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Back in 2007, BMW revealed a high-riding vehicle that would end up changing the SUV market segment forever: the X6. It was presented as a sportier and more aggressive looking version of the practical X5 luxury family hauler. As it turns out, it was about as close to an instant hit if I’ve ever seen such a thing in recent times in the automotive industry, taking buyers by storm, and completely shifting their perspective on what an SUV or crossover can look like.

It threw the familiar two-box design straight out the window and in its place BMW designers imagined a dramatic, sloping rear end design reminiscent of what we might call a fastback design on a lower, non-SUV car. Not everybody liked it to begin with, and many people still find the shape a bit contrived (the author of this article included). I have to admit I wasn’t over the Moon ecstatic when BMW announced it was going to make an X4 (which is nearly identical to the X6, but slightly smaller).

Then, after allowing BMW to have the newly created coupe SUV niche all to itself since 2008, Mercedes launched its own model to go head to head with the X6. By that time, however, the X6 was already in its second generation, and The Three-Pointed Star didn’t really present an innovative looking vehicle, but rather its interpretation of the X6 style grafted onto its GLE (which up until that point was known as the M-Class). Then Mercedes added a smaller version of the GLE, dubbed GLC Coupe, to go head to head with the X4, completely copying what its Bavarian rival did.

However, while nowadays even Renault is preparing a model with a similar shape and the new Geely-owned manufacturer Lynk & Co has one in the works, there are manufacturers out there who have not gone down the same design path when creating their sporty, rakish, coupe-like SUVs. This article focuses on those models whose underlying idea is the same (create a sporty SUV with a coupe twist) but whose execution is different and more original.

Yes, that is right. The 2020 Ford Shelby GT500 will have 3D printed parts! The most expected muscle car of the decade will be partially 3D printed. Well, partially is a slightly too strong word here. It will get two 3D printed parts. However, this made me think about the 3D printing Ford has been screaming about for the last couple of years. It may very well be the biggest change in the world of mass production in ages.

On December 1st, 1913, Henry Ford started the first moving assembly line for the mass production of a car. History.com reports that “his innovation reduced the time it took to build a car from more than 12 hours to two hours and 30 minutes.”

Jump to today, and astounding news has emerged - “The 2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 Have 3D Printed Parts Brakes?”

I wonder, could this innovation be as industry shattering as the first production line was all that time ago? Of course, I am not the only one who thought about this.

"More than 100 years ago, Ford created the moving assembly line, forever changing how vehicles would be mass-produced," Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s President of Global Operations, said in a statement. "Today, we are reinventing tomorrow’s assembly line — tapping technologies once only dreamed of on the big screen — to increase our manufacturing efficiency and quality."

Ford is one of the hundreds (if not thousands) of companies that are working on perfecting the 3D printing process. It has been doing it from the very start (all the way back in the Eighties), but since sometime in early 2000s, it integrated the 3D printing process into its production affairs. The result is a disturbing fact - if by some magic, 3D printing at Ford stopped, the company would not be able to produce cars.

At all.

"We touch a significant portion of the vehicle with 3D printing now," said Harold Sears, Technical Expert of rapid manufacturing technologies with Ford’s manufacturing division. "We’re prototyping virtually everything [using 3D printing] from the road to roof."

So, what the hell does all of this have with the Shelby GT500?

These are some facts you have to know:

Most cars you can buy nowadays are designed to look like wedges that seem as if they’re on the move when standing still. However, there are still those models that buck the trend, adopting a boxier and generally more upright look.

Some do it for functionality, others for pure style, but what’s certain is these boxy models don’t really constitute the norm, and you have to really do a thorough search to find them. This list doesn’t include Japanese Kei cars or JDM models in general (since we’d fill the list quite quickly), but I have included one Kei entry just to show a style of small car that is most popular in Japan.

You really won’t find them outside Japan, so elsewhere you have to look harder to get your boxy car and/or SUV kicks. From 2009 until 2014, Nissan sold the asymmetrical Cube people carrier outside Japan and that car would have made a great poster vehicle for this article, but now it’s been relegated to JDM-only status so that won’t work...

But, thankfully, such models do exist, if we concentrate on the sort of vehicles you can buy in North America and Europe. Here’s our list of the ten boxiest cars available in these regions, plus one super-boxy Kei car to represent Japan.

The Toyota RAV4 just marked its fifth generation for the 2019 model year, and now comes with a fresh Adventure grade designed specifically for light off-roading duty. The question is - how does it fare against established competitors like the Jeep Cherokee and Subaru Forester?

The official debut of the new 2020 Chevy Silverado HD is expected in February 2019 - probably at the Chicago Auto Show. Chevy, however, grew some balls and actually revealed first photos of the 2020 Silverado HD. Bask in the greatness of the new 2020 Silverado HD. Or don’t! The design turned out to be one of the most astoundingly courageous styling experiments in the industry. The front end looks so much “out there” that, from the looks of things, it seems that Chevy has done too much. GM designers are probably reliving the nightmare that they had with the introduction of the latest Camaro. Remember, that one received an “overnight” update after some massive hate from the whole freaking world.

The new Silverado HD, however, had to be as mad as it is.

"We set out to make a statement with the 2020 Silverado HD and wanted to visually capture the power and capability of the truck," Brian Izard, the pickup’s lead exterior designer, said. "The result is a truck that looks like a piece of heavy machinery with modern, chiseled finishes and customer-focused details."

Well, it certainly looks like a piece of machinery, but that is only one of its traits (to some alluring, to many incomprehensive). While information on the new 2020 Chevrolet Silverado is still largely hidden, I managed to find some cool facts that will make the new 2020 Silverado HD closer to you.

Out of all those new cars out there, which ones have more promise that is untapped by the manufacturer? These cars are already good, but at the same time, they could be significantly improved with sometimes minimal modifications. In other words, they have what it takes but just need to be honed that little bit more to achieve their full potential.

In case you were unaware, FCA stole the show this year at SEMA. The big headline was the Hellephant, a 1,000-horsepower monster that’s looking to curb stomp the competition as the most powerful crate engine ever offered by an OEM. We’re so excited about it that we decided to put together a list of cars that we think need a Hellephant under the hood, with entries ranging from the obvious to the slightly insane.

Of course, it’s worth mentioning that the Hellephant is designed for either off-road applications or smog-exempt pre-1976 vehicles. Regardless, we’re sticking to our guns on this one in the hopes that one of you crazy wrench-turners gets inspired to create one of these wild beasts.

The 2020 Range Rover Evoque and the 2020 Audi Q3 have both appeared in last six months. Not only do they compete in the same segment, but actually target exactly the same buyers - fashion-conscious buyers who live in urban areas but do an occasional adventurous stint. I do not want to sound like a chauvinist, but it seems that both of these machines do play a game to win women’s’ hearts. I am not making this up. Just at last years’ Los Angeles Auto Show, the Audi Q3 won the Womens’ Choice Awards. And, back in the day when Range Rover revealed its first Evoque, it employed Victoria Beckham to design some details of the interior. You may call me whatever you like, but this shows the obvious intentions of these two. They did it before and they are doing it now as well. Plus, when you see it on the road, note who is behind the wheel. A boy or a girl.

There is only one massive change compared with the cars of before - the Audi grew by quite a bit. The Evoque did not. At all. Nevertheless, both companies do look to cash in on the same virtues as before. They are zippy around town, astutely fast on the autobahn, look exceptionally well in traffic, and feature a host of technology to make even the sanest man go mad. Sorry, but that’s what it takes today to be a hit.

2018 has been a big sales year for automakers in the U.S. From January to October 2018, car sales in the U.S. have reached 14,262,604 sold units. That represents a 0.2 percent increase in total sales compared to the first ten months of 2017. If you take it from that perspective, Americans are buying more vehicles this year than they did last year. But there are a lot of pieces involve in this numbers, too. These pieces paint a more accurate picture of the automotive landscape in the U.S. in 2018. Sales of light trucks — these include SUVs and pickups are up 8.3 percent compared to their sales numbers from January to October 2017.

On the other hand, sales of passenger vehicles, including sedans, are down 13.3 percent in the same period. This tells us that more and more American buyers are buying SUVs and pickups compared to sedans. It’s no surprise, then, that when we compiled the top 10 list of best-selling vehicles in the U.S. in the first ten months of the year, the upper half of that list was dominated by, you guessed it, pickups and SUVs.

The best full-sized pickups in the market are often those that give you the best of a lot of worlds. It’s not enough for a pickup to look good or boast a luxurious interior. It’s not even enough to have the most powerful engine. A good pickup has all of those things to go with impressive handling and driving qualities, as well as towing and hauling capabilities. Like the image the segment presents as do-it-all vehicles, a good pickup has to, quite literally, do it all. That said, not every pickup can do it as well as some of its contemporaries. There are those that excel in a few things but don’t much up as well in other respects. Then there are those that not only excel at one thing; they excel at everything. On that end, we’ve made a list of the best full-sized pickups in the market today, ranked from last to first.

As many classic cars as the industry has, there are just as many lemons. Some of these lemons still exist today, but a lot have been parked to the annals of history. In this space, we’re going to take a look back at some of the most infamous automotive lemons that have entered our lives. They were bad back then, but imagine what they’d be like if they were still around today. We’re not praying for that day to come, hence our wish that we never see these cars again.

We live in an age when bad automotive trends are spreading like wildfire, with manufacturers inexplicably copying one another helping proliferate them, despite their obvious downsides. It’s as if originality is not as important anymore, and most automakers are just content to just reimagine what other companies are doing, if whatever it is that they are doing seems successful.

The 992-generation Porsche 911 is nearly upon us. Set to break cover at the2018 Los Angeles Auto Show, the new-generation 911 will bring a new yet still familiar design forward, new technology under the skin, and a crop of revised turbocharged engines. While the oily bits are still being kept under wraps, the exterior design is no longer a mystery. What has changed for the new generation styling-wise? Find out in the comparison below.

SUVs may have taken over the auto world, but they’re not the only vehicle types that are the rage these days. Pickup trucks have exploded in popularity too, in large part because of their versatility, functionality, and all-around capabilities. A lot of today’s pickups were born from ideas that were developed over time in the past. Some ideas took longer to marinate while others arrived like Eureka moments. Oftentimes, these ideas evolve into concept vehicles, and depending on how the public reacts to these concepts; they either end up on the shelf or on the production line. On that note, a lot of concept pickups have been introduced in past years, including these eight forgotten models that deserve to have their names return to the spotlight, even for just a fleeting moment.

As one of the most successful Land Rover products of all time, the Range Rover Evoque has just been thoroughly reworked. Despite looking eerily similar to the first generation car, the new Evoque is actually entirely new - based on an all-new platform, with all new exterior and interior looks, and most importantly, with the tech that complements the change and launches the Evoque into the premium stardom of the future better than ever before. As you may know by now, the looks in themselves do not make a car premium.

Heritage, brand recognition, buyer base and, of course, the technology, do that as well. One needs to build on all of these virtues to be considered premium. And, the Range Rover Evoque has it all. Novel approach by its engineers injects a new life into it with the help of the introduction of some amazing features.

I am listing ten must known facts about the 2019 Land Rover Range Rover Evoque. It’s quite something.

For a while now, direct injection (DI) engines have been all the rave: boasting better efficiency, more power, better economy. Sounds wonderful, right? Who wouldn’t want that? Well, DI engines have a dirty, dirty little secret that you will not discover until you are deep into a relationship with them. DI engines have much higher maintenance requirements and associated costs. If you ignore those requirements, the cost is going to compound itself many times over in the form of major repairs. If you’re thinking you’re going to save a few bucks at the pump, you had better save those few bucks because you’re going to need them..

There’s a saying in the auto industry that “every new idea is a good idea.” There’s a kernel of truth in that because the best and most popular cars are all born from ideas. But there’s a flip side to that saying, too. Just because every new idea is a good idea, it doesn’t mean that these good ideas end up as good products. Time and again, we’ve seen automakers take a promising concept and lose the plot completely when the production version comes out. Every company has experienced something along these lines, but we’ve singled out ten vehicles that serve as the best examples of highly anticipated cars that turned out to be let-downs. Granted, some of these vehicles had their moments in the sun, but those moments were fleeting. In the end, we all remember them for what they could’ve been. They’re not necessarily lemons, but they still leave a sour taste in our mouths.

As of recently, camping in the back of a car has become a popular alternative to the traditional approach of tent camping. Why? Well, there’s no fumbling with a tent, which can be a hassle depending on how patient and resilient a person is.

There’s also a reduced risk of being surprised by strong winds or turned weather. Since campers are also encased in a large metal chassis, there is a better sense of safety against bugs or nosy, hungry animals.

It’s an attractive substitute on many levels. So, what if a curious camper is on a budget? To help get the ball rolling, I’ve comprised an Amazon Prime list of gear to get started under $200.

When camping, there are three major components that will make or break a great experience: Food, rest, and lighting.

For over five decades we’ve been teased with various Corvette concepts displaying the idea that the engine should be moved from just in front of the cabin to behind the rear seats. While this idea might seem ludicrous to purists, we know that it will finally become a reality with the forthcoming C8. But there wouldn’t have been a C8 without all the prototypes that preceded it.

If everything we’ve seen and heard in the past couple of years regarding the 8th generation of the Chevrolet Corvette is true, and there’s little doubt about it, the C7 will become the final front-engined Corvette because the C8 is bound to have the engine where rivaling Lamborghinis and Ferraris have had it since forever - behind the front seats. A few camouflaged prototypes have been seen testing over the past few months and, while we aren’t sure about its name, we know that it’ll be based on a new platform and it will cost a whole lot more than the current model.

The best view we’ve got of the new Chevrolet sports car is of a mule testing at the Nurburgring-Nordschleife in Germany. It features a radically different design although some design cues from the current model, like the side air vents up front, remain. We don’t know what engine will power the new car, pundits reporting that a racing version seen testing at Road America might sport a V-6, and we might not get much more insight on it until next year’s Detroit Auto Show where, supposedly, Chevy will take the wraps off the new model. Until then, here’s a look at the plethora of prototypes that predated it.

Aston Martin is going in. All in with an SUV. The DBX prototype it showed only weeks ago confirmed the company’s intention to build high-end luxury SUVs, now plastered with Aston Martin design cues, sophisticated overall looks, and technology to compete with novel entries such as the Lambo Urus and any of the Porsche Cayennes. The DBX prototype may not be fully revealed yet, but I have enough to go on to compare it with the DBX Concept that appeared in 2015. The SUV that will eventually reach the market in 2020 takes the conventional shape of a modern SUV but with a few curious touches that will make it somewhat special among a number of competitors. Interestingly enough, it did forgo all the cool touches we have seen on the DBX concept. It is a completely different beast.

With the impending introduction of the new 2020 Jeep Gladiator, I just have to look back at Jeep history and actually compare it with the 2005 Jeep Gladiator Concept. Normally, this would have to wait until its official debut, but thanks to leaked (and what we believe to be official) images, we can diving into comparing old and new straight away. The spiritual concept predecessor appeared in November 2004 and actually represented the then-new Wrangler JK. Of course, I am sure that by its unveiling Jeep wanted to research the market and gain potential customer feedback. Obviously, before a great return of one-ton trucks in the U.S. (like the Ford Ranger and Chevy Colorado, for instance) the Jeep one-ton pickup wouldn’t be a logical option. Now, it is, and before the official introduction next week, I am giving you the first chance to see just how different the new 2020 Jeep Gladiator is compared with the Gladiator Concept from 2004.

After photographs of the new 2020 Jeep Gladiator leaked into the ocean that is the Internet, every single publication started to scrutinize every single piece of information available. Before I get into details of the 2020 Jeep Gladiator, I have to tell you something else. For the past few weeks, the three most important car news that appeared aren’t about cars. One is the leak of the baby Bronco, the other is the Aston Martin DBX, and the third is, well, this one - the Jeep Gladiator. See, we live in a world with fantastic roads that stretch everywhere. So, you can basically drive your sedan, sports car, or wagon (if you really must) everywhere, but you are still choosing SUVs, trucks, and other utility vehicles. The timing for this Jeep pickup truck is probably just on point. The Colorado spruced the segment; the Ranger drizzled it with sparkles, and the Frontier, well, it was there all along. Jeep will join this amazing lineup with its one-ton, mid-size Jeep Gladiator - a new truck that will debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show.

We recently posted an article that argued that the 2019 Toyota RAV4 hybrid is the way forward for the compact crossover segment, lauding its combination of comfort, practicality, technology, and most critically, efficiency. However, Toyota isn’t the only automaker in this space, with both Nissan and Subaru offering competing models that could very well steal sales from the T-badge. But how do these three look in a direct comparison?