What would Honda have to do to Snag Tacoma Buyers

Cummins not commons

 

^^ exactly what I'm talking about.

 

3.5 sucks on reliability... Needs rings around 105k most of the time. And they're trans suck too cause they're mostly cvt now I'm the cars. I wonder how the 9 speed in the pilot will be though cause it's made by ZF, who also made the 5 and 6 speed manuals that went in the Chevy and Ford trucks

 

Sounds very disappointing to a truck that could have had a lot of potential.

At least it is another competitor to help better the segment.

I'd love to see the under bed storage and double action tailgate find the way into other products.

 

Plus vcm is the reason for check engine lights and ring jobs at 100k

 

Cylinder deactivation is not good for engines. Ford ditched the idea years ago when itresurged for a reason. The sad thing is that an engine without it actually gets almost the same fuel economy if the valve timing is dialed in right. Fords 5.0 L dynos more power than GM 5.3 L for example and doesn't use deactivation tech but gets about the same economy...

 

Moms dodge magnum r/t has it also and it's funny cause it burns oil at only 80k miles

 

Anyone remember these little gems...

http://gas2.org/2013/05/10/flashback-friday-the-cadillac-v8-6-4-fiasco/

 

The bed will and can not be totally separated. Hard to tell from Hondas teaser image but it could be a bit of an indentation or molding to give it the appearance that it's separated. The truck is a unibody so it wont be like a traditional pickup bed on a frame

 

So looks like Honda is trying to do the same thing as before, I would think they would learn from their mistakes... Not many people are goign to buy truck with 5000 tow rating. Back to 40 000 units per year sale I guess, and split the bottom spot with Toyota again.
History repeats itself again.

 

Do you really expect more towning with a unibody? Even at 5,500 lbs that's only 1,000lbs less than a double can 4x4 taco with a frame. I think that's pretty impressive. Most people who tow more than a small camper or landscape trailer will step into a bigger truck anyway. Or atleast should. I would never want to tow at my maximum capacity with any truck. Also remember that Honda target market for the ridgeline is completely different that what the Tacoma is. If you occasionally need to haul a few pieces of furniture or pick some boxes or something up, want a great ride with decent mpg and do little or no towing, then the ridgeline is pretty appealing. Expensive, but a decent option. Guessing the new only will run between 35-42k

 

Not that I expected more, my point is Honda tried that already and it did not work out. It seems strange they would try to build another pickup that would have niche selling.
Yeah they will sell probably 30-40000 per year of them but hard to imagine higher than that. And those sale numbers will primarily come from Toyota sales numbers.

 

Let's not forget the 4Runner dropped from 7000 pounds towing on the 06-09 model to around 5000 on the new gen.

5000 is low, but adequate for most midsize truck buyers I think.

 

Sounds like simpler setup, and if somebody made that same setup out of highstrenght aluminum no more rust problems and still great pickup.
Hello FOrd

 

I don't care about unibody or not, I still can't get over the transverse mounted v6 mated to a bitchmade drivetrain run completely by computer

 

All Honda has to offer for towing is the pilot and ridge line tho which are equal to Tacoma and 4Runner. For people needing to tow more, toyotas got the tundra and sequoia and Honda has nothing. Plus a Cummins tundra? Toyota has Honda beat in the towing market

 

Seperated? Maybe. Gap like on a normal pickup? Nope. It'll have a subframe, like you mentioned, and probably some other form of contact to deal with stress. It won't have the weird panel bracing like the last truck but it won't also have the clean gap like you find on an F150, Tundra, etc etc. Call it a cosmetic gap with some metal in the middle somewhere.

The Ridgelines buckled because it couldn't actually handle it's max weight. IIRC there was a reviewer that actually buckled it and they weren't allowed to talk about it in the last generation but it leaked out after a few years. A subframe/unibody setup won't handle the weight that Honda wants it too over such a large wheelbase. If they gap it and keep the same principle while reusing most of the Pilots structure people will just start bending subframes .

 

I still don't see how they can make it fully seperated and still get the strength they will need. What's more concerning is the lack of test mule photos if this is true. So I'm very curious to see exactly what they have came up with and how it will or will not hold up over time.

Guess we'll find out next Monday...

 

I think strong aftermarket support would definitely help sales.

 

That link didn't work for me. And you can see what seems to be a gap from the picture Honda posted but it's hard to gather a good view. I looked for a few test pictures and found a couple but nothing you see when ford is out driving there test mules around. What I'm saying is I hope if Honda indeed did seperated the bed from the rest of the body I hope they did a lot of real world testing instead of just a few lab tests. By totally separating the bed they could potentially be opening the truck up for a lot of structural problems. Just hope they did the proper testing to ensure its able to last under normal operating real world conditions