If you’re a frequent visitor to our site, which you should be, you’ve probably come across our Future Cars section, where our resident artist Josh Byrnes has been doing an awesome job at predicting the exterior design of major upcoming models with his renders.
How accurate are those CGIs? Well, the results speak for themselves really, as Josh has been nailing them for quite some time now, leading several car companies to express their concern whenever such a story is published.
Just look at the recent reveals of the Nissan Altima and Toyota RAV4 at the New York Auto Show and compare them to our artist’s depictions.
Aside from a great artist, Josh appears to have the true powers of a psychic and that’s why everyone in the CarScoops team has stopped looking him in the eyes directly. Because if you do, he would then know your deepest, darkest secrets and I certainly don’t want him to know that I love the original Renault Twingo. Oops.
Joking aside, Josh’s experience in translating all those previewing concepts into regular production cars is really evident, leading to some of most accurate predictions on the web. With that said, let’s take a look at the cars presented at this week’s New York Auto Show and compared them to our artist renditions.
2019 Toyota RAV4
When Toyota revealed the FT-AC concept at the 2017 LA Auto Show, everyone knew that it was previewing the upcoming RAV4, despite the company’s efforts back then to deny everything.
Our prediction of the new RAV4 was based on that concept, with Josh trimming the concept’s details and reimagining them as a production vehicle. What we were left with is an SUV with a strong visual presence. Fast forward to this week and Toyota pulled the wraps off the new RAV4 and whad’ya-know, the real car looks just like our own render.
2019 Nissan Altima
This comparison is even scarier than the RAV4. After taking inspiration by the Vmotion 2.0 concept and studying carefully the heavily camouflaged test cars, our artist ended up with basically a computer-generated image of the actual 2019 Altima.
As for the actual 2019 Nissan Altima, it’s now sleeker and sportier inside and out, with the company giving it an optional all-wheel drive system and a trick, variable compression 2.0-liter turbo engine instead of the old V6.
2019 GMC Sierra
Another new model from our Future Cars guru is the 2019 GMC Sierra. Following the introduction of the GMC Terrain, which introduced us to the brand’s new C-shaped LED headlights and after studying camouflaged test cars of the Sierra, Josh was able to throw in our faces another successful prediction.
The 2019 GMC Sierra was revealed in early March, featuring a huge chrome grille, modern LED lights, a carbon fiber-reinforced plastic for the bed and a trick tailgate that opens in more ways you can imagine.
But wait, there’s more
And that’s just some of our work. We still have to wait to see if we were right on the upcoming BMW Z4 and 3-Series, the Porsche Mission E, the 2019 Lexus ES and more. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go ask Josh about some lottery numbers…