SAMA (Southern Automotive Media Association) ended its 2025 calendar year with a festive Sponsor Appreciation Meeting. First and foremost, we would like to thank the manufacturers that so generously sponsored this meeting. They are: Aston Martin, Ford, General Motors, Infiniti, Kia, Lucid, Nissan, Rivian, Rolls-Royce, Stellantis and Subaru.
We are also grateful for the officers and board members who give generously of their time to serve SAMA. Finally, our heartfelt thanks for the members and manufacturers without whom SAMA simply wouldn’t exist.
The year in review – manufacturer events
Besides the manufacturer sponsors mentioned above, a number of them further stepped up and hosted events and luncheons for SAMA members throughout the year.
The Cafecitos con Ford returned for 2025. The first one, held in March, focused on their popular Explorer SUV. The second one, held in May, was a presentation by Ford Credit full of wise car-buying advice.
In April, the Club at Emerald Hills in Hollywood hosted Stellantis’ presentation of the new, fully electric Dodge Charger Daytona.
Moving forward to October, Hyundai hosted its Miami Media Drive for the all-new 2026 Palisade. The evening was capped off by Ejecutiva magazine’s presentation of a 2025 Top Entrepreneur Award to Hyundai Motor America chief operating officer Claudia Márquez.
Beyond the manufacturers
Throughout its nearly 20-year history, SAMA has seen a sprinkling of interesting and informative presentations by companies that are not carmakers per se, but have important connections to the automotive universe. June 2025 saw a couple of these.
The first, by Meguiar’s car care products, gave us many tips on keeping our cars looking new. The first half of the year ended with Michelin’s very informative presentation on their wide variety of quality, long-lasting tires.
September, our most active month
September started with our second Hot Wheels Fun Day at the Miami Cancer Institute. This event, showing several of our most interesting press vehicles to children combating cancer, brought smiles to those brave warriors and their families.
The month ended with a trio of activities: the second annual ChargedUp Miami competition for favorite electrified vehicles; the judging for the SAMA Awards, including the Star of the Miami International Auto Show; and the awards announcement at the Show’s Squadra Lupo display.
As 2025 winds down…
Early December brought us the Negocios and Ejecutiva magazines’ End-of-Year Cocktail, which included a very thoughtful and stimulating discussion on Artificial Intelligence. And, as the end-of-the-year festivities are upon us, SAMA closed out the 2025 calendar year with the Sponsor Appreciation Event pictured throughout this article.
… we look forward to 2026
Among SAMA’s significant milestones for 2025 was finally seeing the official sama.miami website up and running, along with an updated and expanded presence on Instagram. For all this, we owe many thanks to Eduardo Hapke, whose tireless efforts made this dream a reality.
And what can we expect for 2026? Updates and improvements to the sama.miami website, including articles with links to member vehicle reviews. We also hope to offer an active and broad selection of events for our members to enjoy. Here’s to 2026!
Photo credits: #5 (Red Aston Martin) and #9 (María Ravani & Javier Storace): Albert Collazo / All other pictures: Sharbel Murillo
