2006 Honda Ridgeline Pictures & Photos

Does Honda know the folks who sometimes need a pickup bed, but who don't want to drive a minivan, SUV, crossover, wagon, or pickup everyday? Honda figures that this is a 50,000-unit-per-year niche and that current brand loyalists have had to go to Toyota, Nissan, or elsewhere to get one. Ford is currently putting the final touches on a new Explorer Sport Trac four-door, short-bed pickup thingy, so there must be a future in all this. The Ridgeline is appealing from a does-a-lot standpoint and raises truck sophistication levels to a new high. Yet real truck-types won't be impressed by anything with a V-6 engine and unibody chassis. If Honda can get people to test drive a Ridgeline, it might be a hit. Otherwise, the nontruck truck with all those nifty features might be the best deal on a Honda lot in a year or so. Only the marketplace--that's you--knows the answer.