Dan Neil

Dan Neil is the author of the “Rumble Seat” column which runs Saturdays in The Wall Street Journal.

Previously, Mr. Neil was the auto columnist for the Los Angeles Times from 2003 to 2010. He also wrote the syndicated column “800 Words,” a column about pop culture that was syndicated by Tribune media in 2005 and ran until it was discontinued in 2008.

Mr. Neil began his professional writing career with the Spectator, a local free weekly, and began working for The News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C., as a copy editor in 1989. In 1991 he began the paper’s weekly automotive advertising section. In 1994 he was recruited by AutoWeek magazine as a senior contributing editor and in 1995 he began contributing to The New York Times which continued until 2003. He went to work as a contributing editor at Car and Driver. In 2004 he won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism for his column and to date, is the only car columnist ever to win a Pulitzer. In awarding Mr. Neil, the Pulitzer board praised his “one-of-a-kind reviews of automobiles, blending technical expertise with offbeat humor and astute cultural criticism.”

In addition to winning the Pulitzer Prize, Mr. Neil also won the Ken Purdy Award for Excellence in Automotive Journalism, from the International Motor Press Association, in 2001. He also was selected for Houghton Mifflin’s Best American Sports Writing, 2002.

Mr. Neil received a B.A. degree in Creative Writing from East Carolina University and an M.A. in English Literature from North Carolina State University. He is married and has twin daughters and a son.