Honda Revives Ridgeline Pickup, Aiming to Lessen Reliance on Cars in U.S.

Honda has once again tried to compete in the light truck market; the Ridgeline was originally released in 2006 and ceased production in 2014. Honda is trying to push into a very competitive market with their spin on the light truck market. Honda is known for making great economy passenger cars, but not trucks. One of the key issues with Honda's truck is first they do not offer a commercial truck. Secondly, they do not offer fleet vehicles, and finally Honda is not gearing their the Ridgeline to truck users, they are gearing it to tailgaters and people who want to drive a truck but do not want to use it like a truck. The Ridgeline is build around a mini-van platform to increase fuel mileage and ride quality. Light duty drive trains, inadequate ground clearance, and car attributes are only a few areas that Honda is going to lose interest by truck buyers. The problem with this design idea is that trucks are made a certain way for a reason, and when you take those characteristics away you essentially have a vehicle that has a bed and looks like a cross between a mini-van and a sedan.

While I personally do not care for Honda's feeble attempt at a pickup truck, Honda's target market with the new Ridgeline is suburban dads, and people who want to own a pickup truck for extra hauling capacity over their mini-van or sedan, but do not intend to haul or tow large loads. In order for Honda to be successful the Ridgeline needs to either be very fuel efficient, at a price point lower than the competition, offer financing promotions, and needs to appeal to certain demographic of buyers. Honda has their work cut out for them for the Ridgeline to be a success. Watching the ads, Honda is appealing to people who are looking for luxury or options over ruggedness, off-road capabilities, and hauling capabilities. I personally think that Honda is going to have a hard times selling the Ridgeline to truck buyers, with ford's eco-boost, Ram's Eco Diesel, Nissan Titian XD with the Cummins Diesel, and Colorado with the Duramax Diesel; truck owners can still get a more than capable truck that still hauls and has off-roading capabilities along with fuel efficiency. 

http://www.wsj.com/articles/honda-revives-ridgeline-pickup-aiming-to-lessen-reliance-on-cars-in-u-s-1455229072