Joe DeMatio

Ann Arbor

Senior Director of Content at Hagerty Classic Cars Magazine

@Hagerty Media. Critic. Wordsmith. Wino. Pursuer of pleasure.

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Articles

2024 Lexus LS 500h AWD: The Price of Anonymity - Hagerty Media

1 week ago | hagerty.com | Joe DeMatio

My freshman year at the University of Michigan began in 1983, back when Cadillac and Lincoln still resided at the top of the luxury-car pecking order. One of my abiding memories of move-in weekend was when a W126-generation Mercedes S-Class, the first I’d ever laid eyes on, pulled to the curb outside my dorm and disgorged Mark S., who’d just arrived from Pittsburgh and quickly became a pal. Paul G., another guy on my dorm floor, and I bonded over our outsider status.
Our Two Cents: The Best "95% Of Our Needs" Vehicle

1 month ago | hagerty.com | Sajeev Mehta |Eddy Eckart |Joe DeMatio |Stefan Lombard

It is true. We automotive journalists are rightfully guilty of living in a dream world that most motorists could never even imagine. But sometimes one of us enjoys popping this academic Bubble of Automobilia (as it were), and this time it was our own Kyle Smith who asked something utterly reasonable to his co-workers:What’s the best utility vehicle for 95% of our needs? I was excited to see how we answered this one and immediately tried to justify something like a Ford Raptor.
Our Two Cents: Memorable Vehicle Names

Nov 15, 2024 | hagerty.com | Sajeev Mehta |Greg Ingold |Aaron Robinson |Joe DeMatio

There are so many things that go into what makes a given car memorable. Sure, performance and looks are front and center, but there’s more to it than that. Sometimes I wonder if all these alphanumeric car names currently pervading the market will be lost to time. How many people will remember a 2009 Lincoln MKS at a car show 30 years from now, relative to the name recognition of the Lincoln Town Car?
Our Two Cents: Favorite Physical Controls In A Car

Oct 25, 2024 | hagerty.com | Sajeev Mehta |Joe DeMatio |Aaron Robinson |Greg Ingold

It’s once again time to ask the staff of Hagerty Media a question, one that will provide Our Two Cents for you, dear reader. In the last year or two we’ve seen more articles covering the rampant spread of touchscreens in automobiles in a worrisome tone. Change is coming for our dashboards, and pressure by will almost certainly affect new vehicle designs for the EU. And thanks to all the component sharing in our globalized society, this will likely trickle down to vehicles in the U.S. by 2026.
Our Two Cents: Favorite Spots For A Car Show

Sep 6, 2024 | hagerty.com | Sajeev Mehta |Eddy Eckart |Joe DeMatio |Ben Woodworth

It seems like every city or town now has multiple car shows that service the unique needs of their local car communities. They’re often held at schools, churches, coffee shops, and even at car dealerships. Of course, concours lawns and track paddocks get the job done, too. Shows are usually remarkably easy to find, too, especially if you have a Facebook account and use the Events Near Me feature.
Artist Julie Mehretu’s BMW Art Car Journey

Jun 12, 2024 | hagerty.com | Joe DeMatio

BMW has two factory entries in the Hypercar class at this week’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, one of which will be adorned with the art of Julie Mehretu. BMW revealed this M Hybrid V8, its 20th Art Car, at the Centre Pompidou in Paris on May 22nd and subsequently shared it at Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este at Lake Como, Italy later that week. Mehretu met with media at Villa d’Este and talked about her first rolling work of art and how the process gave her a new appreciation for the automotive world.
BMW Skytop: Will It Be On a Concours Lawn in 2074?

May 29, 2024 | hagerty.com | Joe DeMatio

“I believe it’s important for us to make things our customers can dream of,” said BMW Group global design chief Adrian van Hooydonk last weekend on the shores of Italy’s Lake Como. The occasion was the ritzy Concorso d’Eleganza, a magical little car show on the grounds of the historic Villa d’Este Hotel, and the dream car he was referencing is the BMW Concept Skytop, a gorgeous champagne-colored confection built on the platform of the existing M8 convertible.
Our Two Cents: Dream Vehicles That Don't Exist

May 17, 2024 | hagerty.com | Sajeev Mehta |Greg Ingold |Kyle Smith |Joe DeMatio

For this installment of Our Two Cents, we asked the team here at Hagerty Media about their dream vehicle. But we aren’t talking about a vehicle they can buy, rather we asked about one that doesn’t exist on the market. Many of us wanted a new vehicle with features of older ones, but that wasn’t all we came up with.
Our Two Cents: The Car Industry's Worst Predictions

Mar 29, 2024 | hagerty.com | Sajeev Mehta |Joe DeMatio |Nathan Petroelje |Eric Weiner

My last boss in the corporate world had a great phrase he used to weasel out of potentially ridiculous plans, saving our department countless hours of pointless work and meaningless deliverables. It went something like this: “I have [insert concerns here] mostly because I lost my crystal ball years ago.”Planning for the future is paramount in an industry with as many parts as the car business. But sometimes crystal balls should be lost, because we’ve all been affected by ridiculous predictions.
Our Two Cents: The Weirdest Automotive Words

Mar 15, 2024 | hagerty.com | Sajeev Mehta |Larry Webster |Aaron Robinson |Joe DeMatio

Words can be unnecessarily difficult in the English language, which does everything from borrowing words from other languages to organizing in ways that makes no sense to non-native speakers. So for this installment of Our Two Cents, we asked the team here at Hagerty Media about automotive words we’ve encountered that are decidedly odd. To be fair, we have only scratched the surface. There are oh-so-many words that fit the bill, and some of them are even crazier than the ones we came up with here.