the other three U.S. automotive magazines, Car and Driver, Motor Trend and Road & Track. Murdoch sold the magazine profitably in 1991 to K-III Publications, which became Primedia – which was later sold to Source Interlink Media (now Motor Trend Group), the current owner of the magazine. When Automobile was acquired by K-III, Davis also became the editorial director of the company's Motor Trend magazine. Automobile celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2011. Davis later left Primedia and in semi-retirement started the online automotive magazine Winding Road. In July 2009, he returned to Car and Driver as a contributor. Until his death, he continued to contribute to numerous automotive venues, including international publications such as the British magazine CAR. Davis mentored a spectrum of automotive journalists, including Eddie Alterman, editor-in-chief at Car and Driver and Jean Jennings, former president and editor-in-chief (after Davis himself) at Automobile. At the University of Michigan he was member of the board of the Knight-Wallace Fellowship, a journalism program, and he encouraged Ford Motor Company to underwrite a fellowship for automotive journalism at the school. In 2004, he received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the University of Michigan, serving as its spring 2004 commencement speaker. Personality Davis was widely known for his "larger-than-life," "polarizing personality." Joe DeMatio, deputy editor at Automobile Magazine said Davis "was very opinionated and did not hesitate to ruffle feathers, even if they were those of his own bosses." Unintimidated by the companies whose products he reviewed, Davis originally resigned from Car and Driver after refusing to rescind a comment he made about a BMW 2002's weak radio reception and dash; saying its Blaupunkt radio "could not pick up a Manhattan station from the other side of the George Washington Bridge." General Motors which owned Opel and sold the cars through Buick dealers in the U.S., withdrew much of its advertising when he parked an Opel Kadett in a junkyard for a "hit piece", AKA James R. Healey, the auto columnist for USAToday, recalled that while speaking at the Washington Automotive Press Association, Davis also likened General Motors managers to the piano players in a whorehouse, "aware of what was going on upstairs but unable to do much about it even if they were so inclined." He ended the speech by saying that the company was standing on the "shoulders of midgets". The company subsequently pulled much of its