The Baltimore Sun, as well as local media throughout the country. He has also written regularly on automotive industry topics for The Washington Post and is a frequent radio guest on WBAL-AM and 98Rock in Baltimore. Davis even helped Duff Goldman road test a delivery van on Food Network\'s Ace of Cakes. More than three decades after its debut on public television in 1981, MotorWeek remains the leading source of unbiased information on automotive safety, fuel efficiency and in-depth car and truck reviews. Davis oversees all editorial content, travels the world covering auto shows and new vehicle launches, and steers the series’ increasingly high profile efforts in covering green motoring technologies and the use of alternative fuels.

Davis has received some of the highest awards in automotive journalism and television. In 2007, he won an Emmy® Award from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) National Capital Chesapeake Bay Region, and in 1998 from the NATAS Chicago-Midwest Chapter. Davis also received the 2009 International Automotive Media Award (IAMA) for Lifetime Achievement, as well International Wheel Awards in 2004 and 2003. The Detroit Press Foundation presented Davis with two Golden Wheel Awards in 1999, including the Grand Prize, which recognizes the best in automotive journalism.

Davis is one of the founders of the North American Car & Truck of The Year Awards, serving on its executive board from 1994 to 2008. He is also one of the organizers and an original member of the Washington Automotive Press Association. Davis is a former president of the International Motor Press Association, the oldest and most prestigious organization of automotive journalists in North America.

A 1970 mechanical and aerospace engineering graduate of North Carolina State University, Davis also holds a master of business administration degree from the University of North Carolina. He was the 1969-1970 recipient of the W.D. Cartwright Memorial Engineering Scholarship and a member of the Pi Tau Sigma honorary scholastic fraternity.

Prior to joining Maryland Public Television, Davis worked for the Wall Street brokerage firm of Kidder, Peabody and Company as a transportation analyst. He has owned a variety of high performance cars, including a vintage Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Corvette and deTomaso Pantera.

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