Honda Is Finally Updating the Aging Ridgeline Truck. Still the Most Slept On Option Around

You don't need a Super Duty. You need a damn Ridgeline.

Photo by: Jonathon Klein

By: Jonathon Klein

Jul 27, at 7:50am ET

Add RideApart as a preferred source in Google

Comment

If there's a hill I will absolutely die on, it's that 90% of the buying public doesn't need a full-size quarter-or half-ton pickup truck. Yes, there are use cases for these machines. But the vast majority of folks who own those pickups never do a single real Truck Person ™ thing with them. They're poseurs; they like the size, the presence, and the stats. Plain and simple, and I'm not sorry if that offends you.

What powersport folks actually need is something like a Honda Ridgeline, which is, in my opinion, the most slept-on pickup on the market.

How can I say this? Well, not only did I grow up driving Ford F-250s, F-350s, and F-450 dump trucks with 27-foot trailers and many thousands of pounds of equipment—as my first job ever, which seems like youth endangerment now, but was stupid fun in the moment—but I own a 2019 Honda Ridgeline. And in my ownership, I've literally towed, hauled, and done everything on an almost weekly basis that most truck people only do with their half- and quarter-tons once or twice a year. There's even been a full quartered bull elk fit into its trunk and bed with 14 bags of ice.

I'm pretty sure there's still a blood stain from my mule deer buck.

Yet, the Ridgeline is beginning to get a little long in the tooth, the second generation I own having been introduced almost ten years ago. That, in terms of automaker refreshes or redesigns, is long. Though, not much, in my opinion, needs to be changed in its operation. Still, finally, Honda is relenting and will introduce a new Ridgeline soon, with a teaser image of the new pickup dropping only a few days ago.

Honda Ridgeline

Photos by: Jonathon Klein

According to our siblings at Motor1, Honda will be introducing the new third-generation Ridgeline within the next two years, and as part of that, the brand's Alabama plant, which currently produces the truck, will halt the second-generation's production by the end of the year. That's to ready the facility to produce the third generation when it's finally ready to be shown to the public, as large manufacturing changes require prep work, if you didn't know.

The report goes on to state, "Honda will design the new truck at its design studio in Southern California. Engineering development will occur at the Honda Auto Development Center in Ohio. Honda says the next-gen Ridgeline will arrive within the next two years. The truck will have an even more rugged design, likely borrowing the styling cues of the new Passport. Lance Woelfer, Honda America’s vice president of auto sales, said the truck will also gain even more capabilities, but he did not elaborate. "

Ridgeline Towing

Photo by: Jonathon Klein

If I were a betting man, I would say that those "even more capabilities" would be a little more stout of an engine, something to compete better with the Toyota Tacoma or Chevy Colorado, slightly better off-road suspension, and maybe some further off-road options to get in on the soft-roader current in the market. Again, after many years of ownership, my only beef is really with those things, as in the engine could have a little more torque—cough, cough, turbos—and the suspension for any sort of off-road duty isn't really up to the task.

What do you think?

View

Comments

Yet, I've had three motorcycles in the bed at the same time, as well as a full-size mountain snowmobile, a full-size ATV, and towed everything from my own personal Can-Am Maverick X3, to Polaris' heavy af Ranger 1500 XD, and even four Stark Vargs from my home in Utah to Oregon for a hunt trip. And, again, the rear has been full of a handful of dead animals, one of which was hovering around the 400-pound mark. It's a capable thing as is, but a little refinement here and there wouldn't hurt.

Now we just have to wait to see what Honda produces. Will it be a worthy successor? I hope so, as I remain a Ridgeline acolyte, and for it to get worse might make me change my tune and finally do what a bunch of my truck friends have demanded I do for ages: Join the half-ton crowd. Don't let me down, Honda.