Inside PBS Blog

John Davis is the Emmy Award-winning host, executive producer and creator of MotorWeek. Since 1981 the show has been covering the automotive world and giving consumers the information they need to make smart car and truck purchases.

Davis answered your questions about automotive journalism, the auto industry, and auto racing.

Given the emphasis on economy and smallness, is the era of the performance car over or do you think manufacturers will come up with technology to still provide high performance alongside the mandatory economy requirements? If so, what technologies do you think hold the most promise? Robert

Robert, I have been around long enough to hear the “performance is dead” mantra several times. Each time car engineers figure out how to make performance meet the demands of society. In short, you can have politically correct performance cars -- and will have them since the American love affair (and now the world’s love affair) with hot cars is anything but dead.

The best way to makes cars cleaner, (they already emit exhaust that in some cases is cleaner than the air we breathe) and save fuel is to go to smaller engines. So, to compensate you will see much more use of turbochargers. Case in point, Ford, BMW, and others have new twin-turbocharged 6-cylinder engines that are more powerful than a V8 but use considerably less fuel. You will also see more turbocharged four-cylinders replacing V6 engines.

Beyond that, technologies like Direct Fuel Injection that is currently being used mostly by GM and Audi will spread. 4-valve cylinder heads with Variable Valve Timing will also be the norm, and almost already is today. Some of these features have been used in the past several years to boost power, now they will be used to boost both power and economy.

Diesels, hybrids, and electrics will naturally play their part, but there is a lot of life left in gasoline engines. They will still make up the bulk of the powertrains in cars sold here in 2020 when the new mileage laws come into full play. Why? Gasoline technology is much simpler, there is a gas station on every corner, and gas engine can be made much more efficient with known technology and most likely will be cheaper to maintain over time.

How would you say your show compares in approach to the BBC program TOP GEAR? Each Show has its strengths, but what do you make of Top Gear? Kareem and Mary

Hi Kareem and Mary. The BBC’s Top Gear is a wonderful show. It is more of a poking fun at the car lifestyle show than a new car roadtest and feature show like MotorWeek. (That means they are a lot funnier than we are!) That said Top Gear is built very much around host Jeremy Clarkson and his antics. MotorWeek actually began before Top Gear, and in the beginning they were very much a new car roadtest show like MotorWeek…except with a much bigger budget. But, along came Jeremy and the show took a direction more towards entertainment. They also frankly do some pretty outrageous things that we could never get away with… and stay out of jail. But in the end, I am no Jeremy Clarkson. He is one of the funniest and most engaging people on TV and I am a big fan. So, I’m glad you watch both MotorWeek and Top Gear… there can never be too many car shows!

Love the show. I was curious if you were a big fan of auto racing? And if so, which series and types of racing do you follow? Lou

Well Lou, yes I am a big fan of auto racing. Now, since I grew up in North Carolina, you might think I have NASCAR in my blood. I did spend a lot of time around smaller NASCAR tracks like North Wilksboro as a kid when the likes of Fred Lorenzen and Junior Johnson were the big draws.

But, over the years I have become a much bigger fan of road racing, with the current American Le Mans Series a favorite. I also like to follow FIA World Road Rally Championship events… with no special favorite venue except I like to see what the latest creations are from the manufacturers that have long dominated the events like Subaru, Mitsubishi, Peugeot and others. I also watch Indy every year but am not an avid fan of Formula One and other open wheel racing series. They bore me since the action is so often limited to one or two turns or a short straightaway. I do love to drive open wheel cars however and never miss a chance.

How has the automotive journalism "beat" changed with the recent changes in journalism and the media? How has your job changed? Mary

Mary, to put is simply, the Internet has changed everything. While fewer people read car magazines… paper ones… they also tend to go to their computers to watch car videos too… which is why MotorWeek is available both from your local public television station and (in delayed form) on a variety of places on the Internet like PBS.org (coming this fall), Cars.com (roadtests), with a presence on YouTube, and even Facebook.

When MotorWeek started, we were the speed kings. We could roadtest a new car and get it on the air the next week. Magazines took months to publish the same kind of information. Only newspapers could beat us, but then their pictures didn’t move. We developed MotorWeek as a companion to the major car magazines. Read their long stories with lots of technical details and then watch our video roadtests to give the cars life. Cars and TV are the perfect match.

Now of course, folks can have simple videos up on the web instantly. Often we are at car previews and the stories from some journalists… written and video… are posted before we leave. Same for auto shows.

But what the instant turnaround seems to lack is depth and insight. There is so much focus on being first that few look at the details of the vehicles. Often I find the comments are very superficial, knee jerk, by writers that do not have any real experience in judging one car over another. They just want to be first and make waves. That is not journalism to me. Not sure it is even reporting. Now, there are some very good sites, and blogs that I follow everyday. But, you do have to pick and choose. I look for insight that I haven’t seen elsewhere.

So, now, even the larger print magazines have big web sites and spend a lot of time getting stories up quickly. Some even do some video. But, they fortunately do not do MotorWeek style video roadtests. Ours take long hours of taping, writing, and editing. We don’t just put up a few shots from the manufacturers, or subject you to too much talking heads rather than letting “the cars be the stars”…as we say here. So, for that reason, our audience has actually grown over the last two years.

But, the media world… old and new… is forever changed. The good part is the public gets a lot more information much quicker. Unfortunately, there is no one to tell you what is good info and bad info. You have to read and look at enough to figure that out yourself, and that cannot be done instantly. So, it is more so than ever, “buyer beware!”

I'm a writer at www.cargurus.com/blog and have followed MotorWeek for about 5 years. We've had a debate on our blog about what makes a "domestic" car. For example: is the Ford Fusion made in Mexico more American, or the Toyota Tundra built in the United States? I'd be interested in your take, as I believe the global marketplace will only continue to blur the lines between domestic and foreign. Travis

Travis, glad there’s some new blood in this profession, keep it up. My answer is a little bit of fence sitting. Both vehicles are North American made as far as I am concerned. For instance, the Ford Fusion is assembled in Mexico, with a large percentage of its components coming from factories in the U.S. and Canada. But, to answer your question directly, I would say the Fusion is built in Mexico, not the U.S., since it uses Mexican citizens on the assembly line.

On the other hand, the Toyota Tundra is clearly American built since it is assembled in Texas, and its mainstay V8 is also Texas built. Yes, it has lots of parts from Japan and other places, but the Tundra is a U.S. truck. Built by Americans, and really only suitable for the American buyer. It is more ‘domestic’ than many domestic brand vehicles.

But, if you went into their plants you might not think so. While Ford’s Mexican plant is filled with heavy stamping equipment and jigs that were made in the U.S., the Toyota plant looks like everything came from Japan and Asia. So, where did the billion dollars to build that plant go? Most of the money put into Ford’s Mexican plant actually ended up back in the U.S., as do any profits from selling the car. For the Tundra, all the big ticket equipment came from Japan and that is where the profits go.

So, you are 100% right that the global marketplace blurs the lines between domestic and foreign. I do prefer it when at least the assembly plant uses American workers, and second, that it uses primarily U.S parts. Chrysler’s minivans are made in Canada but virtually all the mechanical parts, as well as the steel come from U.S. sources.

I ran into this problem years ago, and so now I refer to car brands as not simply domestic or foreign, but say domestic brands and foreign brands. A name no longer tells you where a car comes from. Again, keep up the good work.