Car and Driver Comparison: 2016 Tacoma v. 2016 Colorado

Yup. That being said I think Ford wants to go after GMs truck sales and the Ranger could be a part of that strategy, if the plant that is freeing up from making the Focus can make the truck economically at the Rangers expected market volume.

 

We shall see. There have been more than a few images of the international Ranger floating around on the roads in the USA with testing materials covering them up. Ford might just go with the old "top everything that matters," approach and throw a 2.7 L Ecoboost or their 3.7 L naturally aspirated Lincoln engine in a Global Ranger. With those power plants they could lead in mpg and torque plus still post better than the competition mpg numbers. Ford loves the Global Platform idea, so they might just say screw it and come in guns a blazing with class topping mpg, towing, and payload then see where the dust lands.

Nissan could also throw a small Cummins in the current Frontier with some cosmetic upgrades and price out way under GM.

Lots of opportunities for competition out there. Hopefully we see a resurgence of innovation in the mid sized class if Ford comes back into the market. It can only lead to better trucks, no matter what the make.

 

The bigger problem with Taco owners looking at a unibody is the practicality of it for what "they say they use it for". Off road and mods are very limited with unibody. Try trim a wheel well of a unibody in spots....and you have weakened the entire structure.

You won't be adding tires the way you do with framed trucks. Look at the limitations of the old Jeep Cherokee.

Secondly, the basic frame and underpinning leaves it open for different body styles. In unibody, it's pretty much, one size fits all. That's why you don't see access cabs and standard cabs with the Ridgeline....crew cab short bed...that's it.

Unless someone comes up with some modular design which could happen with EVs, frame based Tacos and PUs in general will be with us as a preferred species for what we want a truck to do and continue to dominate the market. Ridgeline does fine for what it was intended. But the market ? They have barely been able to keep the Ridgeline breathing in sales.....we will see..maybe a Scion "truck"

 

The Honda Ridgeline was about as capable as the Subaru Forester. Take that how you will. With the right tires the Forester is fine for some pretty rough Forestry Truck roads and the odd trail to a campsite but as soon as something that requires extra ground clearance or traction aids is encountered you are better off turning around than to attempt to get through the obstacle. I'm not saying the Ridgeline is totally incapable of doing anything off the beaten path. It's just limited in capability by it's design and AWD system.

 

You got it...it's pretty much a Pilot with a small bed. If it's new, you have a distinct tire/ wheel disadvantage......that can NEVER be changed....much.

 

Agree with DoorDing here
There were three problems with Ridgeline.
1. Mediocre tow capacity
2. only AWD option.
3. Lackluster engine
If Honda can fix those 3 then they will have a winning truck on their hands. Looking forward to what they are going to present next year.

 

I think a lot of Ridgeline guys are now Tacoma owners but if there is AWD/4x4 version that can tow 7000lb and has at least 1500 lb of towing capacity from Honda I bet good chunk would be gone.
I would guess that's at least 40 000 trucks a year segment. Majority of which would be loss from Toyota.
Unibody or BOF will not make difference to these people, like you said they interested primarily in on the road pickup.

 

Limitations of the Cherokee??? The weakest part of Cherokees and the older WJ grand cherokees were the axles... Not the unibody. HUGE aftermarket presence as well for those rigs. I had a Grand Cherokee that had long arm suspension attached to the unibody and 33's and wheeled the piss out of that thing.
IMO all passenger vehicles will be unibody one day

 

Let's be honest the new Ridgeline will be the new Pilot with a bed. So you can expect right around 260 ftlbs of torque and 280 HP out of the DI J-engine Honda uses in everything. It's know for very poor low end torque so I doubt they will raise the towing number past the 5000 lbs the 2016 Pilot pulls.

So for the people who want the truck look but a CUV drive it will sell well. Given that most people who buy the Tacoma and Colorado don't need a truck, per say, it could sell very well but a lot of the sales will depend on Honda's price point. Up here the Ridgeline was priced higher than the Tacoma for the last decade it's been available.

 

If you don't want to tow 7000 lbs with the 2GR you really don't want to try it with the new versions of the J-engine. It's even weaker down low.

The last Ridgeline actually took sales away from the fullsized market people that didn't need to tow. I expect Honda to draw sales from there more than sales from the Tacoma.

 

Also the Honda Ridgeline will use cylinder deactivation

 

Tell me the unibody Cherokee had the flexibility modifying it that framed vehicles do.....not. I said NOTHING about it being weaker.
You may be high on unibody construction but it is impractical for a manufacturer to offer many different body styles of the same vehicle in one that tows and goes off road.


Every attempt to make one has had limited success because of the expense of providing different body styles. You have only to look at GM, Ford and truck frames and all the derivatives they make from one frame and running gear to realize that Honda has struggled to sell large numbers of the Ridgelines and the previous attempts from VW Rabitt PU and any other you can speak of.

If they could be done economically enough to make a profit ....THEY WOULD BE DONE BY NOW. Nope, not happening.

AWD and 2 wd Cars...for sure. Not trucks.

 

I'm sure the CEO of Honda is praying they have it right.

BTW that's a joke. I'm pretty sure the CEO doesn't even know they make a pickup given how low the sales numbers are and will be.

 

Honda has said the Pilot and Ridgeline will share there drivetrain. So no 4WD variant of the Pilot means no 4WD version of the Ridgeline, unless they decide to throw the curveball.

 

I'm just pointing out that there is a large aftermarket for unibody offroaders because you make it sound like the Cherokee was limited in what you could do with it. IFS is more limiting when it comes to aftermarket than a unibody.
So Toyota eliminates the reg cab and DCSB and AC are essentially the same length... You don't think Toyota was trying to save money by eliminating multiple platforms? They basically have only have 2 different configurations when it comes to frames. Funny how you edit your post from "Not happening for quite a while" to "Nope, not happening"... Which is it? Future CAFE regs are going to force the car companies to squeez every little MPG out of these vehicles and eventually it will come down to making everything unibody... but that's my opinon... exactly why I said IMO in my first post.

 

Yup. I'm not knocking the AWD approach given their market. I think some people though are thinking the Ridgeline will be tuned towards the Tacoma buyer when I think Honda will take a stab at the same sort of market creation GM is doing by luring male small CUV and car buyers to their brand with clever, or not so clever, advertising.

I know a lot of women like the Colorado because it drives like an Equinox (my insurance agent bought it over the Silverado for that reason alone.) I'm willing to bet the Ridgeline will be one of those family compromise vehicles for a guy who wants a truck who has a wife that wants a CUV.

 

The newest Pilot is a redesign and has 4 wd. So the option is there. The older Pilot and Ridgeline had a locking rear diff as it had no center differential; just a clutch pack in the rear differential. So, when you locked it, it was quite formitable traction wise. My neighbor had one and it would keep up with My 4 Runner traction wise until it ran out of ground clearance. I was impressed. With no low range, I am sure it had more limitations but in deep snow and road mud...it was excellent...up to the hubs.

 

isn't the ridgeline based off a minivan chasis? lol

my brother in law loves them for some reason, never owned one but always says he wants to buy one. No clue why never really heard anything good about them. Only thing I ever liked from them was the built in bed storage compartment.

 

I never looked into them, but my brother in law was telling me the ridgeline is FWD?

 

Nope, technically it's AWD.

http://automobiles.honda.com/pilot/specifications.aspx#engineering

The official release from Honda even says it's AWD

It's basically the same system with even more clutch pack awesomeness and no center differential. Call it sorta 4WD. Will it work fine? Sure, my moms Explorer has AWD and, with the help of the computer and a half dozen clutch packs, it can hand anything up to the differentials on road just fine.