Now’s the time. All those hours of you obsessive over cars, staring at them, taking pictures of them, dreaming about them — now’s the time to put that to use, because I just got off the phone with Detective Currier of the Capitola Police Department in California, and: He needs our help. Let’s put our heads together and identify this car involved in a hit-and-run.
“[Helping us determine] the make and model is huge,” he said. “You let the auto body shops know, you let the public know…Knowing the make and model is huge for us.”
Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of great photos of the suspect’s vehicle. “There is no debris left there…The still shots that you had seen is in fact our best view of the vehicle right now,” he said, referring to these two:
“I’m not sure. I can’t tell based on the Angle,” Currier told me over the phone. One witness said they think it’s an Expedition or 4Runner, while another said it’s a Mazda SUV, per Currier.
So dear Autopian readers: Let us know: What car is this in these screenshots? Let’s help Detective Currier solve this case.
Here are a few things to note:
- It appears to be an SUV of sorts.
- The antenna is a sharkfin-style, and it’s on the rear part of the roof.
- The headlights appear slim in this picture and wrap around the corner of the car.
- The taillights have two distinct horizontal lighting signatures, with the top longer than the bottom.
- The wheels are five-spokes with fairly wide looking spokes that don’t appear to be perfectly smooth.
- The vehicle is likely longer than it appears above in the stitched image
UPDATE: From Deputy Currier: “Attached is a Ring camera video showing the vehicle driving from right to left. Should be at the 18 second mark. It has bright LED Lights”:
And here’s a screengrab of the headlight behind a dumpster:
Is the video even the correct vehicle? There’s only one vehicle going right to left in that time range on the video. As it’s maybe 3/4 the way to the left, is a good view of the rear. The taillights clearly look like 3 square-ish panels with the middle panel not quite as bright. No hint of a horizontal split whatsoever. Where as a horizontal split is clear in the still photo. Also the video shows more of a rear face mounted taillight, where as the still photo shows more of a corner mounted taillight.
I posted this more than a day ago but it’s stuck in approval hell, so I’ve broken all the links. Just remove all the commas.
I’m willing to bet it’s a new gen Pilot, LX trim.
See this night drive: h,tt,ps://w,ww.y,o,u,t,u,b,e,.com/watch?v=bmqqoN3zfWI
Notice the single-line headlights with the slight ledge below them, just like the video.
At 1:03, note the two bar taillights, with the top wrapping around slightly larger. These are also far thicker than the rear lights on the Genesis GV70/80, excluding that. The Genesises also have a bigger shark fin.
Here is a video of a LX with no rails and the exact same 5 spoke rims. ht,tps://ww,w.y,o,u,t,u,b,e,.com/watch?v=8spsE2q7ovs
The 5 spokes seen here also have thicker rubber than the ones on the Genesises, and they also are swoopier on them.
Also some general design characteristics seem to match, the roof slopes down to the back (the stitched photo is slightly misrepresentative, the rear should be slightly lower, not the blurry floorboard) and the windshield/hood angles are the same in the pics and with the Pilot. The plate lights seem to be in the same place, the spoiler matches, and you can even see the strip of speaker/trim/whatever on the dash (h,ttps,://cdn.j,d,p,o,w,e,r,.com/JDP_2023%20Honda%20Pilot%20Interior%20Dashboard%20Elite%20Trim.jpg).
This is a 2013-2015 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport Ultimate.
Factory HIDs (not blotchy like aftermarket). Rear shot in video shows a single lens with horizontal reflector in the bumper (that goes away after the car rounds the corner). 5 spoke wheels that are actually twin spoke.
Roof looks flat but it’s actually a panoramic. Check out the slight texture transition right at the light flare in the rear shot, you’ll see the same texture change in the front. Rails a super short but they are there.
The taillights are throwing everyone off because people are looking for a split from ground height. Imagine an elevated angle where one light has two elements in a single lens.
https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a15106964/2015-hyundai-santa-fe-sport-awd-20t-test-review/
I agree with Crank Shaft and GK450 (and probably others have said so earlier too)- This looks to be a 2023 or 2024 Honda Pilot, and most likely an EX-L or possibly an LX. See the linked detective-show-inspired collage of clipped, circled and strung-together images with explanatory text. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OjGc54iI_nE3tPYCyfK9alSWkyG6JSPA/view?usp=sharing
Nice work! 🙂
I’ve been driving my truck all day today looking down at the roofs of homoge-mobiles of this size.
It turns out flat roofs free of structural wrinkles, rails or sunroofs are few and far between.
The only two I saw in traffic all day that also had five spoke wheels and similar separated red bands of tail lights where a Honda Pilot and an Acura MDX.
I’m not the first to say it, but it’s definitely a 23-24 Pilot. The lack of roof rails and a sunroof match both the LX base model and the EX-L match, but the silver 5-spoke wheels are only available on the LX. Furthermore, the taillight shape matches, with a “line” of light on the top and bottom of the light, with the turn signal in the middle as seen here. The thin headlights seem to match, as well as the rear overhang and side profile. Here’s the side profile of a gray LX model, if you imagine this in black it’s spot on.
The front wheel to headlight distance seems to match as well, which others have noted doesn’t match a GV80 or Discovery. I hate how much I keep changing my mind on this, but I think a 23-24 Pilot is a good match. The Pilot tail lights are also more similar to the picture by not wrapping around as much as the GV80 and Discovery.
I’m willing to bet it’s a new gen Pilot, LX trim.
See this night drive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmqqoN3zfWI
Notice the single-line headlights with the slight ledge below them, just like the video.
At 1:03, note the two bar taillights, with the top wrapping around slightly larger. These are also far thicker than the rear lights on the Genesis GV70/80, excluding that. The Genesises also have a bigger shark fin.
Here is a video of a LX with no rails and the exact same 5 spoke rims. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8spsE2q7ovs
The 5 spokes seen here also have thicker rubber than the ones on the Genesises, and they also are swoopier on them.
Also some general design characteristics seem to match, the roof slopes down to the back (the stitched photo is slightly misrepresentative, the rear should be slightly lower, not the blurry floorboard) and the windshield/hood angles are the same in the pics and with the Pilot. The plate lights seem to be in the same place, the spoiler matches, and you can even see the strip of speaker/trim/whatever on the dash (https://cdn.jdpower.com/JDP_2023%20Honda%20Pilot%20Interior%20Dashboard%20Elite%20Trim.jpg).
It is a 2023 or 2024 Honda Pilot!
I like where your head is at. Having followed one home last night, the taillights looked right. The headlights look right. I see the LX and EX-L have no roof rail. It has enough front and rear overhang. The hood doesn’t look quite right to me, but it could be the light. The windshield angle looks good.
This is the best theory at this point, I think.
The LX and the EX-L also have fog lights that match up.
I really hope I’m not wrong, but I can’t find anything that excludes it and everything about the 2023 EX-L model seem to match, including the light blue color availability and the 5 spoke wheels.
Props to Alex. He got there first.
2023/4 Pilot in the new body style def looks like it could be a fit. It doesn’t come in green, but I’m not sure we can trust the color from the pic. Could be blue being hit with a yellow light. There are a couple of wheel options that match what we see in the photo, and the tail lights are a good match.
Oooh, well done, I think this ticks all of the boxes. This side profile photo convinced me:
2023HOS030003_1280_03 (555×416) (consumerreports.org)
I’m probably off as the tail lights don’t seem quite right but the headlights to me look like 2021ish Buick Enclave.
Please help by doing what I am. Specifically, go to the following site and change the model year in the link. This way we can methodically work back through every possibility. One of you will be the lucky winner!
https://www.cars.com/research/suv/2023/?page=1&page_size=40
I’m leaning toward mid 2000’s Highlander. Here’s a link to a marked up version of the image I did with a few thoughts:
Two things which don’t match to it being a Highlander:
It looks to me like a Genesis GV80. The lights seem to match, and it’s sold in that shade of green
I’m 95% certain it’s a 2018 Ford Explorer.
You can tell most easily from photos of that model’s rear quarter panel, especially with the “snowflake” wheels. You can also tell from the security camera photo of the front of it it has a yellow running light in the back of the headlight cluster, exactly where the Explorer has it.
See this picture
Land Rover Discovery
Shark fin forward of the hatch parting line, the tail and head lights wrapping around in two lines, slight drop off curve of rear roof slight rounding and undercut ass end.
I think it may also be a 4th gen RAV4. From the video, the placement of the taillight and the reflector as well as the shark fin antenna. I also think it may be blue from the video. Also from the comparison to the truck as it passes and the Focus that follows, it appears to be more of a mid-size/compact CUV.
Regarding the two tail lights; could it be that one of the two happens to be the right indicator light? Would that make any sense given the road situation at that point? Or maybe the hazardlights are still on at that point after having stopped? If so, this could be a 2015/2016 Toyota Highlander with the indicator light on.
I believe it is a late model Equinox. I saw it earlier and thought it might be a pilot, but i just got an ad from budget for a rental equinox, and it fits this almost exactly.
Earlier, I thought it was an Audi, but I was behind an Equinox today, the taillights almost match from the side, especially when in motion
https://www.motortrend.com/cars/chevrolet/equinox/2023/photos/
The first thing I thought was Hyundai Veracruz.
https://carfax-img.vast.com/carfax/v2/1229810254721516329/1/344×258
The headlights might not mean much due to LEDs being inexpensive and plentiful.