Auto reporter/columnist Brown leaving Washington Post

Warren Brown, who has written about the auto industry for The Washington Post since 1982, is ending his Cars column.

In his last column, Brown writes, “It is appropriate that I finish this last column for The Washington Post on Christmas Eve. It is an ending and beginning — for me and, looking forward, for the global automobile industry.”

After covering the auto industry for the business news section, Brown became a freelancer for the Post in 2009 but continued to write the column. In 2012, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award during the 16th Annual Urban Wheel Awards.

Martha Hamilton, a business news co-worker from the Washington Post, gave Brown a kidney in November 2001. Hamilton and Brown went on to write a book, “Black, White, and Red all over.”

Brown has a bachelor’s degree from Xavier University in New Orleans and a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University.