When the Honda Ridgeline first appeared in 2005, we threw it into a comparison test against the mid-size pickups of the day, and the Ridgeline came out on top. In that test, though, we equivocated on the question of whether the Ridgeline—with its unibody construction and transverse powertrain layout—was a real truck or a car masquerading as a truck. We called it “a new type of utility vehicle.” Now there’s a new Ridgeline, and Honda is sticking with its unconventional layout, although it did work around the edges to make the Ridgeline fit better into the pickup landscape. Hard-core truck guys may still question its bona fides, but the Ridgeline once again looks impressive next to its peers.
Whereas the previous Ridgeline telegraphed its unibody construction with wide C-pillars that sloped down to the high-sided cargo bed, the new version cuts a more traditional profile. The narrower C-pillars are nearly vertical, and there’s a seam between the cab and the bed, mimicking body-on-frame pickups. But the Ridgeline is not a body-on-frame pickup; it once again uses a unibody architecture, shared with the Pilot SUV and the next-generation Odyssey minivan. And as much as the back half of the Ridgeline now looks just like a standard pickup, the smoothly rounded front half is more or less lifted straight from the Pilot.
VIEW PHOTOS
Compared with the previous model, the Ridgeline’s wheelbase and overall length have grown by three inches. The new dimensions put it right in the mix with the current crop of crew-cab, short-box, mid-size pickups: The wheelbase is between 0.7 and 3.1 inches shorter than those of the Nissan Frontier, the Toyota Tacoma, and the Chevrolet Colorado/GMC Canyon. Overall length is greater than the Nissan’s but less than the Toyota and General Motors offerings. Honda lengthened the Ridgeline’s cargo bed by four inches, to 64.0 inches, making it the longest of the bunch in their standard lengths. And with 50.0 inches between the wheel wells, the Ridgeline is the only mid-size pickup that can carry four-by-eight-foot sheets of material flat on the floor.
That said, GM, Toyota, and Nissan also offer a longer, six-foot bed on long-wheelbase models. In crew-cab form, those trucks literally stretch the definition of “mid-size,” but some offer the longer bed with a smaller cab. Honda, though, once again builds the Ridgeline with only one cab configuration, one wheelbase, and one bed length.
