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November 12, 2025, 1:15 PM
A national show with D.C.-area ties is now in season 45.
And it’s a must watch for anyone who’s in the market for a car … or who wants to learn more about them.
MotorWeek host and creator John Davis joined John Aaron and Michelle Basch on Wednesday to document the occasion.
A special episode of MotorWeek is celebrating the show’s 45th anniversary. What should viewers expect to see — aside from a younger you
Our 45th anniversary episode will be on tonight at 7:30 on stations of Maryland Public Television. So 7:30 we kick off with basically a rear view mirror look back at all the old stunts we proved we did before, some tire burning, what I looked like way back in 1981, some of the great talent from before is joining us. We have a special tribute, of course, to Pat Goss, the late Pat Goss, who was our resident technician for over 30 years. It’s just a fun ride backward and a little bit of a look forward of all 45 years of Motor Week.
How did the show start in the first place? And did you expect it to be around all these years later?
No, I thought it would be something fun to do for about five years. I was already producing at Maryland Public Television. I was the head producer for Wall Street Week with Louis Rukeyser. And my boss asked me to come up with a new idea. And I’m a southern guy. I had gasoline in my veins. No one had brought the automotive magazine to TV, so I gave it a crack. We did a pilot in ’78 and got on the air in ’81 and haven’t looked back from there.
More interesting than stock market news, for sure, for people like me, at least. All right, so what are the themes for season 45 and the 2026 model year for cars?
I think it’s all about hybrids. I mean, we’ve seen the continued growth of SUVs, and of course, the appetite for pickup trucks by Americans seems to have no limits. But now that the EV subsidies have gone away, and even before that, people were turning more to hybrids, gasoline/electric hybrids, where you get some of the advantages of an EV, but you continue to have the long-range driving possibilities of a gasoline powered vehicle. And I think, well, for instance, last month, hybrid sales made up over half of the sales of Honda, way up at Hyundai, Ford. So hybrids, I think, are going to be the new efficiency champion for almost every automaker going forward, and it’s fun to watch.
What particular cars and/or features are you most excited about right now?
Everybody that drives every day, especially if you go out on the Capital Beltway, people are driving faster. They seem to be paying less attention to a lot of the rules of the road that we were taught growing up. So a lot of the extra safety features that are being added to cars, I think they’re really important. And if you’re buying a car, you need to make sure it’s got things like lane keep assist that keeps you from getting sideswiped. Almost all new cars now have a very good emergency braking system, but there’s also something called rear traffic alert, so when you’re backing out of a parking lot, it lets you know if a car is coming from either side that you can’t physically see. So the latest in safety aspects, I think, is really important, and we’re spending a lot more time on that, along with infotainment systems, all the new entertainment options available inside the car.
In terms of convenience, parking, I mean, you see these cars with the top view cameras and the sensors on the side, even on the back, that tell you the number of inches left until you hit something. It’s really remarkable.
The surround view camera system, which was actually a Nissan invention, has taken over the market, and I wouldn’t buy a new vehicle if it didn’t have it.
We’ve been talking about earlier this morning in another aspect, another story, that people are keeping their cars, though, longer, over more years.
Last time I checked, it was well over 12 years now, and when we started the show, it was something under seven. I mean, cars are just more reliable. They cost a lot more to buy, so I think it’s only natural people keep them longer. Unfortunately, that also means the congestion on the road is getting, roads are getting worse, because we’re churning out like 16 million new ones a year every year.
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