Quote Originally Posted by BABY J View Post
David knows nothing if he thinks that the Ridgeline was developed to compete w/ the F150. It's a UNIBODY - you don't build a truck on a car frame, and slap a v6 in it with the INTENT of going toe to toe w/ the F150... it's more of a El Camino than a truck - LOL. The only real auto in the "truck ALTERNATIVE market" (which is where the Ridgeline was marketed) to compete with would be the Avalanche, which is not a Ford product the last time I checked. LOL
Nice how you avoided the F1 mistake you made.

As for the Ridgeline, how about going to its site and seeing who it is targetting:
http://automobiles.honda.com/ridgeline/
Honda claims this design gives it 2.5 times more bending rigidity and 20 times the torsional rigidity than the standard ladder frame only type of chassis construction, while retaining the load carrying capacity of the traditional ladder frame. Sounds like they are claiming it as a truck to me.
Honda decided to advertise the Ridgeline as an alternative to traditional 1/2 ton full-size pickups such as the Ford F-150, Chevrolet Silverado, and Toyota Tundra, all of which had standard V8 engines. This likely harmed Ridgeline sales, as some cited its weak V6 engine (Honda has never developed a V8 for passenger vehicles) and lack of ruggedness due to its unibody construction, while its relatively short cargo bed compared to a standard pickup truck made it unsuitable for contractors. Sounds like they didn't know what their target audience was - and that is a poor design.
Ridgeline sales only average about 1500 trucks per month. That's weak compared to the F-150, which averaged over 34,000 sold per month for its worst year, 2009.