Bethany Hamilton, a 23-year-old pro surfer from the small island of Kauai, Hawaii, is a pro surfer. Before the 2013 Gazelle Rally, Hamilton had never driven more than 2 hours at one time, but that all changed when she paired with pro rally star Chrissie Beavis, 32, of San Diego, California. The rally is a 9-day, 2500-kilometer-long off-road event held in southern Morocco, with a course set amid stunning scenery, across a wide assortment of arduous and treacherous terrain. When the dust had settled, the duo, who had met only shortly before the rally, placed eighth overall among the 150 teams from 20 nations. Along with Hamilton and Beavis were four other U.S. teams, and nine from Canada. This is the highest ever participation from the U.S.. (See sidebar for teams and results.)

Having covered the Army with past vehicles such as the Jeep Nukizer 715, this year, Jeep and Mopar gave the Navy a nod at their 11th annual concept-fest outside Moab, with one of the Mopar units painted Battleship Gray and a concept sporting the name Flattop.

New York City might seem like an unlikely location for a car show. The city has a high proportion of residents who don't own cars, and is renowned as having one of the best subway and public transit systems in the U.S. But it also happens to be one of the biggest luxury vehicle markets in the world. That makes it an appropriate locale for the debut of the 2014 Range Rover Sport. Land Rover says the New York metro area is the biggest market worldwide for the model. Land Rover also showed the nine-speed 2014 Evoque, which will be headed to showrooms later this year.

Although the show best known for outlandish custom vehicles is undeniably the annual SEMA show in the city that defines excess (at least in the U.S.), Las Vegas, it’s not the only show that has crazy customs. And although some shows, like Los Angeles and Detroit, relegate the “tuners” to the basement or other off-the-beaten-path halls, in Geneva, the tuner cars are intermixed with the “official” debuts from the manufacturers.

Sometimes awesome, and often odd, these creations stretch the boundaries of taste and fashion. Then again, looking back at some of the styles and colors of cars and clothing from decades past, today’s tacky could be tomorrow’s status quo. We rounded up four noteworthy tuner SUVs from the 2013 Geneva show. We’ll let you be the judge of these specimens’ style.

At the 2013 Geneva Motor Show, Land Rover is set to introduce seven electric Defender 110 research vehicles. All seven were made to be zero-emissions vehicles, while not losing the rugged SUV's excellent off-road capability.

Korea-based automaker SsangYong is hoping to get some attention at the upcoming Geneva Motor Show by unveiling the Ssangyong SIV-1 crossover concept.

The Chicago auto show may not have the same symbolic importance in the automotive world that Detroit, Los Angeles, Geneva, or Tokyo has, but that doesn't mean it's exactly flyover territory for those who follow the industry. Traditionally, a prime location for truck and SUV debuts, Chicago was upstaged by Detroit this year with the Ford Atlas and the 2014 GM full-size trucks, but there are some interesting appearances here nonetheless. First up is the Fiat Ducato-based Ram ProMaster, the latest entry in what's becoming a heatedly contested full-size van market. With an unusual front-drive layout for the segment, the ProMaster's packaging makes a compelling case over the more conventionally configured Ford Transit and Mercedes-Benz Sprinter.

The fifth Dakar on the South American continent took off-road racers through three countries over a course of approximately 5000 miles. Starting in Lima, Peru, the finish location for last year's edition, and continuing on a southward track crisscrossing Argentina and Chile, it finished two weeks later in Santiago, after participants from around the globe battled the elements and other riders. Many came to win or place among the top finishers; others prayed simply to finish an event that is for many the culmination of years of hopes, dreams, and preparation, or to cross off one of the world's top challenges on their bucket list.

Mini proved its might as a motorsport competitor with a decisive showing of three cars in the top five spots for the 2013 Dakar Rally. First place in the car class was taken by Stephane Peterhansel. This was Peterhansel's second victory with Mini, and his 11th Dakar career win. The Russian duo of Leonid Novitskiy and Konstantin Zhiltsov took third place in car #307, and the Spanish/French team of Nani Roma and Michel Perin took fourth place in the #305 Mini Countryman.

There are plenty of eye-catching vehicles at the Detroit auto show this year, and an increasing focus on diesel. There's a diesel/electric hybrid SUV concept, a beloved American luxury off-roader that will soon have a diesel option, and a full-size van with a diesel option. Also at this year's show, Lincoln is showing a new luxury crossover, Honda has a crossover concept, and another company is showing high-performance electric full-size trucks. Want to learn more? Read on.

A Little History
Since 1907, the Detroit Auto Show has been held every year, except 1943-1952 due to the war. Among the largest auto shows in North America, it was first held at Beller’s Beer Garden at Riverside Park. However, since 1961, its venue has been Cobo Center, where it can occupy up to 1 million square feet of floor space. In 1989, the show was renamed North American International Auto Show (NAIAS). As can be expected, the auto show’s pre-eminence relates to its location near the headquarters of the Big Three American automakers -- Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors.

The Consumer Electronics Show is better known for huge LCD TVs and outlandish displays, but the truth is there are actually a lot of great products there for truck people. Doubt us? There are GPS systems, tough netbooks and tablets, robots that will do work around the garage for you, and a lot more cool gadgets and gizmos at CES that make road trips, heavy hauling, and do-it-yourself work easier. More than 3,250 exhibitors will be on display at the Las Vegas Convention center. Here are some of the coolest products and tools that we found at this year's show.

Despite its age, the Acura MDX continues to be the luxury brand's most valuable player, ruling the sales chart year after year. With so much riding on the seven-passenger SUV (especially with the Infiniti JX gunning for it) Acura must keep the MDX feeling fresh. The 2014 Acura MDX Prototype debuting at the 2013 Detroit auto show demonstrates how the automaker plans to keep the third-gen MDX as successful as the first two generations.

Honda unveiled an urban SUV concept at the 2013 Detroit auto show today, offering a sneak peek at a new small SUV production car that's scheduled to come to the U.S. in 2014 after it launches in Japan. From what we can tell so far, the Nissan Juke had better start worrying.

Lincoln is seeking some mojo to kick the brand into high gear. With a 2012 sales total of just 82,150 vehicles, Ford’s luxury brand trails all of its rivals by a considerable amount. Mercedes-Benz sold 274,134 vehicles in 2012, BMW sold 281,460 vehicles not including Mini, Lexus moved 244,166 units, and cross-town rival Cadillac sold 149,782 vehicles. The Blue Oval itself may be doing fine, but it's clear its luxury division needs help to avoid being relegated to Dearborn's historical archives. The latest effort is the MKC Concept, an Escape-based compact crossover packing plenty of luxury into a compact package.

While Los Angeles was showing myriad cars and crossovers, the RV industry held its national trade show in Louisville. Here are just a couple of the interesting vehicles.

We spent four days wandering the 3.2-million-square-foot convention center at the most recent Specialty Equipment Market Association show in Las Vegas, Nevada. Thousands of people head to SEMA every year in search of the latest must-have toys and automotive fads. Feeling like kids in a candy store, we saw more new products and custom trucks than ever. Here are our top 25 favorite head-turning vehicles from the show. -- Melissa Spiering

With this year's major truck and SUV debuts slated for the 2013 Detroit and likely Chicago shows, the theme for Los Angeles was efficiency, with the debut of the new four-cylinder-only 2013 Toyota RAV4, redesigned and lighter-weight 2014 Mitsubishi Outlander, and comprehensively refreshed 2014 Kia Sorento with an all direct-injection engine lineup focused on improved mpg.

Drive out of DFW airport and one of the first signs to catch your eye is an overhead clearance warning sign of 17'8", nearly twice the height of some small camper shells or a wakeboarding boat speaker arch, and just one indication that things are indeed bigger in Texas. The state is so big, some car companies have a regional manager just for the city of Dallas.

Fall is upon us again, which means the auto show season is about to start. Although not part of the official show circuit, the Specialty Equipment Market Show, better known to industry insiders as the SEMA Show, plays just as significant a role for automakers and accessory manufacturers alike, often determining a model's success among enthusiasts and even the general buyer.

SEMA has become more and more of an international show over the last decade, and we're always surprised by the occasional overseas model showcased on the floor or outside the exhibit halls. Here are a few of the forbidden-fruit models we saw, as well as some of the other smaller players in the truck and SUV segments.

Over the last decade, Toyota may not have the most exciting reputation for passenger cars, but its trucks have a long history of being rugged, dependable, and great starting points for customization. The highlight of Toyota's trucks at SEMA this year were Antron Brown's Dragquoia and Alexis DeJoria's PreRunner Tundra, but there were plenty of other Toyotas at the show, including Tacomas and the ever-popular FJ Cruiser.

Just as the Jeep Wrangler dominated the exhibitor booths at SEMA as being the most popular SUV, the Ford F-Series, in F-150 and Super Duty versions, was the most well represented truck at the show. For performance tuning, the 6.7-liter Scorpion Power Stroke diesel as well as the 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6 have proven popular with the aftermarket, owing to the bolt-on and chip-tuning power potential inherent in their factory turbo configurations.

As if it needed any more validation as the standard-bearer of the original SUV formula, the JJeep Wrangler has won SEMA's Hottest 4x4 SUV award for the third consecutive year at the 2012 SEMA Show in Las Vegas. The winning vehicle is determined by the predominance of a model in exhibitors' booths, and the Wrangler, as usual, was one of the best-represented SUVs at the show.

It's the brand as all-American as Mom, hot dogs, and apple pie, all of which had their origins elsewhere, but we digress. Chevrolet is starting to expand globally in a major way, but it's still an important player on the homefront, representing more than 50 percent of GM's domestic sales volume. Chevy trucks and suvss have always enjoyed a major presence at SEMA, whether in the GM booth, or among the hundreds of exhibiting companies. This year promises to be no different.

The gut-pounding exhaust pulses from the 1000-plus-horsepower V-8s are as much a part of the monster truck culture and experience as jumping schoolbuses and crushing wrecked cars. But Bigfoot 4x4, the originator of the monster truck genre, is breaking tradition by building the world's first all-electric Bigfoot monster truck.