Doug DeMuro
Douglas DeMuro is an American automotive columnist, reviewer, author, and YouTuber. He writes articles for the Autotrader.com blog Oversteer, posts car reviews on his YouTube channel, which has over three million subscribers, and runs car auction website Cars & Bids. In the past, he has written for the car websites The Truth About Cars and Jalopnik.
Early life and education
DeMuro was born and raised in Denver, Colorado, where he attended George Washington High School.He then went on to study at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, obtaining a bachelor's degree in economics, and met his current wife while he was working as a resident advisor there.
Career
Early writing for car blogs
DeMuro's first job was at Porsche's North American headquarters in Atlanta as a "vehicle allocation manager". In addition to this, he wrote articles on Autotrader.com. In 2013, after one year at Porsche, DeMuro quit his job in order to focus on automotive writing. He wrote articles for three different car blogs: The Truth About Cars between January and September, his own blog called PlaysWithCars throughout 2013, and Jalopnik starting in April. Furthermore, he wrote two books that were published in July 2013, namely Plays With Cars containing personal car stories and the e-book From My Perspective about DeMuro's perspective on things unrelated to cars.While working for Jalopnik, DeMuro wrote columns, answered letters from readers, shot videos for his YouTube channel, and occasionally reviewed cars. Furthermore, he bought interesting second-hand cars recommended by readers, which he then reviewed and wrote columns about. Among those cars was a 2004 Ferrari 360 Modena DeMuro purchased in January 2014 with a loan. He kept the car for one year.
In 2014, DeMuro moved from Atlanta to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. DeMuro started writing again for The Truth About Cars the next year, while still working for Jalopnik. At the recommendation of readers, DeMuro bought a 2007 Aston Martin V8 Vantage in January 2016 with a "bumper-to-bumper" warranty, of which he documented his ownership. Later that year, DeMuro's new book Bumper to Bumper was released. Some of his columns and reviews were published by the Philadelphia Media Network in 2014 and by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2015.
''Oversteer'' and YouTube
In the summer of 2016, DeMuro moved to the newly-created Autotrader.com car blog Oversteer, of which he became the editor. He kept writing articles and columns, but started focusing more on filming and writing car reviews on YouTube. DeMuro has reviewed a wide array of cars on his channel, mainly from the 1970s to the present. Those cars include supercars like the Ford GT, the Bugatti Chiron, and the Ferrari F40; but also new, innovative, and quirky cars including the Tesla Model 3, the Maserati Ghibli, and the BMW Isetta.In a typical review, DeMuro first addresses exterior and interior "quirks and features", then drives the car, and concludes with giving the car a score between 10 and 100. That score, which he calls the "DougScore", is based on the scores in ten separate categories related to usability and fun. Most of the cars DeMuro reviews are not press cars, but are owned by dealerships and individuals. His YouTube channel has amassed over three million subscribers, as of June 2020. DeMuro also started a second channel called More Doug DeMuro in August 2018, which has over 600,000 subscribers as of June 2020. It features more opinion-based and vlog-style content, as well as question and answer videos.
DeMuro appeared in the Jay Leno's Garage season three episode Larger Than Life, in which he tried to recognize cars while being blindfolded, in June 2017. He worked with Leno again in March 2019, when he reviewed his McLaren F1.
DeMuro launched an auction website for special cars in June 2020 called "Cars & Bids". The first auction on the platform was for his own 2012 Mercedes-Benz E 63 AMG Wagon.
Personal life
DeMuro is married and currently lives in San Diego County, California. He has been living in Southern California since 2018, when he relocated from Philadelphia.Vehicles owned
DeMuro has owned over 25 cars, many of which have appeared on his channel. His first car was a 1996 Volvo 850 sedan that his parents bought for him in September 2004. In September 2018, DeMuro took delivery of a 2005 Ford GT from Karl Brauer, one of his bosses at Autotrader. Karl had sold the 2005 GT to DeMuro so he could make room for his 2019 Ford GT. In October 2019, DeMuro purchased a 1999 Mercedes-Benz G 500 Cabriolet. He announced in June 2020 that he bought a 2018 Kia Stinger GT2 to replace his outgoing 2012 Mercedes-Benz E 63 AMG Wagon.Former
- 1996 Volvo 850 Turbo
- 2001 Audi A4 2.8 quattro
- 2007 Volkswagen GTI
- 1995 Toyota Land Cruiser Prado
- 1998 BMW M3
- 2001 Mercedes-Benz E 55 AMG
- 1993 Mercedes-Benz 500 E
- 2006 Lotus Elise
- 2004 Cadillac CTS-V
- 2002 Mercedes-Benz G 500
- 2001 Porsche 911 Turbo
- 2007 Mercedes-Benz E 63 AMG Wagon
- 1995 Range Rover Classic
- 2006 Range Rover
- 2001 Toyota Prius
- 2009 Nissan Cube
- 2011 Cadillac CTS-V Wagon
- 2004 Ferrari 360 Modena
- 1995 Hummer H1
- 1990 Nissan Skyline GT-R
- 2007 Aston Martin V8 Vantage
- 1997 Dodge Viper GTS
- 1989 Nissan S-Cargo
- 2012 Mercedes-Benz E 63 AMG Wagon
Current
- 1997 Land Rover Defender 90
- 2005 Ford GT
- 1999 Mercedes-Benz G 500 Cabriolet
- 2018 Kia Stinger GT2