The Detroit auto show is backsliding into obscurity, at least until the show completes its move from January to June in 2020. This year’s Paris auto show was a snoozer. And forget the Chicago auto show, if you hadn’t already. Los Angeles is where it’s at if you’re looking for big automotive debuts and concept-car reveals. This year’s show was heavy on the former, with big-hitting new products gleaming from nearly every automaker’s stand, including the long-awaited Jeep Wrangler pickup truck (officially dubbed the Gladiator) and the all-new Porsche 911. We’ve gathered those standouts and more here.
2019 Honda Passport
After a nearly 20-year hiatus, Honda’s Passport SUV is back. Unlike the original Isuzu-based Passport, the new model is a homegrown Honda effort. Gone is the old Passport’s rugged frame and proper four-wheel-drive equipment; neither ranks highly on mid-size-SUV customers’ must-have lists. Instead, the Passport is a two-row crossover spun off the three-row Pilot’s hardware. Dimensionally, the Passport is barely smaller than the Pilot, a boon to interior spaciousness; looks-wise, it’s less bulbous-looking than its three-row sibling.
2020 Hyundai Palisade
A palisade, by definition, is a defensive structure or enclosure, like a fence. The 2020 Hyundai Palisade looks nothing like a fence, but it represents a pretty compelling defense against the boring, built-for-the-daily-grind focus most three-row crossovers have. It’s a seriously imposing piece, this big, square-jawed Hyundai is—far more so than competitors such as the Honda Pilot, Chevrolet Traverse, and Toyota Highlander, to say nothing of its de-facto predecessor, the Santa Fe XL. It also looks suitably upscale, even though there’s nary a Genesis badge (Genesis is Hyundai’s new luxury division) to be found.
2020 Jeep Gladiator
Whomever you pray to, you’re probably letting out an exasperated “thank you” now that the Jeep Wrangler pickup truck is finally here. Jeep has officially named the truck Gladiator, a throwback to the old J-series pickup it sold in the ’60s, ’70s, and early ’80s, but it’s okay: we won’t tell anyone if you refer to the Jeep as the Wrangler pickup. Underneath its familiar exterior, there is an all-new frame that’s beefier than the Wrangler’s, as well as the Wrangler’s same V-6 and (forthcoming) diesel engines.
2020 Kia Soul and Soul EV
The third-generation Kia Soul is genuinely all new, now riding on the same platform as the Hyundai Kona. All-wheel drive still isn’t on offer, but a base 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine is new. The 10Best Trucks and SUVs-winning Soul’s styling is as distinctive as ever, with a unibrow-like front end and boomerang-shaped taillights. On the inside, a 10.3-inch touchscreen and a 8.0-inch head-up display are newly available, as are many active-safety features that weren’t previously offered. Kia also revealed the new Soul EV, which is nearly twice as powerful as the old model.
2020 Lincoln Aviator
It isn’t a terribly hard ask, forgetting the original Lincoln Aviator, which was little more than a rebadged Ford Explorer. Nor need we request you try very hard to let its eventual replacement, the whalelike MKT crossover, fade from your memory. Neither of those ever set the mid-size luxury-SUV segment alight. Lincoln’s solution? Another Aviator, which like both of its predecessors is related to Ford’s Explorer. Only this time, the Explorer is all new (it is yet to be revealed in production form), melding unibody construction with a rear-drive–based driveline layout and a longitudinally mounted engine. This provides a nicely proportioned structural basis for the Lincoln, which looks nearly exactly like the handsome concept shown at the 2018 New York auto show. Stir in an available 400-hp twin-turbo V-6, a plug-in-hybrid variant, and a bunch of nifty in-car tech, and this Aviator won’t easily be stripped from your medial temporal lobe.
