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:
Looks a like a newer Chevy Traverse. The wheels look distinctly like the hubcaps some of the LS models came with. These lower spec models never had roof racks. The shark fin antenna fits as well.
This was my thought also. 2018ish Traverse. Lower trims came without roof rack and could be had with the same type of wheels.
I think you might be right. The traverse or LR discovery, both with certain wheels. The lights fit both also.
I cant guess any closer than that.It’s super hard knowing where to join the two halves as there’s obvious lens distortion happening
Except for the attachment it looks like a hatchback
Here’s what I’ve gotten to at this point in order of importance to figure out in reverse order: #3. The wheels and both sets of lights and roof rack delete could be aftermarket, so those can be very, well, variable. #2. The antenna is a pretty hard (or stupid) thing to alter so that seems like a decent parameter as a secondary clue. #1. Wheelbase and, if possible to determine, ground clearance/overall height need to be the first thing to pinpoint
I’m not gonna be the Sheloock here as SUVs are not in my wheelhouse (badumbump) but it would seem that working from 1-3 on my list would be the best way to go about it.
I’m not sure the right-to-left SUV in the Ring camera video at 0:18 is the same.
The Ring video suggests a mostly “racetrack” rounded rectangle taillight as it drives away. The license plate lighting is similar to the taillights, but could easily be aftermarket.
Another thing to note in the Ring video is the low position of the rear reflectors, down in the bumper.
These details aren’t an exact match, but are overall very much like a 2017-2019 GMC Acadia. The shark fin location also matches. The racetrack doesn’t appear to be as completely closed as those on the Ring video, and earlier and later versions of the Acadia have entirely differently shaped taillights.
It might be an artifact of the Ring camera, but it seems like the black car in question does not make the same shrill Doppler effect noises as the other cars do as they pass. Could it be electric?
I think that may be largely a result of the closer car passing from the other side at the same time. I hate Ring’s audio distortion.
It seems to me like it matches the other car that goes that direction (both are quieter than the nearer lane vehicles), but gets lost in the audio of the nearer car briefly.
My guess would be a Toyota Highlander. I think the double tail lights is actually the right indicator light as well as a brake light activation. There is a possible indicator showing in the location of a side mirror. The long shape of the front lights would also point to an indicator along with the headlights. Have a look at this image:
https://www.chicagotoyota.com/used/Toyota/2023-Toyota-Highlander-chicago-il-24cca8d00a0e0a931dba26b95c445a8b.htm
Even without a complete picture, we should be able to figure out some of the demisions of this car. For instance, in the picture of the back half, the rear overhang is considerable. Let’s make a reasonable assumption that those are roughly 18-19 inch rims. Using that as a measuring stick, can someone approximate the length of the rear overhang (I’m on my mobile at the moment)?
Dimensions?
Yes, obviously… voice to text struggles with word like that.
VTT picks words that don’t exist? Weird, but ok.
So, aside from picking at people for obvious typos, did you have anything productive to add to this discussion??
Another vote for a Landrover Disco, circa 2017-2018. I’m not seeing the Escape, this vehicle is too big to be a compact SUV. Genesis GV-something also seems reasonable but I’ve never paid much attention to those…
In the pic it almost looks like dark/black with a white roof. You could get a LR Evoque in that combo, but the tail lights look more LR Disco. Maybe the Evoque also had those lights in some years?
This community is amazing. The woman killed is my good friends mother in law. The family is distraught and any help is greatly appreciated. She was about the nicest woman you would ever hope to meet and this all is just unimaginable.
Love this group.
Oh how I wish there was a video from the other side of the road. I could make out the CR-V plain as day traveling in the opposite direction, but the subject car is too far away and too distorted no matter how many times I pause the video. It also doesn’t help that the oncoming vehicle obscures it with its headlights.
My only thought at the moment is the wheels make it appear to be a vehicle on the lower end of that model’s lineup as they’re kinda generic.
Yeah, it also doesn’t seem to have a moonroof
Im thinking 2008-2013 Highlander
https://cdcssl.ibsrv.net/autodata/images/?img=CAB80TOS142C0102.jpg&width=660
That gen didn’t have the shark fin antenna.
2017 Land Rover Discovery Sport
I don’t think it’s a Mercedes or Highlander, it’s too small. Watch the ring doorbell video and you get the scale of the car compared to others. It looks like a smaller CUV. Let’s break down 3 key items here. 1 taillights – looks like a 2020ish Land Rover Discovery Sport. They have a split tail lights just like the one in the image. 2 – Headlights – the headlights have a kink at the top, just like a Land Rover Discovery sport. It also has day running lights which form a second row on the bottom. 3 – wheels – 5 grouped/ split spokes. The Discovery once again has these as an option. And the shark fin is also present on the discovery sport. Also let’s look at the low mounted reflectors – they too match.
Here’s another wrench to throw in the works: I don’t think the car in the video and the car in the stills are the same car. Video car’s taillights are FCA, probably 2015ish Jeep Cherokee. Still photo car isn’t that at all, and it’s bigger.
I was going to say the same thing: in the video, the vehicle at the 18-second mark moving right to left looks to be approximately the same wheelbase, or shorter, as the car that crosses in front of it. Looks surprisingly stocky. Not the same as the still photos…
Agreed. That does not appear to be the same car at all.
Definitely different cars. Those taillights are nothing alike.
Also the car in the video is blue, the car in the stills is green.
The only thing I can’t place is the sharkfin antenna, but I think the rest of the evidence looks pretty good for it to be a post 2010 Toyota Highlander Hybrid (because of the 2 red bar tail lights) which was available (I think) with factory 5 spokes with a cut out in the spoke
My first thought was this when I saw the taillights
Highlander got a shark fin antenna in 2014. And it came in green.
https://inhabitat.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2013/12/2014_Toyota_Highlander_Hybrid_Platinum_30.jpg
if it helps, as the embedded player won’t let you go frame by frame, the video is available at this url: https://images-stag.jazelc.com/uploads/theautopian-m2en/Ring_Driveway_20231118_2028.mp4
(hope the Autopians in charge don’t mine me posting the link, delete this post if you do)
Saturn Vue is what I keep coming back to seeing.
Friend of mine with a sharp eye for these sort of details wants to add a vote for mid 2010s Ford Escape based on the taillights and wheels
Weird guess: 2015ish Ford Edge with a broken outer light bar, but working brake lights. I found a couple posts with this and the lights have that stacked design if the outer ring light isn’t working.
https://www.fordedgeforum.com/uploads/monthly_2020_02/1076399131_SETaillightparking.jpg.b04323f6afb83d4025cfe82ee5ae389a.jpg
https://images.etrailer.com/static/images/pics/r/i/rid1333693_r1_1000.jpg
Seems like these lights wrap too far around the side for that, but edge cases (pun mostly unintended) are a good thought. We may be getting too focused on finding the right taillight without considering disrepair or the like.
I vote Mercedes GLK
2015-ish Kia Sorento?
Vehicle used in a crime? 99% of the time these days it’s a Kia/Hyundai product…
Usually stolen ones, in which case it most likely would have been abandoned by now.
Isn’t it entirely possible those are aftermarket tail light tack-on things and that’s what is tripping people up?
I’m starting to think this might be the case. Those tail lights are distinct yet every suggestion so far seems a little off.
My first reaction was a lowered 1997 F-150 with tonneau cover and Autozone taillight covers, but then I saw its an SUV.
User 0l0id beat me to the punch earlier, but I really, really think this is an Isuzu Axiom. The antenna position, tail and head lamps, roofline, and wheel shape are a dead ringer. If you’re going to commit a crime, you couldn’t choose a more anonymous/obscure vehicle.
I think 2015-era Ford Escape is a better guess. Take a look at the hood. There are a few character lines running down the hood from windshield to grille An Isuzu Axiom only has one line per side, and it peters out as you go from the windshield to the grille. The hit and run vehicle looks like it has several well-defined hood lines at the grille end of the hood.
That said, I appreciate you for reminding me that the Isuzu Axiom exists. I have a special affinity for dead (in the US) brands, and I’ve seen more Vehicrosses than Axioms in the last few years.
The Axiom has 6 spoke wheels rather than the 5 spokes on this, but they could be aftermarket.
Those split rear tail lights make me think Genesis GV-something.
Is there anyway to paste a picture in these comments?
I’m thinking GV80. The two thin taillights match, there is a reflector down low that wraps around to the side as can be seen in the video, and most pics of the GV80 show it with five spoke wheels that seem to match. The shark fin is in the right spot (but it is a common spot to put them) and cut line on the roof behind the fin looks to match.
We can only link to pics, not include them in the comments.
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a31248908/2021-genesis-gv80-price/
Yeah, seems to line up to me as well the more I look at the pictures.
It’s a pretty good match – the taillights, the wheels, the shark fin, even the color. I don’t see the two row headlights, though maybe they’re so bright the bars are bleeding together.
https://www.kbb.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/2023-genesis-gv80-profile-16×9-1.jpg
Yeah, I think the “single” headlight is due to the brightness making the two rows appear as one.