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.
“It would be very helpful,” he said, going on to discuss “flock cameras,” which are usually staged in high-traffic areas. “I can search through Santa Cruz and Watsonville flock cameras,” he told me, “But I’m usually looking for a vehicle that I know what it is,” he said. He knows the suspect’s vehicle exited the highway from Santa Cruz. “The issue is I don’t know what kind of car it is, so when I put it into the search bar, I’m looking at hundreds of SUVs.”
“[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:
h/t: John Paul Jose
I was thinking last generation Pathfinder, but I think they always had a roof rack.
I have a new theory: 2016ish Honda Pilot. Lights look correct, antenna in the right place, 5 spoke wheels, and a bright spot on the D pillar that could be chrome trim.
The hood lines and resulting top edge of the grille also look right for a Honda Pilot. I’m torn between Pilot and Escape, but I can’t find any features in the still image that tell me it’s not a Pilot.
I just followed a Pilot on my way home. It had its lights on and turned left ahead of me. I like the Pilot for this. The taillights look like they could be right when you account for a bit of blurring/lens flare.
I like the pilot idea more than Genesis GV-80 because the tailgate is almost at 90 degrees from the roof, whereas the Genesis has more of a slope.
My case against a Honda Pilot is the wheels. None of the pictures I saw of Pilots have wheels that look like the pictured car. Also, I don’t think the Pilot of that generation was offered in green.
The newest Pilots have the right wheels. But yeah, they don’t make it in green.
https://images.carprices.com/pricebooks_data/usa/colorized/2024/Honda/View2/Pilot/LX/YG2H2REW_BX.png
Close. I think it’s a 2023 Pilot EX-L in light blue.
Is the turn signal on in the photo of the rear, which would explain the two distinct lights coming from the tail light?
Could law enforcement provide the exact timestamps of the provided photos? Or are there any other photos from the same exact camera(s)? We might be able to figure out the exact length / wheelbase, which would help tremendously.
I echo what others have said: Genesis GV80 or Land Rover Disco Sport.
We hav a video coming!
Is it possible to get a pic of the scene from the cameras in daylight? It might help to balance colors and such with a reference photo for the scene.
OMG this is the moment Jason has prepared for his whole life!
Sometimes taking a photo and inverting the colors or setting the contrast really high can reveal new details. I’m not currently in a position to do that, but if anyone else can and can share those pics, we might have more info to work with.
I gave it a try, but it didn’t show anything new. I was really hoping to get a hint of the window pillars, but couldn’t get it.
2007 Saturn Outlook?
The front end gives 20teens Ford Escape, and the taillights/rear shape are kind of Mercedes-y (GLK’s and GLE’s?)
Maybe GV80?
I’m feeling mid-teens Escape all the way if it weren’t for that funky wraparound one-on-top-of-another tail light signature.
Ford Escape between 2013 and 2019. It has the wheels as the one linked, and the antenna is in the same forward of the rear hatch location.
https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/inventorylisting/viewDetailsFilterViewInventoryListing.action?sourceContext=carGurusHomePageModel&entitySelectingHelper.selectedEntity=d330&zip=28613#listing=363659401/NONE
Oh yeah, I had a string of 4 of those penalty boxes in a row as company cars, it stood out as an Escape right away
This seems close, but the brake lights I’m finding lit up don’t seem to have the same design.
that was my first thought immediately – has that tall focus look, and the headlights, roof line and wheels all look right
Is it a Ford Escape? The tail lights say more Mercedes to me but the headlights don’t.. but it also seems to be missing the roof rails that Escapes all seem to have..
S model didn’t have roof rails and it came with the 5-spoke wheels.
Then that’s my guess, 2017 or so, S model in black.
I think grey as the sodium lamps are giving off a green hue to the car, but otherwise we are in agreement.
When lit, the taillights look quite different.
My guess is that it is a 2016 or 2018 era Ford Expedition.
2016 OEM Wheels look to match
2018 Taillights could match
Antenna in the wrong spot, right?
Too rounded for an expedition, this looks unibody
Well based on the new video, I am falling into line with the Ford Escape crowd. The headlights are easier to see in the video and seem to fit.
The wheels scream Alfa Romeo to me, but the rear end does not.
Looks like a green Genesis GV80
Interesting. One witness identified it as a Mazda, but both the GV80 and most Mazdas have large, pentagonal grilles.
I’m also seeing some 3rd gen Mercedes M class in there, tough call
Land Rover Discovery Sport
That’s kind of the shape I’m getting, but I can’t find one with the right lights.
Post facelift the lights seem to work. Not sure about the wheels though.
Thats where I am leaning. Similar shape, headlights would be visible from this angle and the roofline is very distinctive. Sharkfin is in the right place.
And no roof rack. I’m thinking 2020-ish.
2019 Land Rover Discovery Sport R-Dynamic SE 2.0 Front – Land Rover Discovery Sport – Wikipedia
2019 Land Rover Discovery Sport R-Dynamic SE 2.0 Rear – Land Rover Discovery Sport – Wikipedia
I think the pre-facelift. The shape of the lights suggest the round pattern. Im looking more at the light bloom than the actual outline. I think the light is playing tricks on the shape.
With aftermarket tail lights?
That was my first thought as well. Shark fin slightly forward of the hatch parting line, slight rounding and undercut of the ass end, two-line wing shape of the wrap-around lights.
Well its not a 4Runner for sure.
Yeah, the “4Runner or Expedition” really seems like someone just knows a couple SUV names.
Looks like a mid 2010’s Highlander. The headlights look right, tail lights look to curve around the edge of the rear and the 5 spoke chrome wheels were standard on the base highlander hybrid which would be one of the only trims you could get without a sunroof. But the back looks too flat.
Also the hood seems to have a prominent body line which the highlander had.
Those taillights say Mercedes R-Class to me, but I can’t make the rest of the picture fit that hypothesis.
I had the same thought..
Yes, Mercedes was also my first thought, but I can’t find any photos of an R-class with a shark fin antenna. It could be a W164 ML class, but again I can’t find any photos of one with the antenna, and most of them had roof rails.
The taillights keep bringing me back to Mercedes (car company, not accusing a staffer of the crime), but I can’t find anything that works quite right.
Here’s hoping we can help! But in the meantime, I don’t think it’s inappropriate to note that for law enforcement to reach out to the Autopian to crowd-source this type of solution is a major acknowledgement of what you’ve built. Best of luck to all involved.
If there were only someone who knows infinite facts about taillight design. Of course if there was such a mythical feature they’d probably get mired down in the fact there is no amber color in the taillight pattern and how disgraceful it truly is.
I’m going with Ford Escape.
I’d go so far as to say it’s a Ford Escape S from around the 2018 timeframe.
Details:
No roof rack
No sunroof
Very distinctive taillights
Very slopey front end
5 spoke wheels
Very vertical tailgate
Antenna location on roof
And I think it’s longer than their composite image shows.
The rear antenna is not as far back as most I have seen. Not sure if it has a rear window cover. And yeah Torch for tailights.
I’m kind of tempted to say Isuzu Axiom. Mostly due to headlight shape…
Yep, I think this is a real possibility. I was going to post this or possibly an early Dodge Journey.
The flatness of the rear end is giving Ford Flex vibes maybe?
The headlights and taillights are wrong for the Flex.
I don’t think it’s blocky enough to be a Flex. Also, I think most Flexes were sold with six-spoked wheels, while this one sports five-spoked ones.
Not sure…I’m sure one of us can figure it out…I hope so…especially since it shows the shape of those taillights
Looks like it could be a Genesis GV70 or GV80 from the lights, wheels and roof rake
I’m thinking Toyota Highlander, 10 years old or so. Based on the lamp shapes and blocky rear silhouette.
I’d completely agree except for the shark-fin antenna. Did the Highlanders of that vintage come with that?
Looks like they had a shark fin and the wheels seem to match as well.
It got a shark fin starting in 2014. I say this is a 2014-2019 Highlander. The rear spoiler in the dark is making the back end look more squared off than it really is.
Yeah, this is what I keep coming back to. It seems like a pretty solid match for body shape, but the taillights don’t look right to me. Maybe aftermarket?
Yeah, the tail lights are where I’m hung up on calling it a Highlander. Maybe that picture captured it when the brake lights and turn signals were on a the same time, giving it that bi-level look?
I checked to see if its Lexus platform mate, the RX, had bi-level taillights, but it looks much less of a match. So I think I’m with you on the ‘Highlander with aftermarket taillights’ or the poor photo quality making the turn signal light look red like the brake light above.