Henry Payne, The Detroit News

Riding record sales through July, Sierra will simplify its 2027 trims to six with all models getting a revised fascia with mid-mounted headlights. The new look freed designers to craft a more expressive, C-clamp-shaped daytime running light. The light signature forms a question mark when the headlight is illuminated.

For 2027, Sierra introduces two segment-exclusive features to Detroit’s truck wars:

1) The articulated screen flips up with the push of a button, revealing a hidden compartment behind for storing valuables.

2) Hands-free Super Cruise while towing on divided highways.

All AT4s and Denalis come standard with the MultiPro tailgate that GMC innovated on the last-gen truck. The 2027 Sierras upgrade the MultiPro tailgate with a ruler and cup holder.

Boasting a new, so-called “motor cradle” grille, the AT4 arrives standard with 34-inch all-terrain tires while the AT4X gains 35-inch all-terrains, a two-inch lift, three underbody skid plates for more serious dirt-kicking, segment-exclusive underbody cameras, and a new BAJA drive mode.

Also standard on AT4/AT4X are electronic-locking differentials front and rear and Multimatic dampers.

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Henry Payne, The Detroit News

Peering out over the Terrain Brown hood of my loaded, $37k Seltos tester, it looked a lot like the hood of the Terrain Brown Matte-colored, $60k Telluride X-Pro SX-Prestige I took to the Detroit Grand Prix earlier this summer. Similar Mad Max grille, black trim, shard-like wheels, chiseled fenders.

Walk up to my X-line and the door handles popped out to greet me. Just like Telluride.

The steering wheel in my hands was square to better frame the 12.3-inch instrument display in front of me. Just like Telluride.

The instrument display is paired with a 12.3-inch infotainment display and 5-inch climate control panel and housed in a hoodless 30-inch screen that is both stylish and practical. Its high dash placement kept my eyes on the road. Just like Telluride.

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Henry Payne, The Detroit News

The North American Car, Truck and Utility Vehicle of the Year Awards judges announced their nominees for 2027 this week amid a drought of new product.

Dubbed the Best of 2027, the 25 new vehicles set the field for NACTOY’s 2027 awards season.

Five cars, four trucks, and 16 utility vehicles will vie for the prestigious trophy, the only award presented by an independent jury of auto journalists. The list boasts eight models from Detroit-based brands, including all four in the truck category (including newcomer Troy-based Slate) and four in the SUV category.

The 2027 NACTOY awards come against a backdrop of industry disruption after state and federal government efforts to force automakers to sell electric vehicles and sunset their internal-combustion-engine lineups. Automakers are retooling to meet market demand as consumers haven’t warmed to EVs, government mandates were withdrawn, and federal subsidies subsided.

“Automakers (are) tearing up product plans built for an EV future that has not arrived,” reported the Murphy Automotive Product Pipeline this week, authored by respected ex-Bank of America “Car Wars” analyst John Murphy. “Automakers face the worst three-year new-product drought on record and intensifying global competition and policy uncertainty are raising questions about which brands ultimately survive.”

The NACTOY Best of 2027 represents shifting industry trends. Just 10 years after NACTOY expanded its categories from car and truck to include sport utility vehicles, SUVs dominate the list. A decade ago, Best of 2017 included 15 cars, 12 SUVs and four trucks.

While Detroit automakers still rule the U.S. truck market, no Motown makers are represented in the car category for 2027 — a segment they have largely exited. About 30% of nominees are from U.S brands, consistent with 2017 — though best-selling EV automaker Tesla is conspicuously missing despite offering a new three-row version of the Model Y, the seventh best-selling vehicle in market. Tesla does not offer vehicles for NACTOY testing.

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Henry Payne, The Detroit News

WHITTMAN, Arizona — It’s hot at Ford Motor Co.’s Arizona Proving Grounds in the Mojave Desert 48 miles northwest of Phoenix. Beastly hot, with average triple-digit temperatures during August, and test track temps climbing over 150 degrees.

Which is just how Ford F-150 pickup engineers like it.

At the wheel of a 2027 F-150 prototype, Thermal Systems Engineer James Konstantino tore around APG’s 2.1-mile oval at 60 mph, towing a bright red dynamometer simulating a 10,000-pound trailer on a five-degree grade. In 114-degree heat.

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Honda, Honda

“Our team of passionate engineers is taking our ultimate Honda adventure SUV and making it even more capable for 2027,” said Honda National Auto Sales Assistant Vice President Luis Guerra. “By enhancing both the driving experience and off-road capability, Honda Passport offers our customers an SUV for their daily life and next great adventure.”

The two-row, midsize off-road segment has long been dominated by the Jeep Grand Cherokee (and its lifted Trailhawk halo model featuring all-terrain tires) with annual sales north of 200,000 units.

The Passport TrailSport takes direct aim at the Toyota 4Runner TRD Off-Road and Land Cruiser, rugged Japanese SUVs that have followed the Grand Cherokee in offering customers an adventurous-looking SUV even if it’s only used as a daily driver. The strategy has worked with the 4Runner/Land Cruiser pushing nearly 150,000-unit sales in 2025. The Passport sold a record 55,231 units in 2025 and sales are up 20% this year through August.

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Henry Payne, The Detroit News

Point Pleasant, West Virginia — During Prohibition, my home state of West Virginia was notorious for bootleggers running moonshine across state lines. To outrun the law, shiners like future NASCAR racer Curtis Turner famously ran hooch through the state, using the treacherous mountain passes to escape the feds in modified Ford Coupes, Studebakers and Dodges with big engines and hidden storage.

Boy, would they have loved the supercharged-Coyote-V8-powered, 810-horse, 2025 Ford Mustang RTR Spec 3.

I spent a week flogging it everywhere from West Virginia’s old moonshine routes to Michigan’s M1 Concourse Champion Motor Speedway.

BRAWWWWGH! I downshifted from 4^th to 3^rd and then nailed the throttle down WV-869, the Coyote’s howl bouncing off the nearby hills, before hanging a left on WV-817 running along the Kanawha River. Flat, traffic free, with nothing but roadside cornfields and abandoned Mail Pouch Tobacco barns, WV-817 is one of the most enjoyable two-lane roads in the eastern U.S.

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Henry Payne, The Detroit News

Indeed, the eighth-generation ES was originally planned as an electric model as U.S. and California regulations pushed automakers toward EVs — and as Lexus targeted the Chinese market in addition to its traditional U.S. and Japanese markets.

Despite the government mandates, however, U.S. EV demand plateaued around 8% of the market in 2025. When a new Republican administration in Washington relaxed federal-and-state-imposed regulations and EV demand fell, Lexus shifted gears.

“The original intent was for the ES to be predominantly a battery-electric vehicle. But when we were given more flexibility and listened to our customers and what they were asking for, we made the shift into being more of a 80% hybrid, 20% BEV” mix, continued Hurlow. “(We were) able to make that shift as the market shifted on us. That’s the flexibility the multi-pathway approach (gives us).”

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Henry Payne, The Detroit News

With a colossal 670 horsepower from its 4.0-liter, twin-turbo V-8 (14 more than the standard Vantage), the supercar inhaled the landscape in front of me. Developed alongside the Vantage GT3 car that is leading the 2026 IMSA Weathertech SportsCar Championship’s GTD class, the Vantage is remarkably nimble for a 4,000-pound production car.

After cruising across Washtenaw Couty, I entered Hell and selected TRACK mode. The variable shocks noticeably stiffened, making the car feel as one with the road. Sticky, summer Michelin Pilot Sport S tires gripped the asphalt. Switch the eight-speed automatic transmission to MANUAL mode. Pull the bat-wing-shaped paddles behind the steering wheel to keep the V-8 in its fat, 3,000-6,000 RPM torque band.

Third gear. Full throttle.

Snatch fourth gear. Brush the brakes into a right-hander. Back to third.

SNAP! CRACKLE! POP! Fireworks from the quad exhaust.

Back to throttle.

Sweet V-8 music. And for 2026, it comes in a convertible.

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