Midsize Cars

The world can never have enough lowrider trucks, especially if they’re vintage and are customized tastefully. Autotopia recently covered a customized 1968 F-100 that looks great and features a Mustang V-8 crate engine. The truck was originally a magazine project for Classic Trucks, but went on sale last year and was purchased at an auction by the current owner. Looks neat, doesn’t it?

The Santa Cruz was one of the most anticipated vehicles from Hyundai for the better part of the last decade. The company unveiled it as a concept back in 2015 at the Detroit Motor Show and there were a lot of eyes on it since it was the automaker’s first pickup truck. Fast forward to 2021, the Santa Cruz is finally unveiled and the automaker has taken a different approach to it. Hyundai is referring to the Santa Cruz as a Sport Adventure Vehicle and not a pickup truck. We don’t know what the reason for this is, but the Korean automaker is coming across as a little defensive here and not as a niche-maker.

That said, the truck, err., SAV, does look pretty fancy and seems to be quite rugged and tough. The truck will be available from the summer of 2021. Also, doesn’t BMW also call the X7 an SAV? The ‘A’ there stands for ‘Activity’, I believe.

We finally get to see what the new 2022 Honda Civic sedan will look like as Honda was kind enough to publish a picture of the road-going model, an evolution of the Civic Prototype unveiled in November 2020.

Jeep has refreshed the Euro-spec Compass but it gives us a good preview of what to expect from the U.S.-spec model that will arrive later this year. The 2022 Jeep Compass comes with exterior and interior cosmetic upgrades, and some tech features inside the cabin. This compass also comes with a new plug-in hybrid powertrain called the 4xe. Trivia: This is the first Jeep launch in Europe after incorporating it into the Stellantis umbrella.

Outside of the likes of BMW, Mercedes, and a few others, the concept of sporty and quick sedans is slowly dying off as people look to either bigger, similarly quick, vehicles or smaller two-door sports cars. Then you’ve got brands like Hyundai that seems to either not care or wants to keep the thrill of driving alive, and this is where the Hyundai Sonata N-Line comes in. It’s based on your typical midsized family sedan but is injected with enough sporty DNA that it stands out both visually and in terms of performance. Of course, we’re not talking Porsche Panamera or Dodge Challenger levels of performance, but affordable performance – something that, arguably, gives you a bigger bang for your buck. Here’s what you need to know about the Sonata N-Line and why you should consider it for your next daily driver.

This is the all-new Hyundai Santa Cruz, a pickup we’ve been waiting for for six years now. So get ready, Ford Maverick, because the Koreans are out to get you and your fancy unibody construction.

Illinois-based Maxlider Motors is famous for creating custom Broncos. This includes proper conversions as well as restorations. The company rolls out almost 100 Bronco every year out of the factory and seems to be on the verge of expanding its horizon now. Maxlider Motors has developed a Midnite Edition for the 2021 Ford F-150. It includes new shoes, suspension upgrades, and the likes. But, surprisingly, the aftermarket company left the engine untouched. From the looks of it, the package looks swell. Care to buy it?

Mitsubishi revealed the 2022 Outlander which marks its fourth-generation in the U.S. It comes with a whole lot of changes on the outside and under the skin. The flagship vehicle rides on a new platform, is powered by a new engine, and is redesigned on the outside and inside. While there is only one engine and transmission option, you can have it with either a two-wheel-drive or a four-wheel-drive layout. The 2022 Outlander will arrive at the dealerships in April 2021.

About three years ago, the most heavily-modified Honda Civics in the US gathered on a runway and had a drag race. Two of the cars pushed well-over 1,000 horsepower, but the winner was a relatively stock-looking EG hatchback, with 900 horsepower and all-wheel-drive conversion. Needless to say, the car proved a point – power is nothing without control. Fast-forward three years and AWD high-horsepower Civic builds are starting to become more mainstream. The YouTube channel “That Racing Channel” (TRC) stumbled upon one of them.

Before embracing the muscle car vibe, Dodge was all about making a halo car able to compete with and even outdo the Corvette. While the fruit of the labor of Dodge’s skunkworks ended up being a front-engined, rear-wheel-drive gorilla of a car that’s glorified even almost 30 years after its launch, the story could’ve been entirely different if a largely forgotten concept from 1988 had been given the upper hand. That concept was the Intrepid.

Let me introduce you to the Kia K5 midsize sedan – a car that really doesn’t need much of an introduction because you’ve known it as the Kia Optima ever since it hit the market back in 2000, but I’ll discuss that a bit later. Like the Optima, the K5 is known for its attractive styling, sexy yet functional interior, and – naturally – a great value for the money. Highlights of the new k5 (or 5th-gen Optima, if you like) are even bolder styling, new engine offerings, and, believe it or not, available all-wheel drive. Pricing for the new Kia K5 starts out at a very reasonable $23,590 (making it one of the most affordable midsize cars on the market) with the loaded, more powerful, range-topping GT trim commanding just $30,590. With this in mind, is the Kia K5 right for you? Keep reading to find out.

Back in February this year, Nissan unveiled the third-gen of the Qashqai compact crossover. It has been quite a seller in Europe, with over three million examples sold so far since its inception 14 years back. The third-gen Qashqai rides on a new platform, features changes inside out, and comes with hybrid engine options only. There has been a lot of weight-saving measures, too, which will result in the crossover being more efficient than before. All these changes come at a cost, which results in the 2021 Qashqai being significantly more expensive than the outgoing model.

Indiana-based Lingenfelter Performance Engineering, known for its GM builds, has come up with a package for the Blazer that turns it into a powerful SUV. It includes the supercharger that adds almost 150 horses to the V-6’s stock power output. There are some exterior mods as well, but they are quite subtle and won’t look suspiciously different in a crowd. It’s still no performance SUV, but it will make the Blazer look a little more desirable.

There was a scare back in the day that Kia might send the Stinger into oblivion, but fortunately, that didn’t happen. Almost nine months after it was unveiled in Korea, the updated Stinger has finally been launched in the U.S. Even though we knew what to expect from Kia’s halo sports sedan, we’re still pretty excited about it. The car comes with many new features inside out, but the talking point is a powerful 2.5-liter mill that replaces the 2.0-liter engine seen on the base trim so far.

With single-turbo or twin-turbo engines so popular today in BMW’s stable, it’s easy to overlook the fact that back in the late 1980s-early 1990s, the Bavarians built a performance sedan that had some BMW M1 DNA baked in under the hood. That performance sedan was the E34 M5, which happens to get the DeMuro treatment - and a Doug score, of course.

Skoda has long been the popular brand choice for pragmatic people who want a comfortable and practical commuter. The Octavia makes the backbone of the lineup and is one of its most popular models. The Octavia has always been about getting a lot of a car at an affordable price. But with new cars having more and more tech on board, cars are gradually rising up in value. This begs the question, can the best-seller of the Czech brand still be at the top of its game?

Ford Ranger is a capable midsize truck with a lot of potential for off-road and performance-oriented mods. Ford has denied us the pleasure of the Ranger Raptor in the U.S. market, but it has been a boon to the aftermarket companies who are filling this vacuum with their respective iterations. The latest one to do so is Roush Performance. Roush has taken the 2021 Ranger under its wing and turned it into an off-road beast.

Hyundai has a fairly long lineup of sedans and SUVs. With that covered, the company now plans to enter the pickup truck market, too. Back in 2015, Hyundai revealed the Santa Cruz truck concept at the Detroit Auto Show. Not a lot is known about the production model yet, but it will be based on the new Tucson SUV and will have a unibody construction. The truck has been spotted a few times over the years during its test runs, but we’re yet to see it without camouflage. The production is set to begin this year, and Hyundai could debut it sometime next year with deliveries starting soon after.

The new C4 is here and brings in what can be described as the French equivalent of retro-futurist design. This is especially interesting since Citroens of old were very advanced cars for their time and they also looked futuristic. Because of this, it may seem strange that we are talking about retro-futuristic aesthetics. That is until you look at some of their older models like the Citroen CX or SM. The C4 and now the e-C4 continue to be the backbone of Citroen’s lineup, but will quirky design and modern technology be enough to compete with the best?