From SUVs to pickups to sedans, there are several vehicles that don’t seem to be getting the attention they deserve.

By Keith Griffin

Thanks to the Internet, it is easier than ever to go shopping for new cars, SUVs, and pickup trucks. There is a wealth of information available, but vehicles can often get overlooked. Here are five that should be added to any comparison list.

Genesis GV80 Prestige

The 2025 Genesis GV80 Prestige AWD is one of the best examples. It’s a luxury SUV with a distinctive front grille yet it won’t get consideration because it’s Korean. There is a fixation on German-made luxury vehicles.

It’s somewhat understandable because people buy new cars either with passion or practicality in mind. As the price gets higher, practicality becomes less of an issue. Passion steps up.

That’s unfortunate because it has a starting price of $58,200 compared to $60,500 for an Audi Q7 and $63,935 for a Lexus GX. The GV80 has a much nicer interior than those competitors (make that most competitors). Its best interior feature is a 27-inch-wide OLED display that integrates the multimedia screen. Nary a passenger sat inside that didn’t comment on this stunning screen.

Toyota bZ4X

The 2025 Toyota Bz4x faces a lot of competition in the battery electric vehicle market. Two choices would be the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and the Honda Prologue. Is the bZ4X as good as them? Not quite, but it deserves some consideration if for nothing else than its distinctive look.

The bZ4X is available in a new Nightshade trim for 2025. It amps up the futuristic style with available two-tone Wind Chill Pearl or Heavy Metal and black roof color combos. Drivers can also go electric stealth with an all-black exterior. Built on the XLE grade, the bZ4X Nightshade rides on black-finished 20-inch multi spoke alloy wheels and features grade-unique exterior details like black badges, black door handles, and a black split rear spoiler.

The bZ4X gets up to 252 miles range in front-wheel drive and has a starting price of $37,040, which is down 14% from 2024.

Ford Ranger Pickup

The 2024 Ford Ranger Crew gets overlooked because it’s a midsize pickup, and Americans, for some reason, don’t think of Ford when they think of small pickups from the Blue Oval. That’s a huge mistake because Ford knows pickups regardless of size.

This is a downright sensible pickup for probably 98% of buyers. Most don’t need an F-150 taking up all their driveway space. It can do what most people demand from a pickup, including a maximum available towing capacity of 7,500 pounds and a maximum available payload capacity of 1,805 pounds.

The Ranger also features useful amenities for owners, including a large center console storage bin, spacious door pockets designed for quick access to frequently used tools and other items, and an optional second, upper glovebox to store even more gear. Ranger also has improved second-row storage with under-seat rear cargo bins optimized to make it easy to hide your goodies. New fold-flat rear seatbacks help with loading and moving large objects, from coolers to large screen TVs, plus there’s room behind the seats to keep tools and other equipment.

The price of the 2024 Ford Ranger starts at $34,415 and goes up to $45,375 depending on the trim and options.

Kia K4

The 2025 Kia K4 is added to this list because more love has to be given to sedans! Two of the three cars in my driveway are sedans and they get the job done. (The third, a Kia Soul, is a mixture of sedan and SUV to me.)

It’s a compact sedan but that doesn’t mean it’s cramped. With an overall length of 185.4 inches and width of 72.8 inches, the K4 is the widest and has the largest footprint in the compact segment. Rear passengers enjoy a class leading 38 inches of leg room and head room at 37.3 inches. You won’t be rubbing shoulders with fellow passengers nor arriving with a cricked neck or leg cramps.

Acura MDX

Yogi Berra once said of a restaurant that it was so busy nobody went there. Along those same lines, the Acura MDX has been so good for so long that nobody buys them any more.

OK, that might be an exaggeration, but this is a great SUV that fails to make it on the shopping list of most luxury mid-size SUV buyers. For  2025, the MDX – America’s best-selling three-row luxury SUV of all time – boasts bold new styling, a new 12.3-inch touchscreen interface with Google built-in, a quieter cabin, and new safety features.

The suite of AcuraWatch safety and driver-assistive technologies was enhanced for all trims. Acura offers a new more advanced AcuraWatch 360  as standard on the MDX Type S with Advance Package. AcuraWatch 360 introduces multiple new driver assistance features and capabilities that use an updated front-facing camera and new millimeter wave radars to enhance performance, including active lane change assist, lane change collision mitigation, and front cross traffic warning.

The Acura MDX starts at $50,900.

Longtime West Hartford resident Keith Griffin is a veteran auto journalist whose work has been published in U.S. News & World Report, The Boston Globe and online for various New York Times companies. He is a past president of the New England Motor Press Association.

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