Your humble author is about to put Los Angeles in the rearview mirror, but before I do, I wanted to leave you with one last news nugget.

It involves … Barbie.

A foreign automaker that’s not well known in America comes to a major auto show and announces plans to sell cars in the States, showing off a couple of models and promising on-sale dates that seem both ambitious and yet not unreasonable.

Stop me if you’ve heard this story before.

We’ve already covered the Subaru Solterra EV, so I don’t have much to add.

Instead, you can enjoy two poorly-lit pics from the 2021 Los Angeles Auto Show.

Appearing on the same day as certain other vehicles under which one will find the E-GMP architecture, the annoyingly capitalized Hyundai SEVEN was introduced today at the L.A. Auto Show. Billed as a preview of a future sport utility electric vehicle, it’s meant to further the burgeoning all-electric IONIQ sub-brand while also being one of the building clocks for Hyundai’s kick at reaching carbon neutrality by 2045.

Why they didn’t have Jeri Ryan drive the thing on stage is beyond this author’s comprehension.

Auto-show parties sometimes get out of hand. Most of the shenanigans don’t reach you, the car-buying public, for one reason or another. One major reason is lack of newsworthiness: It’s one thing if a lubricated PR rep confirms some new product that’s supposed to be secret. It’s another if a PR rep sings karaoke poorly.

One thing would make it to the pages of TTAC and maybe a rival site like Jalopnik. The other would not. No matter how bad some PR chief is at warbling “Sweet Caroline.”

Then again, if TMZ is in the house, all bets are off.

Shortly after the debut of its Avante brother in South Korea, the Elantra was revealed for the first time in North America last week at the 2015 Los Angeles Auto Show.

Going into its sixth generation, the Elantra looks offer even more in its class with the addition of new safety kit and technology that makes even class-above vehicles blush.

But, even though the new Elantra is much improved over the outgoing model in almost every conceivable way, it’s hard not to think it looks a bit, well, familiar.

Mitsubishi will reveal redesigned versions of the 2016 Outlander Sport crossover and 2017 Mirage subcompact at the 2015 Los Angeles Auto Show next week, the automaker announced Wednesday.

Both models will be mid-cycle refreshes, though the Mirage is expected to get more attention beyond a simple skin-deep rework.

The latest news means Mitsubishi’s rumored future crossover, expected to sit between the Outlander Sport and larger, three-row Outlander, won’t be making its debut in Los Angeles this year.