#FutureCars

The fourth-generation Acura MDX is here. Sort of.

Acura hasn’t actually launched the next MDX, but it has taken the cover off a prototype that previews the upcoming re-done crossover. There is a lot new, as we teased before, but the looks remain relatively familiar.

We already mentioned how Volkswagen is being added to the list of automakers using a tourist town in the Southwest to name a crossover and/or SUV. Now we have the full details on the 2022 Volkswagen Taos.

In addition to the Taos, there’s the Dodge Durango, Kia Telluride, Hyundai Santa Fe, Hyundai Tucson, others I am almost certainly forgetting at the moment, and now, the 2022 Volkswagen Taos.

The Audi Albuquerque or Dodge Denver can’t be far behind.

As much as we try to cover the news without bias here at TTAC, it would untrue to say that those of us on staff don’t have certain vehicles we like more than others. Our Slack channel is often filled with discussions about how this car or that crossover is good or bad and why. We all have certain vehicles we’d put our own money down on.

Add Acura to the list of brands taking the wraps off a future vehicle, virtually, this month.

Just one day after Volkswagen unveils the Taos, Acura will show off a prototype that previews the next MDX.

We showed you what the next-generation Honda Civic hatchback might look like, based on patent filings unearthed by one of our forums, yesterday, and now our corporate friends have the sedan renders.

Renderings of the 11th-generation Honda Civic Hatchback have hit the forums, thanks to Honda patent filings, and the changes are minor but give the car a far milder look.

The biggest difference upfront is a narrower grille combined with a larger lower front fascia, basically a flip-flop of the current car.

We speculated before that the Volkswagen Taos would get an existing VW engine, likely the 1.4-liter turbo-four from the Jetta.

We were close.

Electric-vehicle startups seem to be everywhere these days. And more than a few have used a “reverse merger” with an established company that’s already listed on Nasdaq as a way to go public.

Lordstown Motors, Fisker, and Canoo have announced deals like this, and Nikola has already done this type of deal.

In this case, Mullen Technologies, which is based in Southern California, will pair with Net Element, a company that works on mobile payment tech.

With auto shows borked until next year – assuming that’s even possible – automakers need to show off concepts one way or another.

So it is that yet another livestream reveal took place tonight – this one showing the Infiniti QX60 Monograph. Which isn’t a production vehicle so much as it is an expression of what Infiniti wants to do going forward, in terms of design.

In this case, the brand wants to take the QX60 three-row crossover even further upscale.

It’s been talked about and teased, and now it’s finally here. Volkswagen took the wraps off the 2021 ID.4 electric vehicle in one of the now-ubiquitous live-streamed reveals.

You can even buy yours today if you like what you see. Reservations are open.

We’re as tired of teasers as you likely are, but Ford nevertheless slipped one into its other news from earlier this week.

Matt noted that Ford claimed the truck would be cheaper to own than the gas model, and that it would be produced in Michigan as part of a major investment, but what else do we know about it?

I’ve written before that the Volkswagen Golf GTI is almost the perfect car for automotive scribes – available with a manual, affordable, and hatchbacked. Really, it’s the perfect car for almost any enthusiast on a budget who doesn’t want to sacrifice utility at the altar of sport.

Then there’s the Golf R, which is a hopped-up GTI that is better in most respects, save one: Price. It’s no cheapo.

Enter the GTI TCR. This track-focused car fills the gap between the GTI and R and is rumored to make 296 horsepower.

We recently wrote about the upcoming Volkswagen compact SUV that the company has been teasing ahead of an October debut.

Now we have a name, if not much else. Well, we do know at least one other thing – it will be unveiled (virtually, we presume) on October 13.

Oh, and one other thing – it will be built specifically for the North American market.

I spent the first part of this morning out of the office, putting miles on a test car before it went home. When I returned to my desk and caught up on emails, I saw one from Chevy PR labeled as a teaser for 2021 Chevrolet Silverado news.

Car Twitter is a weird “place” (as much as an ephemeral part of social media can be a “place”). There are all kinds of arguments about all sorts of things on that part of the Twitterverse, including new and upcoming products, and the next Hyundai Tucson was as divisive as anything I’ve seen in recent weeks.

Some journalists loved it. Some hated it. Others were in between. And that’s just in reference to the exterior styling.

Love it, like it, hate it, or indifferent, you can’t deny that Hyundai took some chances.